CAS GE 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Land Consumption, Ecocentrism

• School: Boston University
• Department: Geography & Environment
• Course: CAS GE 100
• Professor: Rachael Garrett

Document Summary

Kind of community instinct in the making. Environmental (land) ethic: an extension of our understanding of our place in the world, including understanding environmental change/sustainability, and our obligations to that part of our community. Creating a sustainable lifestyle and saving the environment because we want to, not because we need to. Utilitarian cost benefit approach: act when the benefits of a policy in aggregate outweigh the costs (value of a good judged by usefulness of society) Cannot adequately quantify all of the relevant costs and benefits in economic terms. Some things do not have clear monetary value: Aesthetic value - capacity to elicit pleasure when experienced. Models do not take into account irreversible and non-substitutable damages. May sacrifice one part of the environment for another. Based on value of whoever is making the decision. Social discount rate: determines dollar value today of costs and benefits in the future.