actually, this was addressed as an important consideration in the = environmental economics course that I took. =20 VISIT THE JOURNAL HERPETOLOGICAL CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY = www.herpconbio.org <http://www.herpconbio.org>=20 =20 Malcolm L. McCallum Assistant Professor Department of Biological Sciences Texas A&M University Texarkana 2600 Robison Rd. Texarkana, TX 75501 O: 1-903-223-3134 H: 1-903-791-3843 Homepage: https://www.eagle.tamut.edu/faculty/mmccallum/index.html =20
________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news on behalf of = [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon 6/5/2006 5:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: SCB's carbon offset; precedent for ESA? Right now the Society for Conservation Biology is polling its members to = see how much they are willing to pay to offset SCB's carbon emissions, = the vast majority of which stem from its members flying to the annual = conference. It's a good idea in principle and ESA should probably = consider a similar approach. However, what seems to be often overlooked = in environmental and even ecological economics is that the act of = expenditure itself entails the liquidation of natural capital somewhere = and concommitant carbon release. Imagine how much damage it would entail if we had to pay - using a = ridiculous example to make the point - a trillion dollars to offset = SCB's carbon. A trillion dollars entails a lot of = agricultural/extractive surplus (the origins of money), and regardless = of how "green" the agriculture and extraction is, at that scale it would = cause far more damage than that caused by SCB's carbon.=20 We need an estimate of per-dollar-natural-capital liquidation to make = decisions about what price for carbon offsetting will actually pay a net = environmental benefit. This research need is a major application for = those engaged in ecological footprinting and I am wondering if anyone = has seen anything published yet in this regard. I have seen figures on = comparative energy intensity of nations' GDP; not the same though = closely related...=20 Brian Czech, President Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy WWW.STEADYSTATE.ORG Sign the position on economic growth at: http://steadystate.org/PositiononEG.html
