Natural Resources and Environmental Restrictions to Growth
| Autor: | Edward S. Mason |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1978 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Challenge. 20:14-21 |
| ISSN: | 1558-1489 0577-5132 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/05775132.1978.11470373 |
| Popis: | Natural resources management puts economic growth and environmental protection in conflict and demands choices that can maintain a reasonable balance. Experiences from World War II showed that labor, substitute materials, and added costs could offset materials scarcity. The post-war Paley Commission Report recommended securing adequate supplies of production materials on the basis of real costs as the constraint and foresaw a downward trend, one which resulted instead in accelerated growth. The report also noted an increased dependence on imports, but gave no consideration to the environment. The conservation movement, which began in the 1890s, was based on political rather than economic considerations. The cost of protecting the environment at the expense of the gross national product has only recently been addressed and recognized as the basic natural resource problem. Although industrial materials are not scarce, the real cost of energy will be a factor in the production and reuse of materials. In spite of regional scarcities of water and materials, the national attention should be directed toward developing new political and economic analyses of public goods and externalities. (DCK) |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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