Climate

The Pampas of Argentina have shown some of the most consistently increasing trends in precipitation during the 20th century. The rainfall increase has partly contributed to a significant expansion of agricultural area, particularly in climatically marginal regions of the Pampas. However, it is unclear if current agricultural production systems, which evolved partly in response to enhanced climate conditions, may remain viable if (as entirely possible) climate reverts to a drier epoch.

Climate change, as a slow and gradual modification of average climate conditions, is a difficult phenomenon to detect and track accurately based on personal experience. Insufficient concern and trust also complicate the transfer of scientific descriptions of climate change and climate variability from scientists to the public, politicians, and policy makers, which is not a simple transmission of facts.

In 3 studies, participants made choices between hypothetical financial, environmental, and health gains and losses that took effect either immediately or with a delay of 1 or 10 years. In all 3 domains, choices indicated that gains were discounted more than losses. There were no significant differences in the discounting of monetary and environmental outcomes, but health gains were discounted more and health losses were discounted less than gains or losses in the other 2 domains.

Climate change is a fact, but why should the general public care? Nicolas Stern explains the three top reasons for apathy and what should be done.

Electronics waste is severely damaging to the environment and human health, especially in developing countries. New regulations in the European Union, California and China prohibit the sale of electronics containing certain hazardous substances. However, because testing for these substances is expensive and destructive of the product, regulators cannot test all or even a significant fraction of the electronics sold. Electronics manufacturers have an incentive to test competitors? products, reveal violations to the regulator, and thus gain market share when the competitors?

A novel economic model for reducing deforestation is being proposed by the Coalition for Rainforest Nations at the current United Nations climate change conference in Montreal. A new player in the climate change game, the coalition is proposing economic incentives for conserving tropical forests while contributing to climate stability. The coalition's proposal seeks to create new markets while reforming outmoded market and regulatory mechanisms. From the perspective of tropical countries, this change would make conservation a financially viable policy, with real economic returns.

Agricultural subsidies levied by industrial countries have been a source of contentious debate in multilateral trade negotiations. Developing countries argue that subsidies result in an overproduction of crops which depress prices on the world market. The 1996 and 2002 U.S. Farm Bills decoupled agricultural subsidies from current production, so the subsidies should be minimally trade distorting, but a provision in the 2002 Farm Bill that allowed farmers to update their subsidy base potentially broke this decoupling mechanism.

This paper articulates and applies frameworks for examining whether consumption is excessive. We consider two criteria for the possible excessiveness (or insufficiency) of current consumption. One is an intertemporal utility-maximization criterion: actual current consumption is deemed excessive if it is higher than the level of current consumption on the consumption path that maximizes the present discounted value of utility. The other is a sustainability criterion, which requires that current consumption be consistent with non-declining living standards over time.