平静的水面
Economics Professor 马克Eiswerth seeks solutions to complex — and sometimes contentious — environmental 通过考虑人的价值和动机来解决问题.
皇冠app官方版下载环境经济学教授马克Eiswerth博士.D.是第四代 Coloradan from a family that includes loggers and ranch cowboys (his grandfather was 西方最早的地球物理学家之一). 作为一名经济学家和UNC的联合主任 Environmental and 可持续性 Studies program, he’s acutely aware of how different values and interests affect quality of life and drive the economy.
Questions raised by the topic of environmental economics, which Eiswerth defines as “the study of how environmental resources are — and should be — allocated among competing “要求”使他在课堂上进行积极的讨论. Eiswerth提出了环境问题 conundrums and then gives his students free rein to dissect, discuss, explore and 讨论各种选择.
“我们在科罗拉多州谈论水. 我们看预测. 我们来看一些 做出决定，”艾斯沃思说.
Concerns about water use and conservation in a state that averages 15.5英寸 rain a year are complicated by those environmental economics — competing demands between farmers and city dwellers, industrial users and recreationists. 它不走了 变得更简单. The 科罗拉多州 Water Conservation Board predicts there will be a 20-percent shortfall by 2050 when the state’s population is expected to reach 10 million.
作为水资源经济学家，Eiswerth感到震惊? 表面上不.
当然，他关心的是未来. 但经过近四十年的研究， he’s still upbeat, open-minded and confident about the next generation’s problem-solving abilities — and he gives his students opportunities to practice.
“I try to teach them a little bit about how to facilitate a discussion among people 利益冲突，”他说. “我说，‘上帝保佑，你们会成功的 around a lot longer than I am, so I want you to be able to do these things after I 不能.’ ”
“It’s important to learn how to be a citizen — or to be a stakeholder — that’s the 最重要的是，因为每个人都喝水. 每个人都吃东西. 每个人都需要 淋浴.”
Eiswerth’s doctoral 研究 involved pollution impacts and pollution management decision-making.
He looked at how to mitigate damages when, for instance, deciding between dumping 填埋或焚烧的垃圾. 两者都不理想. 那么你该如何选择呢? It 他说，这可能不是一个严格意义上的货币决策. 这也与环境价值有关 而且伤害最小.
In the 30 years since, Eiswerth has studied problems coast to coast, applying his analytical skills across issues from water pollution to habitat. 这是一个经济问题 他说，这是所有可能的问题的组成部分.
可持续性 experts grapple with big issues like how to cost-effectively secure, 保护和分配资源. 但次要影响，艾斯沃斯称之为“外部性”。 每当我们生产或消费商品和服务时都会发生. 一个外部性是廉价的， plentiful city water might be that homeowners overwater their lawns. 这是浪费, of course, but it also could cause soil erosion or allow for pesticides and street pollution to enter waterways, degrading water quality for those downstream.
Eiswerth studies what economists call “payments for ecosystem services.“金融 incentives, such as payments for water-based ecosystem services (PWES), could be the carrots that motivate farmers, who control 80 percent of the state’s water, to put in buffer strips around their fields to reduce runoff, or to limit pesticide applications, allowing them to return a higher quality of water to the stream.
Eiswerth points out that one positive externality of getting even a single producer on board might be that neighboring farmers become interested, too. 这就是开始 发生. Worldwide, there are more than 400 such PWES programs in play, with several 美国的试点项目.S.包括科罗拉多州.
From a commodity perspective, water is interesting because its value depends on how 它是如何获得的以及如何使用的. 城市、城镇和开发商都在购买土地 irrigation rights, then converting the water to municipal use. 然后设置公用事业 the price of water for residents, with some regulatory oversight.
“这不是一个自由市场体系，”Eiswerth解释道. “这更像是一种受监管的垄断， so the price isn’t determined fully by the laws of supply and demand.”
Admittedly, water law in 科罗拉多州 is simple in theory and complex in practice. 科罗拉多州 law specifies that once water is diverted away from agriculture, it can no longer 用来种庄稼. 从本质上讲，农田干涸了——即使在潮湿的年份 a city might have surplus water that it could lease back to farmers.
And the oil and gas industry has its own set of environmental and economic concerns 皇冠app安卓下载安装水力压裂作业中使用的水. 水通过注入处理掉了 deep into wells since chemical additives make it unusable for other purposes.
“Something I ask my students when we talk about water law is, ‘Do you think it should 被改变?’ People are really split about this, and it’s a hard thing to answer because 太复杂了. There are a lot of barriers to changing laws,” Eiswerth says.
“In the West, we have been working to develop various markets for water in order to 允许转让和租赁.”
What intrigues Eiswerth is how future economists will tackle such problems. 他是热情的 about his field and the opportunities it presents to future graduates.
“There’s a need for people who are trained to think about these issues — and who want 去思考这些问题——跨越时空. 你可以去华盛顿， D.C., or you can stay right here and use [economics] in government, business, nonprofit,” 他说.
With a bevy of students each semester to challenge him, he wholeheartedly believes 在下一代.
“My job is to figure out interesting ways to elicit other people’s values and preferences,” 他说. “我们都知道什么是最重要的. 我不能在课堂上偏心. I’m happy if students go through class not sure exactly where I stand.”
It’s relaxed and respectful dialogue that allows people to see things in new ways. 它打开了视角转变的大门.
“我并不是真的想改变人们的想法，”他说. “我只是想提供方便 the process of discussion, discovery, and making wise collaborative decisions.”
贝齐·林奇
