Before the Tragedy of the Commons: Early Modern Economic Considerations of the Public Use of Natural Resources
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Coal and Oil: the Dark Monarchs of Global Energy – Understanding Supply and Extraction Patterns and Their Importance for Futur
nam et ipsa scientia potestas est List of Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. I Höök, M., Aleklett, K. (2008) A decline rate study of Norwe- gian oil production. Energy Policy, 36(11):4262–4271 II Höök, M., Söderbergh, B., Jakobsson, K., Aleklett, K. (2009) The evolution of giant oil field production behaviour. Natural Resources Research, 18(1):39–56 III Höök, M., Hirsch, R., Aleklett, K. (2009) Giant oil field decline rates and their influence on world oil production. Energy Pol- icy, 37(6):2262–2272 IV Jakobsson, K., Söderbergh, B., Höök, M., Aleklett, K. (2009) How reasonable are oil production scenarios from public agen- cies? Energy Policy, 37(11):4809–4818 V Höök M, Söderbergh, B., Aleklett, K. (2009) Future Danish oil and gas export. Energy, 34(11):1826–1834 VI Aleklett K., Höök, M., Jakobsson, K., Lardelli, M., Snowden, S., Söderbergh, B. (2010) The Peak of the Oil Age - analyzing the world oil production Reference Scenario in World Energy Outlook 2008. Energy Policy, 38(3):1398–1414 VII Höök M, Tang, X., Pang, X., Aleklett K. (2010) Development journey and outlook for the Chinese giant oilfields. Petroleum Development and Exploration, 37(2):237–249 VIII Höök, M., Aleklett, K. (2009) Historical trends in American coal production and a possible future outlook. International Journal of Coal Geology, 78(3):201–216 IX Höök, M., Aleklett, K. (2010) Trends in U.S. recoverable coal supply estimates and future production outlooks. Natural Re- sources Research, 19(3):189–208 X Höök, M., Zittel, W., Schindler, J., Aleklett, K. -
Prediction and Inference in the Hubbert-Deffeyes Peak Oil Model ∗
Prediction and Inference in the Hubbert-Deffeyes Peak Oil Model ∗ John R. Boycey Department of Economics University of Calgary July 2012 Abstract World oil production has grown at an annual rate of 4.86% since 1900. Yet, the Hubbert-Deffeyes `peak oil' (HDPO) model predicts that world oil production is about to enter a sustained period of decline. This paper investigates the empirical robustness of these claims. I document that the data for the HDPO model shows that the ratio of production-to-cumulative-production is decreasing in cumulative production, and that the rate of decrease is itself decreasing. The HDPO model attempts to fit a linear curve through this data. To do so, Hubbert and Deffeyes are forced to either exclude early data or to discount the validity of discoveries and reserves data. I show that an HDPO model which includes early data systematically under-predicts actual cumulative production and that the data also rejects the hypothesis that the fit is linear. These findings undermine claims that the HDPO model is capable of yielding meaningful measures of ultimately recoverable reserves. Key Words: Peak Oil, Exhaustible Resources, Exploration and Development JEL Codes: L71, Q31, Q41, O33 ∗I thank Chris Auld, Diane Bischak, Chris Bruce, Bob Cairns, Robin Carter, Ujjayant Chakravorty, Eugene Choo, Herb Emery, G´erardGaudet, Dan Gordon, James Hamilton, Mike Horn, Lutz Kilian, Dean Lueck, John Rowse, and Scott Taylor. I also thank the associate editor, James L. Smith, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. All remaining errors are my own. yProfessor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, N.W., Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada. -
Tragedy of the Commons : Th
tragedy of the commons : The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_T000193&pr... tragedy of the commons Elinor Ostrom From The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition, 2008 Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume Abstract ‘The tragedy of the commons’ arises when it is difficult and costly to exclude potential users from common-pool resources that yield finite flows of benefits, as a result of which those resources will be exhausted by rational, utility-maximizing individuals rather than conserved for the benefit of all. Pessimism about the possibility of users voluntarily cooperating to prevent overuse has led to widespread central control of common-pool resources. But such control has itself frequently resulted in resource overuse. In practice, especially where they can communicate, users often develop rules that limit resource use and conserve resources. Keywords collective action; common-pool resources; common property; free rider problem; Hardin, G.; open-access resources; private property; social dilemmas; state property; tragedy of the commons Article The term ‘the tragedy of the commons’ was first introduced by Garrett Hardin (1968) in an important article in Science. Hardin asked us to envision a pasture ‘open to all’ in which each herder received large benefits from selling his or her own animals while facing only small costs of overgrazing. When the number of animals exceeds the capacity of the pasture, each herder is still motivated to add more animals since the herder receives all of the proceeds from the sale of animals and only a partial share of the cost of overgrazing. -
Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor
Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor by Garrett Hardin, Psychology Today, September 1974 Environmentalists use the metaphor of the earth as a "spaceship" in trying to persuade countries, industries and people to stop wasting and polluting our natural resources. Since we all share life on this planet, they argue, no single person or institution has the right to destroy, waste, or use more than a fair share of its resources. But does everyone on earth have an equal right to an equal share of its resources? The spaceship metaphor can be dangerous when used by misguided idealists to justify suicidal policies for sharing our resources through uncontrolled immigration and foreign aid. In their enthusiastic but unrealistic generosity, they confuse the ethics of a spaceship with those of a lifeboat. A true spaceship would have to be under the control of a captain, since no ship could possibly survive if its course were determined by committee. Spaceship Earth certainly has no captain; the United Nations is merely a toothless tiger, with little power to enforce any policy upon its bickering members. If we divide the world crudely into rich nations and poor nations, two thirds of them are desperately poor, and only one third comparatively rich, with the United States the wealthiest of all. Metaphorically each rich nation can be seen as a lifeboat full of comparatively rich people. In the ocean outside each lifeboat swim the poor of the world, who would like to get in, or at least to share some of the wealth. What should the lifeboat passengers do? First, we must recognize the limited capacity of any lifeboat. -
The Tragedy of the Government Created Commons
The Tragedy of the Government Created Commons by Robert B. Kauffman, Ph.D. In terms of the tragedy of the commons, the government and those advocating for larger government have an incentive to purposely create commons and collective harm. It furthers their agenda. [Keywords: tragedy of the commons, Garrett Hardin, tragedy of government created commons] In his classic article published in the December 1968 issue of Science, Garrett Hardin linked the lesson of the commons to the need for government management and the supervision of individuals in order to prevent the tragedy that harm comes to all in the tragedy of the commons. Collectively, individual self- interest leads to collective harm. As part of the lesson of the commons, he demonstrated that moral restraint does not work in the commons and that this justified the need for government intervention in individual's lives to temper the pursuit of self-interest by the individual. The basic paradigm where government is the solution and not the problem needs to be reexamined. In the government created commons, government purposely creates commons to unleash its destructive powers of collective harm. Along with the traditional solutions of rationing, the collective harm justifies the government’s solution to increase the size of the commons and to increase its power and control in an effort to solve the problem. Unfortunately, because the underlying tenets of the commons are not addressed, the problem persists and is exacerbated as is the need for even more governmental involvement to solve the problem it created. The story used to illustrate the tragedy of the commons is sometimes affectionately referred to as the story of Bessy the cow. -
Exclusivity and the Construction of Intellectual Property Markets
The Fable of the Commons: Exclusivity and the Construction of Intellectual Property Markets Shubha Ghosh* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 857 I. LOOKING BEYOND THE COMMONS: TURNING HIGH TRAGEDY INTO LOW DRAMA .................................................................... 860 A. The Fable of the Commons................................................. 861 B. Governing the Commons Through the Goals of Distributive Justice ............................................................ 864 II. THE DIMENSIONS OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE.............................. 870 A. Creators ............................................................................ 871 B. Creators and Users............................................................ 876 C. Intergenerational Justice.................................................... 879 III. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN PRACTICE .......................................... 880 A. Fair Use: Allocating Surplus Among Creators and Users .. 881 B. Secondary Liability: Spanning Generational Divides......... 883 C. Antitrust: Natural and Cultural Monopolies and the Limits of Exclusivity in the Marketplace ............................ 886 D. Traditional Knowledge: Expanding Canons and the Global Marketplace ........................................................... 888 CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 889 * Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School -
Chapter 1 Sustainability of Our Planet the Environment
Chapter 1 Sustainability of our planet The environment Everything around you; both living and nonliving things Examples: air, water, sunlight, people, plants, animals Environmental Science The study of how humans interact with the environment. Involves many subjects such as: engineering, biology, chemistry, earth science, economics, political science, ethics, moral judgments Goals of Environmental Science There are 3 goals to studying environmental science. 1. Learn how life on Earth has survived and thrived. 2. Understand how humans interact with the environment. 3. Find ways to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably. What is sustainability? The ability of Earth’s natural systems that support life to adapt to the changing environmental conditions indefinitely. Scientific factors to sustainability Why has life existed on the planet for about 3.8 billion years? 1. Solar energy - photosynthesis 2. Biodiversity – variety of species, genes, ecosystems on the planet to help with adapting to new environmental conditions 3. Nutrient cycling – when an organism dies, it decays, nutrients go back into ground for another organism Social factors to sustainability How have past decisions on environmental problems effected today’s society? 1. Economics –production and consumption of goods and services 2. Political science – government/politics and how it relates to the environment 3. Ethics – study of right and wrong Natural Capital Natural resources and ecosystem services that keep humans and other species alive and -
'Common Rights' - What Are They?
