Environmental Economics

How to handle invasive species?

I've written before about the solution to the invasive species problem--find/create value for the invader, then let human nature take over and the tragedy of the commons will eradicate the unwanted visitors. Or, you could just rely on completely insane people...

What would you do if you came across the longest Burmese python ever recorded in the state of Florida?

Ummmm..shit myself and call my mommy?

A Miami man had to answer that question recently and he decided to catch and kill it.

Like there was an alternative?  It's not like he couldn't just stay in his car and drive awa...what?  He could have?  The snake hadn't reared and blocked the path of all traffic?

Turns out, it was the longest Burmese python ever captured in Florida; it measured 18 feet, 8 inches.

Just for a frame of reference, if you stretch out an 18' 8" snake it would be the same size as...who am I kidding, who would be stupid enough to stretch out an 18 foot snake? 

The python was a 128-pound female that was not carrying eggs, according to University of Florida scientists who examined the snake.

Well of course she wasn't carrying any eggs, she doesn't have any arms.

The previous record length for a Burmese python captured in the wild in Florida was 17 feet, 7 inches.

Since the python is Burmese, will she be covered under the new immigration reform legislation?

On May 11th, Jason Leon was riding late at night in a rural area of southeast Miami-Dade County when he and his passenger spotted the python. About 3 feet of the snake was sticking out of the roadside brush.

Passenger: "Keep driving Jason.  Just keep driving.  You're not thinking about stopping are you?  Keep going! You're stopping?  You're stopping. Well, I'm just going to sit here.  Don't even think about calling me for for help if you start to pull that thing out of the brush and it wraps around your leg."

Leon stopped his car, grabbed the snake behind its head and started dragging it out of the brush. When the snake began to wrap itself around his leg, he called for assistance from others...

Passenger: "Really?"

...and then used a knife to kill the snake.

Rambo.

via miami.cbslocal.com

I like cashews, beets, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, chestnuts, watermelons, cucumber, fennel, macadamia, mangoes, apricots and almonds...but not strawberries. I'm OK with losing the strawberries.

The honey bees are dying—and we don’t really know why. That’s the conclusion of a massive Department of Agriculture report that came out late last week on colony collapse disorder (CCD), the catch-all term for the large-scale deaths of honey bee groups throughout the U.S. And given how important honey bees are to the food that we eat—bees help pollinate crops that are worth more than $200 billion a year—the fact that they are dying in large numbers, and we can’t say why, is very, very worrying.

...

The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a single smoking gun behind CCD. The USDA report points at a range of possible causes, including:

• A parasitic mite called Varroa destructor that has often been found in decimated colonies.
• Several viruses
• A bacterial disease called European foulbrood that is increasingly being detected in U.S. bee colonies
• The use of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, a neuro-active chemical

... As Brad Plumer pointed out over at the Washington Post, it’s not that the E.U. necessarily has more evidence about the role that the chemicals might be playing in CCD. This is a classic case of policymaking by the precautionary principle. The pesticides are considered guilty until proven innocent, and so they’re preventively banned, even before the scientific case is rock solid. That’s not unusual for European environmental regulation, especially in regards to chemicals. In the U.S.it’s the reverse—before the federal government is likely to take the step of banning a class of pesticides, and pissing off the multi-billion dollar chemical industry, you’re likely to see a lot more science done.

So what we may get in Europe and the U.S. is a de facto field test of the real impact of neonicotinoids on CCD. In two years, if American bees are still dying and their European cousins are thriving, we might just have our answers. And if not, well, I hope you don’t like cashews, beets, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, chestnuts, watermelons, cucumber, fennel, strawberries, macadamia, mangoes, apricots, almonds or any of the other dozens of food crops pollinated by our hard-working, six-legged, unpaid farm workers.

via science.time.com

I think NC-20 is trolling the Colbert Report

I'm not saying that critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles is a great idea, but NC-20 is the bunch that wants to forecast sea level rise with the linear historical trend:

NC-20 is strongly opposing the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s proposed designation of 740 miles of coastline in six states as critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles.

The 740 miles includes 96 miles of North Carolina coastline and the entire shoreline of Bogue Banks in Carteret County. ...

NC-20 contends the designation would adversely affect coastal projects, result in more regulatory hurdles for federal coastal projects and that USF&WS failed to include an economic analysis at the time of its proposal, as required in the Endangered Species Act. ...

... USF&WS ... agency spokesman Chuck Underwood ... said a decision in the matter likely would come in a year to 18 months. As part of the process, a draft analysis of the proposal’s economic impact is required, he noted.

via www.wdnweb.com

On the other hand, I'm in agreement with NC-20 that the economic analysis should be conducted. 

John vs the field

In honor of the Kentucky Derby and one of John's favorite pasttimes (indie bands) here's a quiz to see if you can identify whether each entry in a horse or an indie band.  Post your results in the comment section.  I got 13.

 

Picture of the day

Florida Gulf Coast is Env-Econ's kind of school

Southwest Florida and the FGCU campus contain beautiful environments where people can be closer to the natural world and the wildlife within it. Our campus is located on 760 acres with over 400 acres of carefully restored and preserved wetlands and uplands that are home to a variety of wildlife - some of which are listed by state and federal agencies as Endangered, Threatened, or Species of Special Concern.

via www.fgcu.edu

That and they have a frickin' beach.

 

Defining value: One giant panda at a time

Some insights into values as defined by panda preservation:

Who wouldn’t want to fly across the world and spend a week with giant pandas? They are undeniably cute.

