Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Human-made capital
Natural capital
Revenues from growth
could be used to preserve nature
Present time
(a)
Human-made capital
Natural capital
Possible recovery
after crash
Present time
(b)
Human-made capital
Natural capital
Range of
uncertainty
about
possibilities
for qualitative
improvements
Present time
(c)
Figure 18.2
Summary of different schematic models of economic and environmental interaction. (a) 'The economic optimist';
(b) 'the environmental pessimist'; (c) 'the ecological economic vision'. Source: Cantor and Yohe (1998).
from game theory, illustrates a class of 'commitment
problems' that arise from the self-interest model (Morgan,
2007). In the prisoners' dilemma game each of two prison-
ers must decide whether to confess or remain silent about
their crime with the payoff for their action dependent on
the (unknown) action of the other (see Table 18.1). This
hypothetical situation is an illustration of how individu-
als can do better if they can commit to an action that is
not in their immediate narrow self-interest (confessing).
By exploring this and other examples that examine the
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