Here is this week's video. The speaker obviously has his political views on display here, but he does an excellent job of outlining many of the challenges facing people who have to develop environmental policy.
I love Jason Scorse's work. He definitely has the credentials with his Ph.D standing and his stance in the Environmental Policy Program. He seems to know his stuff. I like his views, especially when it comes to a higher quality of life simply by improving our environment and in order to make that first step, environmentalists need to know more about the economy to better understand how to treat it. I found it rather interesting learning the figures given for the government to know when to intervene and that the root of the entire environmental problem is stemmed from the market failures and market distortions. His solution is to create property rights where they do not exist such as the atmosphere, oceans, and remote forests. For me, that was a little out there. But, overall, great video.
Scorse does a great job with presenting his cause in a way that is not pushy or overly passionate. As Scorse sporadically mentioned and implied throughout the speech, being an "environemntalist" is not the ideal label for anyone who is trying to pleade their case to people who having opposing views on the topic. The economic approach is ingenious, and I agree that you have to sort of become the beast in order to beat or tame it. Government intervention is a touchy subject... one that I find myself pawing over lately. When you look at places like Canada and Australia, whose governements are regulating their natural resources or implementing alternative forms of energy such a hydro-electricity, it begins to not seem like such a bad idea. The question is, how long before that control gets twisted around? The nature of humanity isn't something that has garnered much credit, and I think that mentality is what keeps government regulation at arms length for a lot of us. If we can find a way to understand the long term savings and positive effects of investing in greener energy, then we can truly benefit as a nation. Jason Scorse is making bounds in the right direction, and I am interested to learn more about the "facts and numbers" that are on the side of people who are for pro-environmental change. I wrote a paper on alternative forms of energy that concluded by saying, we're stuck on oil, there's nothing you can do about it, so grow a garden and learn to be more self-sufficient. It wasn't received well, but what else can you do when the people who have the power aren't working in your favor? Find a way to make them understand what's going to work best for us, and the best way to do that is to talk about what's in it for them. Kudos to Jason Scorse.
I've never really related Environment with economics, but after had watched this video i really agree with what Scorse said: "A strong environmentalism is entirely consistent with traditional/ classic/ neoliberal economics" because macro economics really support strong environmental policies. And "Environmentalists should be teaming with economics and calling out the charlatans who do not really believe in free market, but instead promote interests over the public good". Both environmentalists and economics are interested in improve the security and quality of life for everybody. If these two groups get together as a team, maybe many people could open their mind and get more serious about taking care of our environment. As a team, they could also create a ethic that would be impossible to say that you aren't environmentalist. I really enjoyed the video, and it opened my mind about the relation between environmentalism versus economics.
I think that this is a very interesting presentation. I wonder who the audience is? He is definitively targeting the US Government and the individuals in general. When we look at the resources they are scarce (for Economists all the resources are scarce because there is a cost to their production - nothing is free),so there should be a well balanced management to these resources. The speaker is pointing to the reasons why these should be in some cases regulated. It is always a question when and why the government should step up and it is debatable when it comes to the agreement. Self regulated market is the key for a success for Adam Smith and his followers. However, as the speaker points out and I agree not always works so the regulations should be in place. From one point of view the self interest is a key and an incentive for individuals to be interested either in production or protection of our resources but in some cases is not because then it interferes with the interests in general. People loose that sense for the environment as a whole and others that live on planet and then this becomes a problem. Government should step up and help with the regulations but a lot of effort should be directed in education in general and promotion of environmental concerns awareness.
This is a very interesting and important presentation. Unfortunately, there are still not many alternatives that people can use to stop pollution. So I strongly agree with the "fairness" point. The polluter must pay for it and do some effort to use other ways to minimize the pollution. Environment and economics are linked in a way that all the market want, is to make more and more money. And this is where the government should step up and make new and stronger laws regarding the environment. As the speaker said "we have to stop subsidizing bad environmental behavior". He also points that environmentalists need to understand the terms in economics so they can do something about it. Absolutely right. People can't do anything if they don't understand what they are doing. And I really like the message he sent towards the end "environmentalism is about improving overall quality of life for everybody!". Great video.
I think the speaker did a very good job describing the issues we face today. I feel that we covered a lot of the stuff in class like externalities, the problem of how much the government should be involved in the market, and the "tragedy of the commons." I also thought about one discussion my economics class had on fairness and what it is when the speaker mentioned it. I learned that there is no exact definition of fairness. I believe that if we followed what the speaker said, we could do a lot better for the environment and people all together.