'Common Rights' - What are they? An investigation into rights of passage and rights of land use (or rights of common) Alan Shelley PG Dissertation in Landscape Architecture Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education April2000 Abstract There is a level of confusion relating to the expression 'common' when describing 'common rights'. What is 'common'? Common is a word which describes sharing or 'that affecting all alike'. Our 'common humanity' may be a term used to describe people in general. When we refer to something 'common' we are often saying, or implying, it is 'ordinary' or as normal. Mankind, in its earliest civilisation formed societies, usually of a family tribe, that expanded. Society is principled on community. What are 'rights'? Rights are generally agreed practices. Most often they are considered ethically, to be moral, just, correct and true. They may even be perceived, in some cases, to include duty. The evolution of mankind and society has its origins in the land. Generally speaking common rights have come from land-lore (the use of land). Conflicts have evolved between customs and the statutory rights of common people (the people of the commons). This has been influenced by Church (Canonical) law, from Roman formation, statutory enclosures of land and the corporation of local government. Privilege, has allowed 'freemen', by various customs, certain advantages over the general populace, or 'common people'. Unfortunately, the term no longer describes a relationship of such people with the land, but to their nationhood. Contents Page Common Rights - What are they?................................................................................ 1 Rights of Common ...................................................................................................... 4 Woods and wood pasture ............................................................................................ -
Joseph Henry Vogel* of the “Study on Domestic Measures” by Margo A
Peer Review by Joseph Henry Vogel* of the “Study on Domestic Measures” by Margo A. Bagley et al with reference to “Combined Study on Traceability and Databases” by Fabian Rohden et al and “Study on Concept and Scope” by Wael Houssen et al (cc) 2019. Joseph Henry Vogel 29 November 2019, Department of Economics, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras [email protected] Key messages: • Can one analyze domestic measures on a term which is (1) undefined, (2) deemed not appropriate, (3) unused in science and (4) universally absent in national legislation? The cart is out of sight of the horse. The inclusive approach--examining whatever DSI could possibly mean---has rendered the study leaden. Frank discussion is needed regarding the cart and the horse. Non-rational behavior is germane to frankness. • Enclose quotations around the first usage of any big idea, thereby signaling that a literature exists. “Bounded openness” and “natural information” are not enclosed or duly attributed in the narrative. The etymology of “digital sequence information” is also absent. Its genesis in “digital biopiracy” sheds light on a modality of ABS that is fair, equitable and efficient. • Whenever possible, difficult-to-locate references should be complemented by similar open- access references. The publications cited on the economics of information and bounded openness are not the most accessible that exist. Preamble: Non-conducive to peer review is the template format. Copyediting may require numbered lines to locate errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar; peer reviews do not. Critique requires narrative. This review is the second in a trilogy that addresses foundational flaws in Decision 14/20. -
NO PAIN, NO GAIN the Understanding of Cruelty in Western Philosophy 1 and Some Reflections on Personhood
FILOZOFIA POHĽAD ZA HRANICE ___________________________________________________________________________Roč. 65, 2010, č. 2 NO PAIN, NO GAIN The Understanding of Cruelty in Western Philosophy 1 and Some Reflections on Personhood GIORGIO BARUCHELLO, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University of Akureyri, Iceland BARUCHELLO, G.: No Pain, No Gain. The Understanding of Cruelty in Western Philosophy and Some Reflections on Personhood FILOZOFIA 65, 2010, No 2, p. 170 Almost daily, we read and hear of car bombings, violent riots and escalating criminal activities. Such actions are typically condemned as “cruel” and their “cruelty” is ta- ken as the most blameworthy trait, to which institutions are obliged, it is implied, to respond by analogously “cruel but necessary" measures. Almost daily, we read and hear of tragic cases of suicide, usually involving male citizens of various age, race, and class, whose farewell notes, if any, are regularly variations on an old, well- known adagio: “Goodbye cruel