ECON371/UBCO2024WT1/Reflections/NadirRafee
Reflection 1:
Reflecting on my experience in this course thus far, I have discovered my perspective on the relationship between economics and the environment changing. To elaborate, I believed economics could help us understand complex issues, however, I was skeptical about reducing people and nature to just numbers. I questioned using cost-benefit analyses to determine use values and to therefore find the efficient solution by seeing where net monetary benefits are maximized. I felt that it often overlooked the intrinsic value of things.
As the course progressed, my perspective deepened. Last year, I took a course called “Sustainability in Business,” which reinforced the idea that successful businesses today need to implement sustainability practices to a certain degree in order to be successful. Moreover, when I was still in high school, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was at home, bored out of my mind, missing my friends, and craving freedom once again. In fact, my mother described my older brother and I as caged animals. Anyways, that being said I decided the best use of my time would be to try something new, so I created a drop shipping website called “Ecodawgg”, named after one of my seven cats, “Dawg”. Even then I recognized the importance of sustainability, and my store specialized on sustainable products like bamboo toothbrushes and biodegradable water bottles. This experience taught me valuable lessons about sustainability, whereby it is important to align business goals with sustainability practices. Although, what I have learned so far in university was that sustainability is not just a niche but a necessity. Furthermore, the “Sustainability in Business” course also introduced me to the concept of the circular economy (CE), which aims to not just reduce waste, but eliminate waste altogether, and make the most out of resources by promoting recycling, reusing, and repurposing. Moreover, the CE represents a holistic solution, integrating various models, not just economic ones in order to achieve overall sustainability.
Prof: What has happened to ecodawgg? Could not find anything on a Google search.
Although I must say that economic models do a fantastic job in simplifying complex environmental issues. Concepts like efficiency, opportunity costs, and tradeoffs provide a clear way to understand human impacts on the environment. These models break down the complexity of decision making, making it easier to determine efficient solutions for allocating resources. However, I also recognized the challenges of applying these models to complex environmental issues, where imperfect information, and a lack of clear solutions often complicate decision making.
One key concept that stood out to me was the concept of externalities. Initially, I saw them as a way to overlook environmental costs, but in our class discussions we have discovered that identifying externalities is crucial for creating policies in order to internalize those costs. This ties into the Coase Theorem, which suggests that if property rights are well defined and transaction costs are low, private parties can negotiate to solve externalities. Therefore, recognizing pollution as an external cost for example, helps policy makers create systems like taxes or regulations to promote sustainability. This challenged my belief that economics ignored environmental concerns and emphasized the importance of government and corporate intervention in addressing externalities.
However, there are also limitations to these models. More specifically, models like cost benefit analysis and supply and demand frameworks help us in understanding tradeoffs and finding the efficient solution. But they fail to capture the ethical, moral and social aspects of environmental stewardship. To elaborate, maximizing utility and efficiency often falls short when considering the intrinsic value of nature, or the rights of future generations. Hence, this realization made me understand that while economics provides excellent tools, it cannot be the only tool used for shaping environmental policy. There needs to be an approach that also considers ecological preservation, moral, and ethical obligations towards future generations. This highlights the limitations of a purely economic approach in combating environmental issues.
Overall, this course has given me a more complete understanding of the role economics plays in addressing environmental challenges, especially when combined with lessons from my “Sustainability in Business” course. Furthermore, economic analysis offers valuable insights into human behavior and policy making but it is incomplete on its own. The complex environmental challenges we face today require a holistic approach, which integrates economic tools with ethical, social, and ecological perspectives. Overall, I have been enjoying this course and I look forward to learning more about applying economics to address environmental challenges.
Reflection 2
Reflecting on the course thus far, my understanding of the connection between economics and the environment has evolved. I had always appreciated how economics offers structured frameworks to analyze global challenges. However, I felt these models failed to consider social and ecological aspects of environmental issues. As a Management student minoring in economics, this course has really helped me in seeing the value in economic insights, while also acknowledging the limitations of these models in addressing real world challenges.
One of the moments that stood out to me was learning about global agreements in Chapter 21, specifically the Montreal Protocol. This treaty was designed to reduce the amount of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) produced. CFC is a chemical that depletes the ozone layer and has harmful effects on everyone in the world. Interestingly, there was a limited number of companies that were responsible for producing major amounts of these harmful chemicals, which were used to produce refrigerators and air conditioning. While certain low income countries received financial support to decrease CFC use, the lack of infrastructure and resources made implementation difficult. This shows the economic disparity between different countries in the world.
Moreover, as we examined economic tools like cost benefit analysis and incentive based regulations, I began to see the gaps and limitations in those tools. Cost benefit analyses provides a clear way to evaluate trade offs and evaluate solutions, however, it is hard to quantify non monetary factors such as the value of our ecosystem or the wellbeing of people. Similarly, incentive based regulations, such as pollution taxes and cap-and-trade systems, are effective to reduce environmental negative impact through new technological adoption for example. However, as we learned in Chapter 15, these models can create “hot spots”. This means that certain areas have a high concentration of pollution, usually in poor areas, which leads to inequalities in access to clean air and increases social and health inequalities. These “hot spots” highlight major limitations in incentive based regulations as they prioritize cost effectiveness over equity.
Our discussions on clean technologies in Chapter 17 were eye opening. Concepts like path dependence and the high initial costs of adopting cleaner technologies showed significant barriers that companies face in making those transitions. Moreover, some policies and government subsidies might still be in favor of old, polluting technologies, making it harder for companies to transition to cleaner ones. For example, in the US, subsidies for fossil fuel make it cheaper for businesses to continue using pollutant energy rather than investing in new renewable and clean alternatives. With Trump in power, I believe that we will see less focus on renewable energy development and more support for oil and coal sources. This will slow down the transition to clean technologies. Furthermore, this will impact global efforts to combat climate change and may also discourage clean technology innovation within the United States of America over the next 4 years.
As this is my final reflection for this course, I feel a sense of accomplishment. The knowledge that I have gained has not only deepened my understanding of the relationship between economics and the environment but also shaped how I will approach these challenges in my professional career. This has reinforced the idea that balancing economic efficiency with equity and sustainability considerations for future generations, aligns with my goals of becoming a consultant.
Lastly, I hope to work in a business that prioritizes sustainability, helping them develop strategies that will be beneficial for all stakeholders involved, not just the “big cats”. I believe this course has given me a range of tools to analyse real world issues through the lenses of sustainability and equity. And I am looking forward to entering the professional world, with the goal of creating innovative and sustainable solutions that will have a positive impact on people and the environment.
Prof: Thanks for sharing. Good for you for having the courage to pursue a career in consulting, and the desire to bring to that concerns about equity alongside things like efficiency. I've worked with consultants, but do enjoy the security of being a tenured professor. Best of luck!