...

Well, I'm assuming a lot of people, since not many people actually do fly across the world to spend a week with giant pandas.  That's the p[oint of revealed preferences.  Actions reveal preferences.  Now I know what you are thinking: I would go if I could afford it!  But that's really the point of understanding economics--you can't afford everything, otherwise everything would be free.  So you make decisions based on your preferences and your constraints: budget and time.  The trade-offs you make among those things you want reveal the relative value you place on those things. 

Can we blame this on ethanol too?

Pheasant economics (NY Times):

The pheasant, once king of Iowa’s nearly half-a-billion-dollar hunting industry, is vanishing from the state. Surveys show that the population in 2012 was the second lowest on record, 81 percent below the average over the past four decades.

The loss, pheasant hunters say, is both economic and cultural. It stems from several years of excessively damp weather and animal predators. But the factor inciting the most emotion is the loss of wildlife habitat as landowners increasingly chop down their brushy fields to plant crops to take advantage of rising commodity prices and farmland values.

Over the last two decades, Iowa has lost more than 1.6 million acres of habitat suitable for pheasants and other small game, the equivalent of a nine-mile-wide strip of land stretching practically the width of the state. And these declines have been occurring nationwide.

The overall amount of land enrolled in the Agriculture Department’s Conservation Reserve Program has dipped to 29.5 million acres from a peak of 36.7 million in 2007. Under the program, the government pays owners a certain rate to plant parts of their land with grass and other vegetation that create a wildlife habitat. Land in the program is most suitable for pheasants and other upland game, and owners often make it available for hunting. But as the price of corn and other crops has risen, so have land values, and the rates paid by the government under the program have been unable to keep up.

Each of the top seven pheasant hunting states have seen sizable reductions in the number of pheasants shot and the number of pheasant hunters over the last five years, according to data provided by Pheasants Forever, a group advocating for the expansion of wildlife habitat and land for public hunting. Last year, there were more than 1.4 million pheasant hunters nationally, a drop of about 800,000 in two decades. ...

Federal wildlife officials say the money that sportsmen and -women pump into the local communities is vital. More than $33.7 billion was spent on hunting in 2011, including $2.5 billion on small game, which includes pheasants.

This is an interesting issue, what is the effect of energy policies on wildlife resources and and the benefits of hunting? I'm sure someone could turn that into a paper or two.

But the last paragraph is irksome. Imagine small game hunting goes away and $2.5 billion in spending goes with it. Where does the spending go? Hunters don't burn their money. They'll find substitute activities and spend the money on that. There is real hardship in economic sectors that lose the spending but this is offset by happiness in sectors where the spending increases. The net effect is roughly zero. The real economic losses are to the hunters who don't like the subsitute activities as much as small game hunting. These are consumer surplus losses, not economic impacts. 

Subsidies for marine mammals

The Sports Economist is going to have a hissy fit:

... the Dolphins and owner Stephen Ross made it official today—they want to make $400 million worth of renovations to Sun Life Stadium, and they want state and local governments to pay for some, possibly most of it.

Sun Life is old and Roger Goodell says it needs work if it wants to host Super Bowls and the Dolphins own the stadium, so they're not tied down by a lease if they want to move to Los Angeles or London. There are lots of good reasons to fix the place up, put a canopy roof on it, rearrange the seating. Are those reasons good enough for Miami and Miami-Dade County to chip in while still paying for Marlins Park for the next 36 years?

... Preliminary reports indicate the Dolphins will ask the county to raise hotel taxes by one percent, bringing in an extra $10 million a year. That burden would fall on tourists rather than locals, so it's a lot more palatable for local politicians to bring to a vote.

But there's the matter of the sales tax rebate. The Dolphins already receive an annual $2 million sales tax refund from Florida, as part of a statewide subsidy for professional sports teams. The Herald reports that they plan to ask the state to double that subsidy, so the Dolphins would get $4 million a year from a general fund that Florida uses to pay teachers, police, etc. That's the kind of thing that could run afoul of once-bitten voters who have repeatedly indicated they don't want to devote any more public funding to local sports teams. But South Floridians should just send their eyes north, to where New York and Erie County will pay for 84 percent of stadium renovations for the Bills, and realize a few million a year may not be the worst deal in the world.

via deadspin.com

The research shows that sports teams don't have a positive economic impact, ergo, stadium subsidies are a transfer from the taxpayer to the rich person who owns the team. 

Using the Tragedy of the Commons to the benefit of society

In a different context (Asian Carp), I have advocated for taking advantage of the Tragedy of the Commons to eliminate invasive species.  The principle is simple:  Given the proper incentives and open access, anglers/hunters/gatherers will overfish/overhunt/strip a common property resource into non-existence.  Looks like the State of Florida may be figuring this out:

Nearly 800 people signed up for the month-long “Python Challenge” that started Saturday afternoon. The vast majority — 749 — are members of the general public who lack the permits usually required to harvest pythons on public lands.

“We feel like anybody can get out in the Everglades and figure out how to try and find these things,” said Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “It’s very safe, getting out in the Everglades. People do it all the time.”

Twenty-eight python permit holders also joined the hunt at several locations in the Everglades. The state is offering cash prizes to whoever brings in the longest python and whoever bags the most pythons by the time the competition ends at midnight Feb. 10.

via www.washingtonpost.com

This is awesome.  Using the power of incentives and the willingness to the many to take advantage of what would regularly be viewed as a market failure may in fact solve a different inefficient allocation of ecological resources.  An odd case of the theory of second best?