We present a definition of increasing uncertainty, in which an elementary increase in the uncertainty of any act corresponds to the addition of an `elementary bet' that increases consumption by a fixed amount in (relatively) `good' states and decreases consumption by a fixed (and possibly...

Much concern about the negative environmental consequences of agricultural development in Australia, including salinisation, waterlogging and algal blooms, has focused on the problems of the Murray–Darling Basin. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the environmental problems...

The present paper argues that the costs of climate change are primarily adjustment costs. The central result is that climate change will reduce welfare whenever it occurs more rapidly than the rate at which capital stocks (interpreted broadly to include natural resource stocks) would naturally...

People are part of a complex natural system and have the ability to actively interfere with their environment. Collective decisions made by governments represent social rules that limit the extent of people's interference with the environment that support them. Environmental decisions made by...

The discounting of future benefits has long been one of the most controversial, and in many ways, unsatisfactory, aspects of benefit -cost analysis. This concern has been heightened by the rise of the environmental movement and, particularly by the debate over sustainable development. The...

Human activity has modified the environment at all scales from the smallest ecosystems to the global climate systems. In the analysis of the Murray-Darling Basin, it is necessary to take account of effects of human activity ranging from local changes in water tables and soil structure through...

Effective climate policy requires global emissions of greenhouse gases to be cut substantially, which in energy sectors can be achieved by lower emissions supply technologies, greater energy use efficiency, and substitution in demand. For policy to be efficient requires fairly uniform, pervasive...

Large scale forest plantations in the Murray-Darling Basin may be embraced as a carbon sequestration mechanism under a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. However, increased tree plantation will be associated with reduced inflows to river systems because of increased transpiration, interception...

The discounting of future benefits has long been one of the most controversial, and in many ways, unsatisfactory, aspects of benefit -cost analysis. This concern has been heightened by the rise of the environmental movement and, particularly by the debate over sustainable development. The...