INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

NOTES

Contents
POWERPOINT 1 AND WS1...........................................................................................................................2
I. Global Environmental Challenges............................................................................................................2
A. Climate Change...................................................................................................................................2
B. Ozone Depletion......................................................................................................................................6
C. Species Extinction and Loss of Biodiversity..............................................................................................6
D. Pollution from Toxic Chemicals and Hazardous Waste.......................................................................7
E. Ecosystem Challenges..........................................................................................................................7
Section II – Local and Regional Environmental Challenges..........................................................................7
A. Access to Fresh Water.........................................................................................................................7
B. Air Pollution.........................................................................................................................................8
C. Food Security and Agriculture.............................................................................................................9
Section III – Poverty.....................................................................................................................................9
Section IV – Synergies, Cliffs and Uncertainty.............................................................................................9
Chapter Two: The Root Causes..................................................................................................................10
D. The Role of Law in Consumption.......................................................................................................14
E. Population Growth............................................................................................................................15
F. Technology: Promises and Perils........................................................................................................16

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POWERPOINT 1 AND WS1

I. Global Environmental Challenges

A. Climate Change
• Most complicated and important issues facing global policy makers and a very fast-changing
topic.

Causes of climate change:

1. Carbon dioxide and methane cause the earth’s atmosphere to act like a greenhouse –

2. What is a greenhouse? Allow the warm energy of the sun to pass through the atmosphere to
reach earth and then trapping a portion of that energy before it radiates back into space.

 The greenhouse effect is a natural process that is essential to life on earth. Why?

Otherwise the energy from the sun would not reach earth and leave it cold and lifeless like
Mars.

 However, it is a homeostatic process, requiring an equilibrium or balance.

For example, some carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants, released when they burn or decay, and
re-absorbed when new plants grow, in an endless cycle.

 Carbon dioxide is also absorbed by natural “sinks” – mostly oceans and forests.
 What changed this historic pattern? The Industrial revolution, early 19 th C – Why?

The burning of fossil fuels, mostly coal and oil, along with the destruction of forests, increased
the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide by 35%.

Forests are important to whom?

• To nature enthusiasts, it is a place for recreation and education;

• To environmentalists, it is a reserve for natural regeneration and biodiversity;

• to forestry officers, it is protection for watershed or space for tree plantations;

• to hunters, it is a place to obtain wild meat, and a place to exercise dogs;

• to poachers. it is access to the black market;

• to governments it is a source of foreign exchange;

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 • to taxonomists, it is a place to find new species;

• to paper manufacturers it is a source of pulp;

• to sawmill operators, it is a source of building material;

• to the handicraft industry, it is a source of raw material;

• to squatters, it is a site for clearing;

• to bird watchers, it could be paradise;

• to Town and Country Planning, it may be a site for new settlements;

• to ranchers, it is potential space for grazing animals;

• to engineers, it may be a site for hydropower development;

• to mining companies, it is a hindrance;

• to subsistence farmers, it is a source of firewood or forage;

• to chemists, it is a source of pharmaceuticals via bush medicine;

• to marijuana growers, it is a place for clandestine activities;

• to horticulturalists, it is the temptation to collect and sometimes over-exploit;

• to thousands of species of animals and to indigenous man, it is home.

The list is by no means exhaustive but it does represent a wide spectrum of attitudes; some negative,
others allowing for compatible management practices on a sustained basis.

***Forest Decline in Trinidad & Tobago by Paul L.Comeau, The National Herberium, U.W.I. , St.
Augustine, Trinidad

Aug. 31, 2019 - Almost 4,000 new forest fires were started in  Brazil  in the two days after the
government banned deliberate burning of the  Amazon, officials have revealed.

Some 3,859 outbreaks were recorded by the country’s National Space Research Institute (Inpe) in the 48
hours following the 60-day prohibition on setting trees alight. Around 2,000 of those blazes were in the
Amazon rainforest.

The figures come as the latest blow in an environmental crisis that has caused panic across the world,
and which led the agenda at the recent  G7 summit  in France.

Destruction of forests:

• Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the
quality of the land.

• Forests still cover about 30% of the world’s land area, but swaths the size of Panama are lost
each and every year.

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• The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of
deforestation.

• Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s
need to provide for their families.

• The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for
planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed
their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as “slash and burn”
agriculture.

• Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless
trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more
remote forests—which leads to further deforestation.

• Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl.

• Not all deforestation is intentional.

1. wildfires

2. subsequent overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.

• Most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land
animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their
homes.

Deforestation also drives climate change.

1. Carbon sinks – Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere
—and increased speed and severity of global warming.

2. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sun-blocking tree cover they quickly dry out.
Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere.
Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts.

3. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during
the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings that
can be harmful to plants and animals.

Solution?

• Stop cutting down trees. Though deforestation rates have slowed a bit in recent years, financial
realities make this unlikely to occur.

• Forest Management: A more workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by

eliminating clear-cutting to make sure that forest environments remain intact.

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 • The cutting that does occur should be balanced by the planting of enough young trees to replace
the older ones felled in any given forest.

• The number of new tree plantations is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny
fraction of the Earth’s forested land.

• Has the Caribbean experienced de-forestation? Yes, Haiti in particular.

Trinidad and Tobago

• 44.1% —or about 226,000 hectares—of Trinidad and Tobago is forested. Of this, 6.2% —or
roughly 14,000 hectares—is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse form of forest.

Change in Forest Cover: Between 1990 and 2000, Trinidad and Tobago lost an average of 700
hectares of forest per year. The amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 0.30%.
Between 2000 and 2005, the rate of forest change decreased by 41.1% to 0.18% per annum. In
total, between 1990 and 2005, Trinidad and Tobago lost 3.8% of its forest cover, or around
9,000 hectares. 

See: https://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/archive/Trinidad_and_Tobago.htm

Impacts of climate change:

• Rising temps - As a result, an ever-greater proportion of the sun’s energy is trapped within the
atmosphere, and the planet is heating up.

• Shrinkage of glaciers

• Thawing of permafrost – today’s story about Russian weather station on Troynoy Island, 5
people surrounded by 10 polar bears, why?

• Ice receded rapidly and bears were stuck on Troynoy Island.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/14/493893940/passing-research-ship-saves-
weather-station-staff-from-polar-bear-siege -->Five people. Ten bears. One desperate call for help.

On a remote Arctic island, five researchers at a weather station found themselves "besieged" by polar
bears over the weekend, Russia's TASS news agency reports.

Vadim Plotnikov, the head of the weather station on Troynoy Island, told the news agency on Monday
that the staff there had seen 10 adult bears around the station, as well as several cubs.

• earlier and increased run-off from snow fed rivers

• delayed or lack of freezing ice on rivers and lakes

• the warm seasons are lengthening and cold seasons are shortening which impacts:

1. leaf unfolding

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 2. egg laying

3. emergence of insects

4. bird migrations

5. shift towards both Poles of more than 250 plants and animals

6. Change in rainfall patterns

7. Declining populations of plants and animals

The Impact on marine ecosystems even higher because of their sensitivity to variations in:

1. salinity,

2. turbidity (cloudiness of water),

3. water depth,

4. water temperature

5. Sea level rise – predicting 2.9 feet rise by end of this century

• More extreme weather – increased severity and frequency of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes,

• Small island states (i.e. Caribbean, Maldives, Seychelles) and highly urbanized low-lying coastal
areas are particularly vulnerable to inundations and displacement of human population.

Climate change is the most significant threat to the world’s environment.

B. Ozone Depletion
The ozone layer is in the stratosphere (12 – 50 kilometres above earth).

It shields the earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation from the sun. Increased UV-B
exposure endangers human health, agriculture and environment.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs – used in refrigerants and aerosols) and other synthetic chemicals destroy
the ozone.

Ozone holes over Antarctic and Arctic and thinning of layer over Europe, North America (can Caribbean),
New Zealand and Australia.

1985 Montreal Protocol – successfully banned CFCs

C. Species Extinction and Loss of Biodiversity

Extinction of species is a natural consequence of evolution.

However mass extinction – rapid die-off of thousands of species – is not.

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In 3 billion year history of planet earth, scientists identify 5 mass extinctions – the 5 th occurring 65
million years ago when a meteor struck earth.

We are now experiencing the 6th mass extinction, losing 27,000 species/year. This is 1,000 times faster
than the natural rate.

The 6th mass extinction is caused by humans:

1. Over-exploiting species for food, clothing, ornament, pets, and raw materials.

2. Destroy habitat through urbanization, unsustainable logging, slash and burn agric., damming
rivers, draining wetlands, plowing fields, polluting water and air.

