ENV100H1 Lecture Notes - Contingent Valuation, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Psychology

• School: UTSG
• Department: School of Environment
• Course: ENV100H1
• Professor: Stephen Scharper

Document Summary

12) feb. 13 current actions: civil society the individual. However, respecting demographic factors, we do know origins of environmentalism were in cities in 19th c. not rural areas; and that higher levels of education correlate with higher levels of concern for environment. Contingent valuation surveys are used for some policy purposes to determine public support for different options; eg, an australian survey found citizens would pay a year to prevent impacts from mining in a national park. As the reading shows, the methodology is difficult. This also raises the issue of putting a dollar value on what many people feel should not be subject to market exchange. The same problem exists with the concept of valuing ecosystem services. Will an estimate like that influence human attitudes toward environment? ie, will humans value it more because a dollar value has been put on it: assessing environmental quality.