Valuing the environment

INTRODUCTION: Environmental economists argue that environmental degradation has resulted from the failure of the market system to put any value on the environment (Dobson, 1991; Beder, 1996). According to the theory of supply and demand, if a good is provided at a zero price, demand would be higher than if it had a positive value, with the danger of being overused. Thus, as Costanza et al. (1997) argue, ecosystem services are not fully captured in commercial markets or …

…a Price on Nature's Services? By Mark Sagoff http://www.hlpusd.k12.ca.us/go/search/search_the_internet.html National Centre for Environmental Decision-making Research (NCEDR) , 1996, Cost Benefit analysis and Environmental Decision making, US Gregory R., 1998, Identifying Environmental Values, in Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making, by Dale V.H. and English M.R (eds.), Springer-Verlag Web version of Beder S., 1996, The Environment Goes to Market, as submitted for publication in Democracy and Nature