International Response: CBD, Convention on Migratory Species, CITES, Law of the Sea Convention,
numerous regional wildlife treaties.

**NB- RECENT AUSTRAILIAN FIRES AND THE EXITINCTION OF KOALA BEARS IN 2019 NOVEMEBER-
DECEMBER.

D. Pollution from Toxic Chemicals and Hazardous Waste

Beginning in the 1950s, scientists discovered that many of the mass-produced synthetic chemicals (i.e.
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane -DDT, Polychlorinated Biphenyls PCBs) were toxic and dangerous to
human health and the environment.

Hazardous waste production has increased from 5 million tons in 1945 to 400 million tons in 1992 (300
produced by developed countries).

Problem of transporting and disposing hazardous waste.

International Response: Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous

Wastes and their Disposal; Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (addresses importation of
toxic chemicals); Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (addresses manufacture, use
and disposal of DDT, PCBs, etc.)

E. Ecosystem Challenges
In addition to specific damages which human acts and pollutants cause to a specific part of the
environment, the cumulative effect on ecosystems is large.

Worst hit: fresh water and wild fish.

Section II – Local and Regional Environmental Challenges

A. Access to Fresh Water
Access to fresh water is one of the most pressing issues throughout the world, and it is only recently
beginning to gain attention among international policymakers.

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 • 1 out of 10 people in world lack access to safe drinking water.

• 1 out of 3 people in the world lack access to a bathroom

• Half of people in the developing world suffer from one of the main diseases, associated with
inadequate water and sanitation.

• Epidemics such as cholera and typhoid thrive in areas of poor sanitation, especially in countries
such as Haiti.

• The cost of this pollution in terms of human suffering, lost productivity, health care, etc. are
staggering.

• Diarrheal disease alone kills over 2 million children each year.

• High priority for developing countries.

B. Air Pollution
• Air pollution causes 2 million deaths worldwide per year.

• For most children in large cities of third world countries, breathing the air is like smoking 2 packs
of cigarettes a day.

• Indoor Pollution – most deaths caused by INDOOR POLLUTION; and most are from solid fuel use
(burning of wood, straw, or dung)

• Cause of 2.7% of global diseases making the second most important environmental contributor
to poor health after unsafe drinking water and sanitation.

• World’s poorest suffer the most, especially women and children.

• Suspended Particulate Matter 

1.1 billion people worldwide live in urban areas that do not meet the WHO standards for
particulate matter (airborne dust and smoke) with cities like Bangkok, Calcutta and Delhi
exceeding the guidelines by 100%.

• Lead: Exposure to lead comes primarily from:

1. Cars that used leaded fuel

2. Paints and batteries

3. Contaminated foods

• Health impacts:

1. Higher blood pressure

2. Higher risks of heart attack and stroke

3. For Children the impacts are more disturbing: brain damage from small (lower I.Q.)
to severe

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 • Air pollution problems have been the major issue launching environmental activist movements
in the former Soviet bloc as well as other countries (Chile; Thailand; and Mexico to name just a
few).

C. Food Security and Agriculture

• More than 1 billion people are undernourished today.

• Current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion
in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to UN DESA report.

• Cultivated systems (croplands, livestock production, freshwater aquaculture) now cover one
quarter of earth’s land surface. How much more of the surface can move to agriculture without
significant environmental degradation?

• Food security and environmental impacts are also related to diet:

• OECS countries consume 800 kg/person of grain, largely indirectly (i.e. animal flesh)

• Rest of the world consume 200 kg/person largely directly with little inefficiency in conversion.

• Are the world’s more affluent willing to simplify their diets for health, ethics, equity,
environment, economic or religious reasons?

• Diet is typically regarded as a personal choice. What role can law play in limiting carnivorous
habits?

Section III – Poverty

• Indira Ghandhi: “poverty is the worst polluter.” Why?

Poverty pushes people to unsustainable uses of land and other resources.

The resulting environmental degradation reduces the amount and quality of resources available,
pushing the poor to use increasingly marginal resources and perpetuating this destructive spiral.

In 1983 the UN appointed the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland
Commission) to examine the relationship between the environment and development (“sustainable
development”)

Section IV – Synergies, Cliffs and Uncertainty

The problems of environmental degradation do not always progress in a predictable and linear way.

Thresholds or “tipping points” exist beyond which the impact may be many times greater than
expected.

