Over the course of May and June 2019, GLOBUS published a two-fold series on ‘Environmental Economics’.
1: Economics in the 21st Century: The Environmental Challenge
Written by GLOBUS Editor-in-Chief Todd Olive, the first part of this series explores how economics addresses environmental challenges.
The Forgotten Assumption: Economics and the Environment
The first of these, ‘The Forgotten Assumption’, reflects on whether economics is out of touch with contemporary challenges – in particular, examining whether economics fails to account for a critical factor in its musings: the environment.
Saving Grace: Entrepreneurial Economics for Climate Action
‘Saving Grace’ examines the silver living that accompanies every grey cloud. In contrast to the previous article’s deconstruction of economics’ failings in addressing the environment, here we examine how economics can be co-opted to support the environmental agenda.
Come Together: Future Building in a Divided World
Building a future is much harder than building bridges: in the conclusion to this half of the series, Todd argues that we must bridge economic policy and activist thinking to succeed in creating a future that we can all be proud of.
2: Environmental Economics: Policy Briefings
Written by students studying ‘Introduction to Environmental Economics‘, offered by the Economics Department at the University of Warwick, these policy briefs examine a range of environmental challenges, and how they might be addressed with economic policy.
Behavioural Nudging & Meat Heavy Diets
Joel Ramlill examines the impact that meat consumption has on the global commons, advocating policies that employ behavioural ‘nudging’ to move consumer preferences away from ruminant consumption, towards more sustainable alternatives.
The Orangutan-Palm Oil Conflict
Joe Forsey examines the inherent conflict between growth of palm oil production and the preservation of humanity’s closest living relatives – the orangutans. Advocating a price-based solution, Joe proposes the expansion of monetary incentives for protecting forested zones.
Controlling Air Quality in Beijing
Christina Portelli examines the serious threat posed by particulates in the Beijing urban zone. Generated by coal-fired factories and automation, particulates have been linked with major health conditions such as lung cancer.
Palm Oil Production in the Republic of Gabon
Pratyush Satyanarayan examines the trade-off between economic growth and environmental conservation posed by the expansion of palm oil production in Gabon, advocating for the introduction of robust certification and accountability mechanisms to reduce the industry’s externalities.
Header image: Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
GLOBUS 