1. Global warming Increasing average air and ocean temperatures.

Used in reference to the trend

that began in the mid-twentieth century and attributed largely to human industrial, forestry,
and agricultural activities emitting greenhouse gases.

2. Climate change Nontransient altering of underlying climate, such as increased average

temperature, decreased annual precipitation, or greater average intensity of droughts or
storms. Used in reference to the impact of the global warming phenomenon. Note the
distinction between changes in weather (which varies within a climate) and changes in climate
that alter underlying probabilities of weather outcomes.

3. Environmental accounting The incorporation of environmental benefits and costs into the
quantitative analysis of economic activities.

4. Environmental capital The portion of a country’s overall capital assets that directly relate to the
environment—for example, forests, soil quality, and ground water.

5. Sustainable development A pattern of development that permits future generations to live at

least as well as the current generation, generally requiring at least a minimum environmental
protection

6. Sustainable net national income (NNI*) An environmental accounting measure of the total
annual income that can be consumed without diminishing the overall capital assets of a nation
(including environmental capital).

7. Environmental Kuznets curve A graph reflecting the concept that pollution and other
environmental degradation first rises and then falls with increases in income per capita. There is
evidence that this holds for some pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and particulate matter in the
air, but not for others, such as emissions of greenhouse gases.
8. Biomass fuels Any combustible organic matter that may be used as fuel, such as firewood, dung,
or agricultural residues.

9. Desertification The transformation of a region into dry, barren land with little or no capacity to
sustain life without an artificial source of water.

10. Soil erosion Loss of valuable topsoils resulting from overuse of farmland, and deforestation and
consequent flooding of farmland.

11. Deforestation The clearing of forested land either for agricultural purposes or for logging and for
use as firewood

12. Total net benefit The sum of net benefits to all consumers.

13. Marginal cost The addition to total cost incurred by the producer as a result of increasing output
by one more unit.

14. Producer surplus Excess of what a producer of a good receives and the minimum amount the
producer would be willing to accept because of a positive-sloping marginal cost curve.

15. Consumer surplus Excess utility over price derived by consumers because of a negative-sloping
demand curve.

16. Scarcity rent The premium or additional rent charged for the use of a resource or good that is in
fixed or limited supply

17. Present value The discounted value at the present time of a sum of money to be received in the
future.
18. Marginal net benefit The benefit derived from the last unit of a good minus its cost.

19. Property rights The acknowledged right to use and benefit from a tangible (e.g., land) or
intangible (e.g., intellectual) entity that may include owning, using, deriving income from,
selling, and disposing

20. Universality—all resources are privately owned.

21. Exclusivity or “excludability”—it must be possible to prevent others from benefiting from a
privately owned resource.

22. Transferability—the owner of a resource may sell the resource when desired.

23. Enforceability—the intended market distribution of the benefits from resources must be
enforceable

24. Common property resource A resource that is collectively or publicly owned and allocated under
a system of unrestricted access, or as self-regulated by users.

25. Externality Any benefit or cost borne by an individual economic unit that is a direct consequence
of another’s behavior.

26. Internalization The process whereby external environmental or other costs are borne by the
producers or consumers who generate them, usually through the imposition of pollution or
consumption taxes.

27. Public good An entity that provides benefits to all individuals simultaneously and whose
enjoyment by one person in no way diminishes that of another.
28. Public bad An entity that imposes costs on groups of individuals simultaneously. Compare with
public good.

29. Free-rider problem The situation in which people can secure benefits that someone else pays
for.

30. Clean technologies Technologies that by design produce less pollution and waste and use
resources more efficiently

31. Private costs The direct monetary outlays or costs of an individual economic unit.

32. Pollution tax A tax levied on the quantity of pollutants released into the physical environment.

33. Social cost The full cost of an economic decision, whether private or public, to society as a
whole.
34. Absorptive capacity The capacity of an ecosystem to assimilate potential pollutant.

35. Greenhouse gases Gases that trap heat within the earth’s atmosphere and can thus contribute
to global warming.

36. Biodiversity The variety of life forms within an ecosystem

37. Global public good A public good, whose benefits reach across national borders and population
groups
38. Debt-for-nature swap The exchange of foreign debt held by an organization for a larger quantity
of domestic debt that is used to finance the preservation of a natural resource or environment
in the debtor country

39. Clearly defined boundaries. The boundaries of the resource system (e.g., irrigation system or
fishery) and the individuals or households with rights to harvest resource units are clearly
defined.

40. Collective-choice arrangements. Many of the individuals affected by the harvesting and
protection rules are included in the group who can modify these rules.

41. Monitoring. Monitors, who actively audit biophysical conditions and user behavior, are at least
partially accountable to the users or are the users themselves.

42. Graduated sanctions. Users who violate rules are likely to receive graduated sanctions
(depending on the seriousness and context of the offense) from other users, from officials
accountable to these users, or from both.

43. Conflict resolution mechanisms. Users and their officials have rapid access to low-cost, local
arenas to resolve conflicts among users or between users and officials

44. Communal pooling involves joint ownership of assets and resources; sharing of wealth, labor, or
incomes from particular activities across households or mobilization and use of resources held
collectively dur - ing time of scarcity. Exchange can substitute for any of these four classes of
adaptation strategies

45. Autonomous adaptation increases the marginal benefit of planned adaptation and vice versa,
they are considered complements—for example, when farmers respond to increasing
temperature by planting new varieties and government research institutes develop new heat-
resistant seeds.

46. The resources are scarce and are rationed over time, scarcity rents may arise; these may obtain
even when the marginal cost of production is constant, as activities that have a revenue stream
and where there are clear assurances that benefits will not go to the rich while the burden of
repayment falls upon the poor.
47. In Latin America, warming was projected to cause further losses of Amazon forest and
biodiversity by midcentury, while agriculture will be harmed in drier areas. Finally, many small
islands are at risk because of sensitivity and vulnerability to ocean flooding, erosion, and loss of
freshwater, fishing, and tourism.

48. If autonomous adaptation increases the marginal benefit of planned adaptation and vice versa,
they are considered complements—for example, when farmers respond to increasing
temperature by planting new varieties and government research institutes develop new heat-
resistant seeds.

49. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)20 is the United Nations–sponsored
international scientific body analyzing climate change and its impacts.