People’s Attitudes on the Cost of Environmental Conservation
The issue of environmental conservation has become a critical global issue. This global concern is mainly due to the effects of global warming such as the melting of ice caps and glaciers and severe storms attracting the attention of many nations (Bulte et al., 2003). New policies and measures have been enacted and formulated to curb the issue of environmental conservation with the aspect becoming a critical aspect in economics. Environmental economics has become an important branch of specialization in economics. This increase in the importance of environmental economics is due to the increasing concern in behaviors that damage the environment and pollution. The primary concern of this branch is the economic efficiency that involves maximizing the citizen’s welfare in the society.
There has been increased encouragement of the society to be involved in environmental conservation. People have a negative attitude towards environmental conservation if it involves cost (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). However, people do not avoid environmental conservation due to cost. Instead, they adapt environmental behaviors that are least costly. People are ready to pay for the cost of environmental conservation due to the economic benefits obtained from the practice. Some of the initiatives that illustrate that people are ready to pay for the conservation of environment include such as the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) policy (Hilborn, 2013).
Recycling does work. According to Kollmuss and Agyeman (2002), people are concerned about recycling as an initiative of environmental conservation. Recycling is the most prevalent environmental conservation behavior. It helps in making waste products to reusable products. However, Moran (2013) explains that its ability to promote environmental conservation is limited due to flaws in the recycling process in most firms. The recycling process is often quick hindering the separation of various waste products resulting in the release of most of the waste products as trash. People do hug trees often on various occasions. However, this hugging is often for other reasons such as games rather than due to their love for the environment.
References
Bulte, E. H., Van Kooten, G. C., & Swanson, T. (2003, December). Economic incentives and wildlife conservation. In CITES Workshop on Economic Incentives and Trade Policy, Geneva, Switzerland (pp. 1-3).
Hilborn, R. (2013). Environmental cost of conservation victories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(23), 9187-9187.
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior?.Environmental education research, 8(3), 239-260.
Moran, B. (2013, July 14). Are big blue bins bad for recycling? A story of high hopes, human nature, and flawed green initiatives. Boston Globe. Retrived from https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/07/13/does-recycling-really-work/qo9I5UM6yXw4ouswmIdXFK/story.html