Ex. Toxins – human biological response increases fairly steadily as the dose becomes greater.
However when combined with other toxins, the response may increase exponentially.

- asbestos and tobacco smoke: smokers exposed to asbestos are 50 times more likely to die of
lung cancer than non-smokers exposed to asbestos.

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 Nonlinear cliffs and tipping points not restricted to chemical interactions.

• Ex. See chart in textbook of Atlantic Cod landings off the coast of Newfoundland which
unexpectedly crashed between 1990 and 1992 and have yet to recover.

• Ex. Global warming

• Ex. Keystone species – once a predator is removed, some populations expand unchecked,
crowding out many other species. In a 1960 test by marine ecologist John Paine, 7 of the 15
species died off.

Global environmental problems are plagued with uncertainty – because uncertainty is inherent in
the scientific process.

One response, precautionary approach.

Chapter Two: The Root Causes

• In the prior chapter, we looked at the most pressing threats to the global environment i.e. ozone
depletion, climate change, loss of biodiversity, crashing fisheries.

• In this chapter we explore the underlying factors, the root causes of the env. problems

• In examining solutions, law is neither the only option available nor necessarily the best one.

• This chapter lays out the basic facts of consumption and population - as population and or
consumption increase, the damage to the environment increases - as well as the demands we
are making upon technology to solve our problems.

Consumption, Population and Technology

A. The Story of Easter Island – the most remote inhabitable place on earth.

• 2,000 miles off the West coast of South America; 1,400 miles from its closest inhabitable
neighbour, Pitcairn Island.

• On Easter Sunday 1722 the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, first European to visit.

• He found a population of 2,000 in a primitive state, living in squalid reed huts and caves. No
trees over 10 feet high and canoes barely seaworthy. Little vegetation and few crops.

• Scattered around the island were massive stone statutes, some over 30 ft. high and weighing
over 80 tons.

• Evidence of cannibalism among warring tribes. Jacob wondered how anyone could have
survived on such a desolate, treeless place.

• Mystery: Surely the island’s forbearers must have been accomplished mariners. What
happened?

• Core samples taken from the crater lakes tell the story.

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• The first islanders were Polynesian seafarers and they found a lush island, filled with giant palm
forests which they used to build boats, housing, canoes and levers to move their giant statutes.

• The islanders were greeted with a lush tropical paradise when they first discovered it. It must
have seemed inexhaustible.

• The plants they brought with them did well in the rich volcanic soil and by AD 1550 population
on the island hit a high of between 7,000 to 9,000.

• Distinct clans formed as the population increased and various population centers grew up in
different areas of the island.  

• Over time the inhabitants cleared the forests to cook, build homes, canoes, and erect massive
statutes (Moai) using logs to roll the stones on and levers to raise them.

• A.D. 1000 to 1500, hundreds

• were sculpted from tuff, a soft

• volcanic rock, with stone picks.

• More than 880 have survived

• As the deforestation continued the moai building competition turned into an obsession.

• With the loss of the forests, the land began to erode. The small amount of topsoil quickly
washed into the sea. The crops began to fail and the clans turned on one another in a battle for
the scarce resources.

• The symbols of the islanders’ power and success, the moai, were toppled. Eyes were smashed
out of the moai and often rocks were placed where the statues neck would fall so it would
decapitate the moai.

• The violence grew worse and worse. It was said that the victors would eat their dead enemies to
gain strength, bones found on the island show evidence of this cannibalism.

• The Rapa Nui culture and community, which had developed over the past 300 years, collapsed.

• Their island was in shambles, and their villages and crops destroyed. There was no wood left on
the island to build escape boats. The few survivors of the conflict, perhaps numbering as low as
750, began to pick up the pieces of their culture.

• By 15th C. - Removal of all trees and the native birds went extinct.

• Loss of topsoil and crop yields declined.

• With the loss of trees, people abandoned their wood homes for the caves, and could no longer
make wood fires or build sea worthy canoes.

• Statutes were toppled and tribes battled for scarce resources.

• Trapped on this remote island, Easter Islanders could not escape their self-inflicted
environmental collapse.

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 • The destruction of the environment presaged the collapse of their economy and flourishing
society.
B. What are the lessons of Easter Island?
• Jared Diamond, the author who popularized the Easter Island story asks:

• Why didn’t they realize what they were doing and stop before it was too late? What were they
thinking when they cut down the last palm tree?

