This thesis speculates on the relationship between adults’ perceptions of children and the types of environments adults have traditionally provided for children. Its examination includes the ramifications of human perceptions on the environment. This study places special emphasis upon those ramifications in regard to their effects on the environment’s ability to fulfill children’s developmental needs. The outcome of the study is the proposal of new attitudes and perceptions by which the environment could be more responsive to and respectful of children. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a better economic basis for the discussion on how much natural capital the current generation should be allowed to deplete. Chapter I uses overlapping-generations models to show the effects of different assumptions about which generation owns the stock of a natural resource on the distribution of intergenerational welfare. An increase in the share of the resource stock that is owned by the first generation, reduces welfare of later generations. If the first generation owns the full resource stock, intermediate generations have to be sufficiently wealthy to buy the resource from the first generation and sell it to later generations. This channelling effect can lead to a situation of resource abundance followed by rapidly increasing resource prices and scarcity. Chapter II show that the incompleteness of intergenerational insurance markets constitutes a market failure that leads to inefficient intergenerational investment decisions. Risks that increase from generation to generation would be under-insured by the current generation. Examples of excessive reduction of biodiversity, excessive natural resource depletion, and inefficiently low protection against global warming are provided. Chapter III analyzes the decision theoretical foundation of environmental choices under uncertainty. Since ambiguity and ignorance are important aspects of many environmental problems, subjective expected utility theory (SEU) has significant limitations as a normative decision making model. The use of SEU leads to a systematic bias against the conservation of natural capital. An alternative decision model is suggested based on the Dempster-Shafer belief-function theory and Choquet expected utility. The synthesis in chapter IV suggests that the costs of natural capital depletion are systematically underestimated in conventional analysis. To remedy the biases against future generations and the complete valuation of natural capital, a sustainability constraint on the economic activities of the current generation is proposed. This constraint requires compensation for natural capital depletion through functional substitutes. From this sustainability constraint, an operational sustainable supply rule is derived for determining shadow prices of natural capital depletion.

A new environmental immersion school has opened in Canada. This case study examines early stages of the project's implementation in order to contribute to an understanding of how best to implement environmental education in schools. / Examination of the literature on educational change led to an analytical framework which included: (1) Characteristics of the innovation; (2) Strategies and tactics used; (3) Contextual characteristics; (4) Macro sociopolitical factors. This was used to categorize qualitative data collected through interviews, observation, a questionnaire and documents. / The study uncovered a number of obstacles to implementation in the school, principally: (1) Conceptual problems about environmental education; (2) Poorly defined school philosophy and goals; (3) Difficulties in coordinating the project between individual efforts and departments; (4) A hiatus between administration and teacher perceptions. / The case study provided insight on the process of curriculum implementation as well as specific issues relating to environmental education and the theme of sustainable development.

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The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a better economic basis for the discussion on how much natural capital the current generation should be allowed to deplete. Chapter I uses overlapping-generations models to show the effects of different assumptions about which generation owns the stock of a natural resource on the distribution of intergenerational welfare. An increase in the share of the resource stock that is owned by the first generation, reduces welfare of later generations. If the first generation owns the full resource stock, intermediate generations have to be sufficiently wealthy to buy the resource from the first generation and sell it to later generations. This channelling effect can lead to a situation of resource abundance followed by rapidly increasing resource prices and scarcity. Chapter II show that the incompleteness of intergenerational insurance markets constitutes a market failure that leads to inefficient intergenerational investment decisions. Risks that increase from generation to generation would be under-insured by the current generation. Examples of excessive reduction of biodiversity, excessive natural resource depletion, and inefficiently low protection against global warming are provided. Chapter III analyzes the decision theoretical foundation of environmental choices under uncertainty. Since ambiguity and ignorance are important aspects of many environmental problems, subjective expected utility theory (SEU) has significant limitations as a normative decision making model. The use of SEU leads to a systematic bias against the conservation of natural capital. An alternative decision model is suggested based on the Dempster-Shafer belief-function theory and Choquet expected utility. The synthesis in chapter IV suggests that the costs of natural capital depletion are systematically underestimated in conventional analysis. To remedy the biases against future generations and the complete valuation of natural capital, a sustainability constraint on the economic activities of the current generation is proposed. This constraint requires compensation for natural capital depletion through functional substitutes. From this sustainability constraint, an operational sustainable supply rule is derived for determining shadow prices of natural capital depletion. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology), 2017 / Environmental history and anthropology are disciplines yet in their infancy in South Africa, and still leave many opportunities for further research. The global permaculture movement has emerged as one amongst an array of environmental movements in South Africa that seek alternatives to industrialised capitalist economics which have been identified by many observers as problematic and deleterious to both human and ecological ‘systems’. This research explores permaculture practice as an environmental social movement in the South African context, drawing on a wide array of theory including environmental anthropology, environmental history, social movements theory and ‘whiteness’ studies, amongst others. These bodies of theory have been used to analyse the research data drawn primarily from established anthropological methods of participant observation, narrative elicitation through deep and open-ended interviews and the observation of social and land use practices in particular detailed case studies. The research findings indicated that while permaculture ideology proposed an alternative utopian approach to human-ecological relationships associated with the trappings of neoliberal economic models for development and conservation, the actual practice of permaculture - communally-based resource management and the realisation of these ideals - while developing knowledge around localised sustainable land-use strategies, appeared to necessitate the regulation of social relations and resource access, alignment with the state’s environmental and land-use policies and were largely made possible by white privilege rooted in the country’s colonial and apartheid history. The research highlighted the need to recognise the social and historical specificity of permaculture ideology and practice within the South African context. / XL2018

The role of the environment in the development process is frequently framed as a one-way interaction, with humans decoupling from natural systems, and often damaging them in the process. When the environment is granted an influential role, it is often in establishing the initial conditions under which development will take place, for example, through natural resource endowments or climate factors. However, in some extreme environments, it may be responsible for not only the initial opportunities available in a society, but also for continuously shaping those opportunities through time. The field of Sustainable Development is fundamentally concerned with this two-way interaction between the environment and society, recognizing both as part of a coupled system. The chapters in this volume demonstrate some of the costs associated with development in an extreme environment using methods from climate science, ecology, remote sensing, and economics. By looking at places exposed to tropical cyclones, to persistent pollution resulting from fires that burn readily in a drought-prone location, to annual floods that frequently and randomly strike households in a country, we see that the environment critically shapes aspects of societies and their economic opportunities. By no means are all opportunities dictated by the environment. However, these chapters robustly illustrate that the environment imposes some critical boundaries on development in extreme environments and policies aiming to increase welfare must take account of the coupling of social and natural systems.

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