world.” Additionally, many grave cruelties are nei- ther reported nor even seen by the media: people are cheated, betrayed, belittled and affronted in many ways, which are as humiliating as they are ordinary. Yet, what is cruel? What meaning unites the plethora of phenomena that are reported “cruel”? How is it possible for cruelty to be so extreme and, at the same time, so common? This essay wishes to offer a survey of the main conceptions of cruelty in the history of Western thought, their distinctive constants of meaning being considered in view of a better understanding of cruelty’s role in shaping each person’s selfhood. Keywords: Cruelty – Evil – Liberalism (of fear) – Pain – Person(hood) Richard Rorty claimed famously that ‘liberals are the people who think that cruelty is the worst thing we do.’2 With this statement, he intended to set himself squarely amongst the pro- ponents of that ‘liberalism of fear’ which Judith Shklar had been establishing as a recognised liberal strand since the early 1980s. -
Europe (In Theory)
EUROPE (IN THEORY) ∫ 2007 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $ Designed by C. H. Westmoreland Typeset in Minion with Univers display by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. There is a damaging and self-defeating assumption that theory is necessarily the elite language of the socially and culturally privileged. It is said that the place of the academic critic is inevitably within the Eurocentric archives of an imperialist or neo-colonial West. —HOMI K. BHABHA, The Location of Culture Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: A pigs Eye View of Europe 1 1 The Discovery of Europe: Some Critical Points 11 2 Montesquieu’s North and South: History as a Theory of Europe 52 3 Republics of Letters: What Is European Literature? 87 4 Mme de Staël to Hegel: The End of French Europe 134 5 Orientalism, Mediterranean Style: The Limits of History at the Margins of Europe 172 Notes 219 Works Cited 239 Index 267 Acknowledgments I want to thank for their suggestions, time, and support all the people who have heard, read, and commented on parts of this book: Albert Ascoli, David Bell, Joe Buttigieg, miriam cooke, Sergio Ferrarese, Ro- berto Ferrera, Mia Fuller, Edna Goldstaub, Margaret Greer, Michele Longino, Walter Mignolo, Marc Scachter, Helen Solterer, Barbara Spack- man, Philip Stewart, Carlotta Surini, Eric Zakim, and Robert Zimmer- man. Also invaluable has been the help o√ered by the Ethical Cosmopol- itanism group and the Franklin Humanities Seminar at Duke University; by the Program in Comparative Literature at Notre Dame; by the Khan Institute Colloquium at Smith College; by the Mediterranean Studies groups of both Duke and New York University; and by European studies and the Italian studies program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. -
The Opportunities and Challenges Presented by a Land-Based Commons Approach
Technical Committee on “Land Tenure and Development” The opportunities and challenges presented by a land-based commons approach Societies are currently having to adapt to multiple global reflection, which was facilitated and formalised by Cirad’s issues in a context of political, economic and ecological Green research unit with support from the International crises. The ‘land-based commons’ approach places col- Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), are lective action at the heart of efforts to evaluate and resolve presented in this publication. complex problems, by addressing these issues through Part 1 identifies action situations where it would be the analysis of local contexts and the structure of different useful to consider the opportunities and challenges of- international frameworks. The aim is to facilitate the fered by a land-based commons approach. Part 2 then emergence of institutional arrangements that involve the proposes various entry points that could be used to different groups and communities of interest working to mobilize scientific, cultural and social knowledge and The opportunities tackle issues at the local level, and contribute to policies highlight the different solidarity regimes that support and that can address these questions effectively. mobilize commons. Part 3 discusses the analytical This work on land-based commons is part of much framework for this procedure, which questions some of and challenges broader transdisciplinary reflection by the French Coo- the underlying assumptions that shaped previous initia- peration ‘Land Tenure and Development’ Technical tives to address land issues. Finally, Part 4 sets out six Committee (LTDTC), which has contributed to thinking guiding principles that were developed to facilitate im- presented by a land-based about ongoing changes in land and development over plementation of the land-based commons approach and the last 20 years.