• This didn’t happen overnight – it took decades, even a century

• By the time the last trees were cut down, they had ceased to be of economic significance.

• How do we avoid this today on planet earth? Corrective action is blocked by vested interests, by
well-intentioned political and business leaders and their electorates, all of whom are correct in
not noticing big changes from year to year (only small changes of more people and fewer
resources).

C. Consumption – Living in a Material World

• The Challenges Posed by Consumption

• Even the most austere societies consume food, water, energy, land and minerals – so
consumption per se is not the problem.
How do you keep consumption at sustainable levels?
• Holdren’s I=PAT formula: “I” describes a community’s overall environmental impact, EQUALS
the product of “P” population size, “A” affluence (per capita level of consumption), and “T”
technology.

• If consumption decreases (which it has not), population increases can offset any benefits.

• Technology, which is held out by some as the save-all solution, must counterbalance increases in
consumption and technology.

• The IPAT identity also shows that where population growth takes place is critically important.
One more person in the U.S., whether through immigration or birth, has a much greater net
environmental impact than one more person in China or any other developing country.

• Ekins (p. 44) shows what must happen: 

• “P”: By 2100, the world's population is projected to reach 10.9 billion, with annual growth of
less than 0.1% – a steep decline from the current rate. Between 1950 and 2019, the world's
population grew between 1% and 2% each year, with the number of people rising from 2.5
billion to 7.7 billion.

• Consumption “A” – 3% per capita growth per year doubles consumption every 23 years.

• “I” at today’s levels

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 • For “I” divided by 2 to = “P” (which will increase 41%) TIMES “A” (which will quadruple, 400%)
TIMES “T” (technology needs to reduce environmental impact by 16 – 1,600% to keep “I” at
todays levels)

• Ekins, electrical engineer with the great respect for technology: not happening

• Ekins’ criticism of “green growth,” the notion that we can sustain our consumption and
population growth through improved technologies, is worth considering in detail.

• ‘Clean’ technology must develop and be adopted a great deal faster than is currently occurring
for technology to come near to fulfilling its potential to move us toward sustainable
development.

• “Public policy should seek to:

1. support families,

2. reinforce communities, and

3. increase the intrinsically satisfying quality of work and leisure,

4. while enabling the creation and distribution of enough wealth to take everyone to the
point where income ceases to be a major determinant of happiness.”

• How do you accomplish these goals, particularly for 3 & 4?

• Are they achievable?

• U.S. has highest per capita consumption levels in world, followed closely by Western Europe and
Japan.

• At what point does consumption become overconsumption?

• Current consumption levels raise troubling equity issues as well:

1. Over half of the world’s population live on less than US$4/day

2. The rich – poor gap is growing: gap in per capita income between richest and poorest
30:1 However in 1999, 78:1

• The industrialized world’s consumption problem derives from excess.

• The Third World’s consumption problem stems from poverty.

• Developed countries blame developing countries for overpopulation while developing countries
blame developed countries for overconsumption.

• However we must address both population and consumption: See IPAT

Principle 8 of Rio Declaration

• “To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should
reduce and eliminate unsustainableD. The Role of Law in Consumption

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 • Little IL in the field of consumption. Chapter 4 of Agenda 21, the Earth Summit’s program of
action for achieving sustainable development states what developed and developing countries
need to do in broad terms.

• There is the IL principle of Inter-generational equity

• Four options to reduce levels of consumption:

• 1. Sufficiency – lowering levels of consumption (difficult politically); To exist at a sufficient level

would mean, at least for the developed countries, that consumption must be decreased.

• In recent history, the few instances where government has sought to regulate and reduce
consumption have arisen only after very extreme circumstances.

• The intervention is seen by many as intrusive, and the practical effects may be such that
“underground” or “black market” products increase.

• patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.”

• Questions (p. 49)

• Cornucopians (A cornucopian is a futurist who believes that continued progress and provision of
material items for mankind can be met by similarly continued advances in technology) continue
to raise the examples of the Netherlands (and Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo) as “efficient,”
relatively strict environmental regulations, and pleasant places to live despite large populations
living in a small land area.

• But their “ecological footprints” are large. The environmental impacts of their consumption are
almost all externalized because almost all of their goods are imported and some of their waste is
exported. The benefits of consumption are enjoyed without their environmental costs because
of these populations’ wealth.

