Amazon deforestation is economically rational under existing incentives
Evidence
If you worked the courts right or put operations in the name of some low-level criminal, the benefit of the deforestation could outweigh any fines incurred. That is, given the real set of regulations and punishments within the Amazon, it is economically rational to cut it down. Indeed, the local political structures were often highly sympathetic to the deforestation economy, if not entirely dependent upon it. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 319
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Well-intentioned carbon credit incentives can be exploited to increase polluting production — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1527; Short-term profit incentives override distant and slowly accumulating environmental harms; Consumption resists change because it is profitable and shielded from environmental costs — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2986 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Short-term profit incentives override distant and slowly accumulating environmental harms
#corroborates(0.90) - Well-intentioned carbon credit incentives can be exploited to increase polluting production
#corroborates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1527 - Consumption resists change because it is profitable and shielded from environmental costs
#corroborates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2986 - Rational self-interest yields collectively disastrous resource depletion
#corroborates(0.85) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2498 - Delaying deforestation response until harm is local triggers runaway degradation
#qualifies(0.75)