I love Jason Scorse's work. He definitely has the credentials with his Ph.D standing and his stance in the Environmental Policy Program. He seems to know his stuff. I like his views, especially when it comes to a higher quality of life simply by improving our environment and in order to make that first step, environmentalists need to know more about the economy to better understand how to treat it. I found it rather interesting learning the figures given for the government to know when to intervene and that the root of the entire environmental problem is stemmed from the market failures and market distortions. His solution is to create property rights where they do not exist such as the atmosphere, oceans, and remote forests. For me, that was a little out there. But, overall, great video.
ReplyDeleteScorse does a great job with presenting his cause in a way that is not pushy or overly passionate. As Scorse sporadically mentioned and implied throughout the speech, being an "environemntalist" is not the ideal label for anyone who is trying to pleade their case to people who having opposing views on the topic. The economic approach is ingenious, and I agree that you have to sort of become the beast in order to beat or tame it.
ReplyDeleteGovernment intervention is a touchy subject... one that I find myself pawing over lately. When you look at places like Canada and Australia, whose governements are regulating their natural resources or implementing alternative forms of energy such a hydro-electricity, it begins to not seem like such a bad idea. The question is, how long before that control gets twisted around? The nature of humanity isn't something that has garnered much credit, and I think that mentality is what keeps government regulation at arms length for a lot of us.
If we can find a way to understand the long term savings and positive effects of investing in greener energy, then we can truly benefit as a nation. Jason Scorse is making bounds in the right direction, and I am interested to learn more about the "facts and numbers" that are on the side of people who are for pro-environmental change.
I wrote a paper on alternative forms of energy that concluded by saying, we're stuck on oil, there's nothing you can do about it, so grow a garden and learn to be more self-sufficient. It wasn't received well, but what else can you do when the people who have the power aren't working in your favor? Find a way to make them understand what's going to work best for us, and the best way to do that is to talk about what's in it for them. Kudos to Jason Scorse.
I've never really related Environment with economics, but after had watched this video i really agree with what Scorse said: "A strong environmentalism is entirely consistent with traditional/ classic/ neoliberal economics" because macro economics really support strong environmental policies. And "Environmentalists should be teaming with economics and calling out the charlatans who do not really believe in free market, but instead promote interests over the public good". Both environmentalists and economics are interested in improve the security and quality of life for everybody. If these two groups get together as a team, maybe many people could open their mind and get more serious about taking care of our environment. As a team, they could also create a ethic that would be impossible to say that you aren't environmentalist.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the video, and it opened my mind about the relation between environmentalism versus economics.
I think that this is a very interesting presentation. I wonder who the audience is? He is definitively targeting the US Government and the individuals in general. When we look at the resources they are scarce (for Economists all the resources are scarce because there is a cost to their production - nothing is free),so there should be a well balanced management to these resources. The speaker is pointing to the reasons why these should be in some cases regulated. It is always a question when and why the government should step up and it is debatable when it comes to the agreement. Self regulated market is the key for a success for Adam Smith and his followers. However, as the speaker points out and I agree not always works so the regulations should be in place. From one point of view the self interest is a key and an incentive for individuals to be interested either in production or protection of our resources but in some cases is not because then it interferes with the interests in general. People loose that sense for the environment as a whole and others that live on planet and then this becomes a problem. Government should step up and help with the regulations but a lot of effort should be directed in education in general and promotion of environmental concerns awareness.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting and important presentation. Unfortunately, there are still not many alternatives that people can use to stop pollution. So I strongly agree with the "fairness" point. The polluter must pay for it and do some effort to use other ways to minimize the pollution.
ReplyDeleteEnvironment and economics are linked in a way that all the market want, is to make more and more money. And this is where the government should step up and make new and stronger laws regarding the environment. As the speaker said "we have to stop subsidizing bad environmental behavior".
He also points that environmentalists need to understand the terms in economics so they can do something about it. Absolutely right. People can't do anything if they don't understand what they are doing.
And I really like the message he sent towards the end "environmentalism is about improving overall quality of life for everybody!". Great video.
I believe the audience were a group of academics and political organizers.
ReplyDeleteI think the speaker did a very good job describing the issues we face today. I feel that we covered a lot of the stuff in class like externalities, the problem of how much the government should be involved in the market, and the "tragedy of the commons." I also thought about one discussion my economics class had on fairness and what it is when the speaker mentioned it. I learned that there is no exact definition of fairness. I believe that if we followed what the speaker said, we could do a lot better for the environment and people all together.
ReplyDelete