Environmental Economics For Non-economists

Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. P 0 Box 128,Farrer Road, Singapore 912805 USA office: Suite lB, 1060 Main Street, River Edge, NJ 07661 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library C a ~ I o ~ ~ ~ i n - ~ b Data li~tion A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS FOR NON-ECONOMISTS Copyright 0 2000 by World ScientificPublishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, orparrs thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, ~n&luding p ~ t o c o p y ~ nrecording g, or any information storage and retrieval system ROW known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For pho~ocopyingof material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923,USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 981-02-4013-9 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Printed in Singapore by Regal Press (S) Pte. Lid. Foreword To write a successful book is by no means easy. But to write an i n ~ ~ u c t o ~ textbook on e n v i r o n ~ n t a economics l which can be successfully used by students without any previous background in economics as well as those with a limited background in this subject must be one of the greatest challenges of all. Dr John Asafu-Adjaye, however, manages in this book to do this extremely well. After showing readers the fundamental i n ~ r c ~ e c t i o nbetween s economics systems and the state of the environment, he provides a succinct overview of how economic systems operate via the use of markets and how they may fail to foster satisfactory or acceptable environmental outcomes even from an economics point of view. He outlines policies which could rectify such failures. In line with his e ~ p ~ a son i s providing material of practical value to students, he carefully outlines alternative economic methods for making environmental choices illustrating their use in actual situations. Most students of environmental economics can expect to make some use of these techniques in their future professional careers, particularly in dealing with local environmental problem. None of us can escape concern about global enviro~menta~ issues. The book also addresses major global environmental issues such as population growth, natural resource conversion by mankind, the relationship between international trade and the environment and the possibilities for global sustainable development. Whereas as little as 20 to 30 years ago, most individuals believed that the natural environment could take care of itself (was virtually self-healing) and that economic activity and economic development could be considered in isolation form the natural environment, there is a growing body of opinion that this is unrealistic. Indeed, the latter now seems to be the majority view. This new outlook requires both economists and non-economists to take a more holistic view of both economic activity and the assessment of projects and new developments. When the environment is affected by humaninduced change, a team approach to decisions is needed. This requires vi Environmental Economics dialogue between non-economists and economists. In addition, scientists, engineers and natural resource-managers are being increasingly called upon to make environmental decisions involving an economics c