Environmental Economics

The effects of recession on outdoor recreation

Subsistence hunting and fishing is an inferior good:

There’s definitely an interesting socioeconomic analysis to be done on the ways in which certain activities that were once deadly earnest attempts to gather food came, in an era of relative caloric abundance, to be luxury pastimes instead. But I’m hard-pressed to explain how Snuffy and Lukey, who never had any kind of job when times were flush, have had their lives affected by extra-Holler financial crises. Perhaps there’s less demand for chickens, Hootin’ Holler’s sole export, which means there are fewer chickens for the two old rascals to steal? More likely, “th’ economic downturn” refers not to anything that would affect us flatlanders, but rather to some apocalyptic event that severed the last tenuous economic tendril connecting Hootin’ Holler to the outside world, leaving its isolated residents with no option but to turn back to the forests and streams for sustenance. This crisis presumably happened decades ago, and so what we’re seeing here is a prequel strip showing the genesis of the Snuffy Smithiverse as we’ve come to know it.

via joshreads.com

Flatlanders don't unnerstand.

Black (bear) markets

The Comics Curmugeon:

Gosh, what are our sheep-killing, camera-stealing, Rusty-menacing doofuses up to now? Just a little light illegal organ harvesting, that’s all! Say, what do you suppose those “other parts” the dark-haired fellow is referring to might be? (SPOILER: Probably aphrodisiacal bear penis.) I also like the way this fellow carefully explains to his friend why his bear-bagging idea is so potentially lucrative. You’d think he’d already know this, but maybe not? “Black market? I … I thought we would just go out and hunt for the sport of it. You know, you and me, in the wilderness, testing ourselves against nature, really getting to know each other … God, I feel like such a fool.”

Someone told me that if you follow the second link you'll learn that a "fortune" is no more than $5000:

A bear gall bladder can fetch up to $5,000 on the black market ... where at least some people believe it contains medicinal qualities.

Project Mayhem

As employment stagnates, manufacturing continues its slump, and overall confidence in the U.S. financial system wavers, the nation's economists have begun abandoning their homes and sending their loved ones overseas. "We've noticed a trend among the leading economic thinkers, be they Keynsians, supply-siders, or students of the Austrian school—they're putting their families on one-way flights out of the country, often leaving half-finished survival bunkers behind them," Paul Klement, an analyst with the Brookings Institute, told reporters Tuesday. "The flights aren't on domestic carriers, either. I think they saw something in that last transportation industry report that really spooked them." At press time, none of the nation's economists could be reached for comment.

via www.theonion.com

The AEA's evacuation order suggested that we regroup on a secret oyster shell barter island in the south Pacific (and proceed to argue over minutiae whilst getting rich and destroying the simplest of barter economies).

"You can't put a price on a Truffula tree" ???

From the inbox:

Hello!  Thought you might enjoy CollegeHumor Original animation, “The Conservative Lorax,” a satirical take on how the story of The Lorax might be presented by those who are not so environmentally friendly...Say, on something like the “Fox Seuss Network.”  Here’s a link to check out what The Lorax could be like as a Wall Street suit: http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6804067/the-conservative-lorax

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

From the inbox:

I’m using your ... 2008 JES paper as a reference ..., and I came across a rather funny typo I thought I would share with you, just in case you want to keep track of these things.

It comes in the references cited (check out the very last word in the title). It gave me a bit of a chuckle, as I wondered what “quasi-public foods” might look like. Don’t you just love it when things like that sneak through?

Carson, R.T., Flores, N.E., Martin, K.M. and Wright, J.L. (1996) Contingent valuation and
revealed preference methodologies: comparing the estimates for quasi-public foods. Land Economics 72: 80–99.

 

A confession obtained by grizzly bear interrogation will definitely hold up in court

Mark Trail, 7/2/2012

Is that a little smile on Mark Trail's face?

Mark Trail, 6/27/12

You always hear that you are not supposed to climb a tree when a bear is chasing you (you are not supposed to run either, but somehow, Liz and Mike, after splitting up, have regrouped and found the same easily climbable dead tree). However, based on some Google, I've learned that black bears are great climbers but grizzlies, not so much. So maybe Liz and Mike are going to be OK (cupcake*). And we've also learned that Mike dropped the gun so that Mark Trail could shoot the bear.

*Note: My daughter asked me to write "cupcake" here.

I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun YOU

What not to do if you encounter a bear:

Mark Trail, June 27, 2012

From the USFS:

You can't outrun a bear. They have been clocked at speeds up to 35 mph, and like dogs, they will chase fleeing animals. Bears often make bluff charges, sometimes to within 10 feet of their adversary, without making contact. Continue waving your arms and talking to the bear. If the bear gets too close, raise your voice and be more aggressive. Bang pots and pans. Use noisemakers. Never imitate bear sounds or make a high-pitched squeal.

Today's poll: If you were hiding in a cave and someone from outside shot a gun at you, would you come out? or keep hiding?

Note: Mark Trail is hiding in that cave.

Let sleeping dogs lie

From the Comics Curmudgeon:

Mark Trail, 6/23/12

It actually makes me feel kind of bad for Mark Trail, because on most days his “Hmm, I’m being pursued by armed killers, let’s wake up this hibernating grizzly bear, that can only result in positive outcomes” plan would be the most deranged and hilarious thing on the comics page. But not today, my friend. Not today.

The comment doesn't totally make sense as it is out of context, the curmudgeon finds other strips more ridiculous. But this strip makes me almost want to start reading Mark Trail on a daily basis.

For those of you who might wail that this post is off-topic ... check out this classic grizzly bear economics article:

• DS Brookshire, LS Eubanks and A Randall, "Estimating option prices and existence values for wildlife resources," Land Economics, 1983 [JSTOR]

I read that paper n+1 times while working on my dissertation. Google Scholar finds 297 citations.