Environmental Economics Part 1: The Tragedy of the Commons?
Environmental Economics seeks to put a dollar amount on environmental goods (clean air and water) and bads (pollution and contamination) so that we can quantify the costs and benefits that result from preserving or destroying nature. The current climate crisis is partly explained by the economic principle known as the Tragedy of the Commons, with one unique twist.
Welcome back! Summer is sweet in California.
The flowers are blooming—a fragrant perfume of red bud, poppy, lupine, orchid, paintbrush. The rich aroma of petrichor followed the rain. These priceless scents are precious to me like water. There are infinite fantastic natural wonders freely available to us.
Environmental Economics is a relatively new branch of study, originating with our growing awareness of depleting natural resources and environmental services (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_economics). Basically, it seeks to give an estimated price to goods (like clean air and water) or bads (like pollution and contamination) that do not have a market value as they are not sold. Functioning within a capitalist framework requires that everything be translated to currency, quantified in dollar amounts. This allows decision-makers and stakeholders to weigh costs and benefits, compare options, and plan strategies and contingencies.
A brief overview of a key economic concept: The Tragedy of the Commons partly explains our current climate catastrophe. Every individual shepherd is free to graze their flock in the grassy commons. No one is excluded. But as every individual’s flock consumes more grass, no grass remains. The individual gain comes at great cost to all others. The same concept holds true for overfishing.
In climate collapse, the atmosphere is “the commons” because anyone is free to pollute it but we all reap the damage sewn. I am very much in support of the Polluter Pays Principle: the companies polluting must pay the cost of remediation, clean-up, abatement, prevention, etc. Regarding CO2 emissions, fossil fuel companies are largely responsible for selling a damaging product and lying about it, but we do nothing to hold them accountable. In my opinion, all fossil fuel companies should be financing our transition to renewable energy, whether through taxes or fines.
I believe unfettered, unmitigated, unbridled greed is the only reason why U.S. oil companies, knowing full well 40 years ago that climate change was worsening over time (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/), didn’t just reform themselves as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal companies, phasing steadily over the last four decades. Fearing future loss of profit, they launched massive misinformation campaigns, well-funded by deep pockets, hiring the same consultants as the tobacco industry. If we burn, ExxonMobil won’t help us. We must demand they shoulder the financial burden of the problems they created and exacerbated with their deception.
This short article had an optimistic take, suggesting we actually aren’t doomed to tragedy: https://ccs.sciences.ncsu.edu/climate-change-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/. Essentially, the author notes that in a true commons, one individual’s choice to not graze their flock allows another shepherd to seize the opportunity, and the grass still continues to degrade. But in climate change, reducing one’s CO2 emissions at any level (personally, locally, regionally, nationally) does not incentivize others to emit more. Reductions always accrue universal benefits. If we go renewable, we won’t incentivize China and India to pollute more. They are seeking to improve air quality as we did. Likely the reduction in U.S. emissions combined with our advancements in technology will inspire (or in certain instances, put geopolitical pressure on) other nations to reduce emissions as well. I’ll gently remind leaders that China generates 3 times more renewable energy than we do.
Sometimes, as I enjoy the bright red brick buildings of historic Main Street, I daydream of the Weaverville of tomorrow. I picture an electric streetcar going up and down the main drag, from Trinity Brew Co. to TAPAC, which will have a multi-level parking garage in the space between the theater and the Redding Rancheria Trinity Health Campus. I envision the multi-use path from TAPAC to Lee Fong Park, lots of bicycles riding safely, with only a few individual vehicles on the road traveling from the coast inland or vice versa. We have electrical vehicle chargers already! Let’s keep it up and pray we don’t reach dead pool.
I don’t mean to end so grimly. It’s just my realism.
Instead, I offer deep gratitude to the many wonderful friends and acquaintances I have met and the opportunities they have graciously provided, to those who have written kind words of encouragement in the paper, and as always, to the Trinity Journal for helping me share these ideas and dreams.
