A comprehensive review of research into the economic consequences of controversial water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin reveals many studies are of poor quality. Better standards are needed.
After almost half a century, the United Nations has waded back into the murky world of water policy. But one of the ideas following this year’s international meeting has been shot down.
Prompts like this sign in Coalinga, California, may get people to use less water – but paying them could be more effective.
Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Even after January’s storms, California faces a water-scarce future. An economist and an engineer propose a way to test higher water prices as a conservation strategy without hurting low-income users.
The economy depends on the environment. Economics can seem to forget that point.
Ines Lee Photos/Moment via Getty Images
With a square and a circle, the father of ecological economics and a founding architect of sustainable development redrew our understanding of the economy. It was revolutionary.
Researchers have estimated the gross ecosystem product (GEP) of Qinghai province in China.
Jiaye Liu / shutterstock
Kevin Thiele, The University of Western Australia and Jane Melville, Museums Victoria Research Institute
After more than 300 years of effort, scientists have documented fewer than one-third of Australia’s species. The remaining 70% are unknown, and essentially invisible, to science.
The priceless view over Loch Lomond, Scotland.
Gary_Ellis_Photography / shutterstock
Roman Hoffmann, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Changing climatic conditions and ecological hazards are an important migration driver in sub-Saharan Africa.
Wind turbines are slowly replacing coal plants in Germany, an industrial powerhouse with a conservative government and a strong climate agenda.
Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
Conservatives worldwide favor carbon pricing, cap-and-trade systems and other innovative environmental plans – just not in the United States.
Government negligence, rampant development and illegal land clearing spark wildfires in Indonesia that annually ravage thousands of acres of forest.
AP Photo
July 29, 2019 is ‘Earth Overshoot Day,’ a date coined by the nonprofit Global Footprint Network to publicize overuse of Earth’s resources. But their estimates may actually understate the problem.
President George H.W. Bush (right) fishing on the Kennebunk River in Maine, Aug. 27, 1990.
AP Photo/Doug Mills
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
George H.W. Bush, who pledged to be ‘the environmental president,’ took a market-based approach to pollution control that helped clear the air. Now some experts think it could work on climate change.
Purse seiner fishing in the Indian Ocean. Footprint estimates do not assess how sustainably resources such as fisheries are managed.
Jiri Rezac
August 1, 2018 is ‘Earth Overshoot Day,’ a date coined by the nonprofit Global Footprint Network to publicize overuse of Earth’s resources. But their estimates actually understate the problem.
How much would you pay to make this disappear?
Emilian Robert Vicol
What would you pay to keep trash off your favorite beach, or pollution away from a national park? Economists can tease these values out of our travel choices and use the numbers to help make policy.
Solar panels being installed in new housing under construction in Sacramento, Calif.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Environmentalists and climate hawks are cheering, but many experts aren’t excited about the state making rooftop solar panels mandatory on most new homes beginning in 2020.
A full valuation of the Great Barrier Reef leads to a number so high it is essentially not worth considering in economic terms.
Coal train in Missouri. Assigning a social cost to carbon emissions puts a price on activities that generate them, such as burning fossil fuels.
Scott Granneman/Flickr
To weigh the economic impact of climate change policies, we need to estimate the social cost of carbon. An economist explains how it’s done and why the Trump administration shouldn’t end the practice.
New water policies could cause even more harm to the already damaged Tukituki River.
Phillip Capper/Wikimedia Commons
Offshore drilling debates boil down to “Drill, baby, drill” versus “spill, baby, spill.” But economists say the right question is when we know enough to drill safely – and often that means waiting.
WikiHouse is one example of the technology-driven new economy, which focuses on people rather than profits.
WikiHouse
Two visions of the ‘new economy’, one based on environmental and social justice values, the other on disruptive technologies, are coming together to challenge the status quo.
Not the aisle for happiness.
consumer via www shutterstock com
A lifestyle based on aggressive consumption stresses the Earth’s resources and, beyond a certain point of comfort, does not actually foster human fulfillment or happiness.