Sean Meriwether's Blog: The Green Economist, page 19

Measuring GHG Emissions

On November 4, 2016, the most recent international treaty to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions went into force; the goal is to limit the average global temperature rise below 2 C. Emissions can linger in the atmosphere for centuries after being produced and trap more heat from the sun. The average global temperature has already risen 0.87 C above pre-industrial levels according to a 2015 report from NASA; it has increased by more than 3 C in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. With t...

Humans Are Causing the 6th Major Extinction Level Event

“Everything is connected to everything else.” — Barry Commoner

Humanity is having an increasingly negative impact on our surroundings. We destroy habitas as we urbanize, which destroys native species of plants and animals. This destruction impacts the climate, water, and ultimately the richness of life, including our own. Each misstep creates a domino effect of non-linear consequences that are difficult to measure. These combined impacts are leading us into unknown territory, with humans, not...

We Can Achieve Sustainability Together

There is an underlying challenge to the sustainability movement. How can we get people to care about the environment enough to drive change? As we have seen in the recent US presidential elections, climate change, which impacts everyone on this planet, is not even on the minds of the voting public nor was it discussed by either of the candidates. Governments and businesses are not set up to be environmentally goal-oriented; it is counter to their agendas of growth and development. We need ano...

Inclusivity and Diversity are Keys to Successful Development

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 it brought global attention to the city and its long-standing financial problems. As described in Jonathan Schlefer’s “Plans Versus Politics: New Orleans After Katrina,” funding shortages had impacted the city’s infrastructure, public education system, healthcare and delivery of services. 27% of the city’s residents were living below the poverty line—double the national average—who were disproportionately African American and living along raciall...

The Green Invaders: Urban Plants

“Classifying and valuing ecosystem services for urban planning” by Erik Gómez-Baggethun and David Barton presenteda different perspective on urban plant life. While aesthetics plays a role—increasing property values for tree-lined streets and park views—urban plants have very different jobs and expectations than their country counterparts. For instance, Baggethun and Barton document how urban plants purify the air, which can reduce health care costs, as well as mitigate water runoff and heat...

Earth as Easter Island

“When the Bank has no houses to sell, players wishing to build must wait for some player to return or sell his/her houses to the Bank before building. If there are a limited number of houses and hotels available and two or more players wish to buy more than the Bank has, the houses or hotels must be sold at auction to the highest bidder.” – Rules for Monopoly

Monopoly was one of my favorite games as a child, but after hours of play I was frustrated at the limited resources the game provided....

Combat Corruption With Transparency

Corruption can be found in every country and in many different sectors, but it can be more evident in some areas, where bribery and extortion may be accepted as the normal way to conduct business. Kemi Ogunyemi discussed extortion in “How Extortion Works (Evidence from Nigeria): The Extortion Cycle”, which summarizes 159 narratives of corruption. There is a formula to extortion. One person acts as gatekeeper to withhold something from the person who wants it until they pay some form of penalt...

Social Sustainability in Informal Settlements

The link between sustainability and equity was firmly established in the Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future, which included the language “inequality is the planet’s main ‘environmental’ problem”. Following its publication in 1987, significant resources have been dedicated to sustainable development and poverty eradication. These intertwined goals were included in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals. However the c...

Tilting the Economic Pyramid

The world is a mesh of complex interlocking systems that concentrate power at the top of the economic pyramid,widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. The ultra wealthy have historically held more political influence, but in recent decades they have lobbied the government to ensure the system continues to work in their favor. Pareto efficiency shows that it is impossible to benefitone individual without making another worse off; today one individual can make millions worse off.There...

The Impact of Leadership in Resource Management

In “The Fundamental Role of Large-Scale Trust Building in Natural Resource Management”, Karni Marcus discussed how it is possible to influence the motivations of people, particularly in large groups, to protect the environment. The essay can best be discussed in contrasting the leadership of two diametrically opposed approaches to resource and people management.

As an elected official in one of the most diverse counties in Washington State, Ron Sims, who had a background in the sciences, leve...