There is No Shortage of Solutions to the Problems We All Face
There are a multitude of solutions, adaptation, and mitigations available to us as we tumble forward into an increasingly hot reality. Sustainability means meeting our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. We can act locally, regionally, and nationally to decrease vehicle miles traveled, conserve soil and nutrients, electrify the grid with renewable sources, and disuse poisonous chemicals in agriculture. Let’s get to work while we still have the time and resources to prepare.
When contemplating climate change, it helps to remember that we have a vast suite of technologies, adaptable land management techniques (reforestation, soil conservation, fuels reduction), and sustainable alternatives (bamboo, hemp, biofuels) for many plastic or petroleum consumer products available to us. We have the money to revamp our infrastructure and prepare for the future, we simply have to shift resources away from fossil fuel companies and invest them in sustainable and renewable solutions.
Fire preparedness is the most immediate, time-sensitive solution we can all implement, right this very moment, by clearing defensible space around our homes, using rain catchment systems for emergency fire suppression, thinning fuels through selective timber harvests and prescribed burns, and replanting burn scars to stabilize soils and promote forest regeneration. We must also protect old growth forest to maintain and preserve ecologically critical carbon sinks and sensitive wildlife habitat. All of these strategies must be executed simultaneously. They are not mutually exclusive. There are numerous resources available through the Hayfork Watershed Research and Training Center: https://www.thewatershedcenter.com as well as the Trinity County Fire Safe Council: www.firesafetrinity.org and the Trinity RCD: www.tcrcd.net.
Transportation accounts for 29% of our national carbon emissions (https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions). Did you know that every gallon of gasoline puts twenty pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? That’s breathable, free oxygen being bound up in CO2. Personal solutions include carpooling, ride sharing, riding the Trinity Shuttle, walking, or biking. Commuting with a car that gets 45 mpg is monumentally preferable to a vehicle that gets 15 mpg. Societal solutions include building high-speed electric rail to reduce air traffic, and increasing shuttle and bus services. No one person can reduce their footprint 100% because we haven’t yet built a decarbonized world. Perfection for each individual is not the goal. Small changes in our choices magnified over hundreds of millions of people adds up to a big difference nationally and globally!
All of the United States is catered to the private automobile: our laws, pop culture, infrastructure, roads, the arrangement of our commercial centers and neighborhoods. People are only truly “free” and mobile if they have an expensive personal vehicle, one that is extremely costly to repair and maintain, all while shoveling hard-earned income into the greedy, hungry, profit-devouring mouths of oil companies. Chevron, Shell, Exxon, and BP make tens of billions of dollars of profit, on average, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of publicly-funded tax subsidies each year. Our fossil fuel dependency puts our fate into the hands of authoritarian dictators and corrupt oligarchs. Transportation will never be completely carbon-free, but we can reduce overall vehicle miles traveled. Electricity generation currently accounts for 25% of U.S. emissions (ibid.), but if we chose to harness electrical energy from the sun, earth, wind, waves, and water, we would further avoid stuffing the pockets of dangerous geopolitical actors.
Agriculture accounts for 10% of U.S. carbon emissions (ibid.). At-home solutions include: growing personal and community food gardens, composting food waste to amend and bolster soil, and buying local meat and produce. Eating locally and lower on the food chain are the two best choices you can make to reduce your carbon footprint. On a national scale, we could incentivize American farmers to rotate their crops, reduce tillage, remediate soil, plant cover crops, use integrated pest management practices, disuse chemical pesticides, and avoid growing disease- and drought-susceptible monocrops. Complex environments supporting complicated food webs are more resilient than sterile landscapes with few species present. Protecting biodiversity serves the well-being of all lifeforms.
This is a heavy topic, with planet-sized stakes. But we have a myriad of solutions available. We have many alternative choices we can make, new infrastructure we can build, new modes of transportation and consumption we can adopt. The answers are right in front of us. We must examine the problem in its entirety and then peer beyond the problem through to the other side, to a brighter, healthier future, with clean air and water, robust soils, thriving resilient forests, and public transportation that can take us anywhere, regardless of our vehicle ownership status.
Let’s work! Let’s build. Let’s act while we still have the time and resources to do so.