D. The Role of Law in Consumption

• Little IL in the field of consumption. Chapter 4 of Agenda 21, the Earth Summit’s program of
action for achieving sustainable development states what developed and developing countries
need to do in broad terms.

• There is the IL principle of Inter-generational equity

• Four options to reduce levels of consumption:

• 1. Sufficiency – lowering levels of consumption (difficult politically); To exist at a sufficient level

would mean, at least for the developed countries, that consumption must be decreased.

• In recent history, the few instances where government has sought to regulate and reduce
consumption have arisen only after very extreme circumstances.

• The intervention is seen by many as intrusive, and the practical effects may be such that
“underground” or “black market” products increase.

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 2. Pricing – to get the prices right for goods, services and energy, ensure that they include all
environmental and social costs.

As long as the market subsidizes environmental degradation by keeping prices artificially low,
consumers have no economic incentive to change their lifestyles.

3. Increasing consumer awareness of relative impacts of competing products and promoting

lower impact consumption. Ex. Ecolabeling and green certification. This approach has shown to
have limited effect.

4. Technological efficiency – better design and materials means doing more with less, with no
loss of convenience.

Questions (p. 55) Domestic laws can mandate increased efficiency:

1. minimum fuel efficiency for cars

2. Take-back programs for products upon disposal could be mandated (as already occurs in Europe
for packaging, electronics and cars).

3. Mandatory recycling could be instituted across the country.

4. Limits could be placed on the amount of energy each home may use.

E. Population Growth
• Population growth has slowed substantially since the 1970s:

• 1970 – fertility rate of 6.7 children per woman

• 2010 – fertility rate of 2.53 children per woman (1.66 in developed world; less developed 2.7;
least developed 4.5)

• Note: Replacement rate (0 growth) is 2.1 children per woman.

• As the abortion debate demonstrates, opinions vary strongly on the rights of individuals and
families to determine the number of offspring they wish.

• Through technological improvements in fertility, more women are on fertility drugs than ever
before.

Is there a role for the law?

The law part of this debate concerns the conflict between the responsibilities and rights to bear
children and the responsibility to not harm the environment

QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION (p. 65)

2. Which of the following, if any, do you consider human rights abuses?

• Payment of food or money for voluntary sterilization - violate a fundamental human right? A
recent article in the Washington Post discussed the difficulty that many “welfare moms” were

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 having in seeking government-paid (or maybe just subsidized) sterilization. The protections
against the possibility of coercion were so strong that many women had tried repeatedly to
have the procedure done, but had been unable to do so. These women wanted the procedure,
because they recognized the difficulty of breaking the cycle they were in. As long as it is a
knowing choice made by the individual, do you have a problem with it?

• Denial of social benefits to couples with more than one child – different? First of all, for certain
religions, such a denial could constitute a violation of the freedom of religion. Also, limiting a
family to one child is too restrictive -- if something happens to the child, the family is then child-
less. Also, what about families with twins, or triplets?

• Denial of tax deductions for more than two children – ok? Concept of diminishing marginal
utility, or something like that -- get the benefit from two children, but remove the incentive to
have more children, because the overall cost is greater.

• Requiring the use of contraceptive devices would also run afoul of freedom of religion
arguments. Rather than requiring it, perhaps there should be a law requiring insurance
companies to cover the costs of contraception.

• It is much less expensive than for companies to pay for abortions, and much less socially-
stigmatizing. Also, the fact that most plans do not cover contraceptive devices is direct evidence
of the “gender gap” -- women pay roughly 40% more each year in health costs than do men, and
contraception is a big reason.

• The recent approval of Viagra is further illustration -- many plans rushed to cover this new
expensive drug that could lead to increased fertility rates, but there is largely an unwillingness of
these same plans to cover the less expensive contraceptive drugs that women would need to
decrease the fertility rate and to more easily control their lives and make decisions about their
families.

F. Technology: Promises and Perils

• Despite extraordinary human ingenuity - technological developments have undoubtedly
increased our well-being - relying solely on technological fixes may prove inadequate in the face
of current challenges.

• Ex. DDT – considered the “miracle insecticide” used widely in the developed world as a pesticide
1940 – 1960.

• After widespread use for 20 years its harmful effects became known: its toxins accumulate in
the body fat of animals and humans and impact the entire food chain; caused die-offs in
songbirds and fish; fragile eggshells in eagles and other birds of prey; neurological effects in
humans.

• Developed countries have banned DDT; still used in many developing countries.

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