Chính sách môi trường, đưa ra quyết định, và Kinh tế Chương này cung cấp giới thiệu một số khái niệm cơ bản của chính sách môi trường. Nó trình bày một số nguyên tố, mặc dù độc lập, nguyên tắc thường gặp phải trong bối cảnh của chính sách môi trường. Vì lý do này, các chủ đề được trình bày như khái niệm tự trị riêng biệt, và đã có không có nỗ lực để thống nhất chúng thành một chủ đề tích hợp duy nhất. Nó được coi là bài giới thiệu này sẽ cho phép người đọc. | 13 Environmental Policy DecisionMaking and Economics This chapter provides an introduction to some fundamental concepts of environmental policy. It presents some elemental albeit stand-alone principles typically encountered in the context of environmental policy. For this reason these topics are presented as separate autonomous concepts and there has been no attempt to unify them into a single integrated theme. It is presumed that this introduction will allow the reader to appreciate some of the rudimentary issues commonly encountered and debated in the study of environmental policy. We begin this chapter with an investigation of environmental sustainability and whether there is a need to establish policies to slow the growth in human population. EASTER ISLAND AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS Easter Island which lies on a dusty speck of rock some 2000 miles off the west coast of South America is one of the most isolated yet still inhabited places on Earth. The first European to discover it was Admiral Roggeveen who landed on this island in 1722. When he and his crew began to explore the island they discovered a primitive society of about 3000 destitute individuals living in caves and reed huts. Instead of a lush tropical paradise Roggeveen found a nearly treeless island virtually denuded of vegetation. But even more perplexing were the 600 mysterious stone statues each averaging 20 ft. in height which sprawled across the landscape. The statues were a testament to the island s once thriving and relatively advanced society where human ingenuity had enabled the inhabitants to prosper for hundreds of years. But when Roggeveen arrived and explored the island it became clear that at some point in time the once harmonious relationship between the islanders and their natural environment had been seriously disrupted. Today Easter Island is one of the world s most famous archaeological sites. To many archaeologists the available evidence suggests that a small group of .
