Environmental Economics

• How do we value resources
• Economic --> money
• Ecological --> support systems
• Scientific --> research
• Intrinsic --> cultural

• Natural capital
• Natural resources, services, and processes
• Natural income

• Types of natural capital
• Renewable
• Replace or restock themselves
• Non-renewable
• Exist in finite amounts on the planet
• Replenishable
• Between renewable and non-renewable
• Example Groundwater
• Recyclable
• Resources that can be transformed into usable materials after already being used for something else
• Iron, aluminum, etc

• Sustainability
• Living within the means of nature, on the "interest" or sustainable natural income generated by natural capital.
• However, economist and environmentalists may have very different views on what is sustainable
• Any society that supports itself in part by depleting essential forms of natural capital is unsustainable.