Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper attempts to formalize a theory of ecological rent applicable to human social evolution. Ecological rent, here defined as gain achieved through the importation of “clean” goods and resources produced using ecologically-degrading processes in distant locations ecologically. Ecological rent-seeking, undertaken by a more powerful society against a weaker one, has been taking place throughout much of human history, but the opportunities and effects have expanded for rent-seeking by states with the globalization of trade and the intensity of capitalist accumulation in the modern world system. Building on the work of Andre Gunder Frank, Christopher Chase-Dunn, and others, I formalize a theory that explains ecological degradation within human social evolution in general and ecological rent in particular. The theory suggests, agreeing with Marxist ecology, that the global ecological depletion and pollution that is an outcome of capitalist accumulation is a contradiction creating selection pressures for reaching a sustainable level; the failure to do so will lead to conflict and ultimately a major collapse of human society. The formal theory, then, can be useful for understanding the past with an eye toward predicting the future ramifications of paths taken in the present.

Publication Type: Presentation Proposal
Abstract: This presentation will explore today's green business best practices and explain why they inherently cannot result in ecologically sustainable businesses. It will introduce the concept of business ecology, a place-based approach that may represent the future of green business.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In ecological inference involving estimating levels of racial bloc voting (RBV) it is often the case that data is missing (at the precinct level) on the racial composition of the electorate, but data is available (at the precinct level) on surrogate variables such as Spanish surname registration the racial proportions among the total population or among the voting age population. It has been a topic of concern for several decade how to adjust ecological techniques to compensate for such systematic measurement errors in the independent variable (see, e.g., discussion in Kousser, 1973; Grofman, Migalski, and Noviello, 1985; Grofman and Migalski, 1988; Loewen and Grofman, 1989). The availability of a computer program to implement King's (1997) ecological inference method has sparked a renaissance of ecological studies, especially in political science, leading to a renewed interest in this adjustment question (see esp. King, 1997: 71-72; Cho, King and Cain, 2002; Zax, 2002). After first reviewing the basic Goodman (1953, 1959) and King (1997) single equation techniques, we introduce different two equation methods which might be used to cope with the problem of measurement error in the independent variable. For the two single-equation methods and the first four of the double equation methods, we use simulations to evaluate the magnitude of the problem caused for reliable ecological inference of patterns of racial bloc voting when we have systematic and substantial measurement error in the independent variable. Here we show that, for our very simplified hypothetical data, all double equation approaches outperform both the single-equation techniques, and are essentially identical in their results.

To further assess methods and compare resulting estimates of racial bloc voting parameters, we apply both the single-equation techniques and two of the double equation ecological techniques to estimate Latino and non-Latino turnout and bloc voting patterns in recent elections in California involving both Hispanic and non-Hispanic candidates -- using Spanish surname registration as our surrogate for the Latino composition of the actual electorate. In the elections we study, we find: (a) in estimating Latino and non-Latino levels of turnout, basic single-equation bivariate ecological inference and single-equation bivariate ecological regression produce essentially identical results; and (b) in estimating levels of racial bloc voting, double-equation bivariate ecological inference a la King and double equation bivariate ecological regression a la Goodman produce essentially identical results. Also, in the first two real world elections we report on, because reliable inferences about voting in the City of Los Angeles can be made-- either from Spanish surname sign-in data, in the case of precinct-specific estimates of turnout; or from exit poll data, in the case of specification of bloc voting patterns at the aggregate leve -- we can directly test the accuracy of ecological techniques in reproducing the parameters for behavior at the individual level. For these elections, we find: (c) that either of the double equation approaches yields estimats of levels of racial bloc voting that are more accurate than those from either of the single-equation techniques; and (d) that the double equation estimates correspond to a quite reasonable degree with the exit poll estimates of the true racial bloc voting parameters.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Ecological Debt, Ecological Credit: A North-South Divide?This paper adopts an ?ecological political economy? approach to examine construction of global North as an ecological debtor and global South as an ecological creditor. Prevailing scholarship understands ecological debt as ecological damage caused over time, to ?other? ecosystems, places and peoples through production and consumption patterns. A global coloniality perspective asserts that that global South, given the exploitation of its peoples, places and resources throughout the history of a global economy, is an ecological creditor as opposed to being in financial debt to global North. We engage scholarship on global coloniality to re-examine questions of extraction, production, waste, distancing, and consumption as they are related to issues of race, class, gender in the construction of a North-South divide. The paper examines the extractive industries operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo to understand issues of ecological debt and ecological credit.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Building on structuralist perspectives of the world economy, a few authors have expanded the idea of unequal exchange into the area of the unequal distribution of both “goods” and “bads” between the world’s rich and poor nations. The ideas have been verified by a few dedicated researchers documenting that energy and materials disproportionately flow from the global “South” to the “North.” Since extraction of resources and energy are some of the most damaging stages of the chain of commodity production, a logical next step is the mounting cry from the South that they are owed an “ecological debt” by the North. The idea has gained wide approval, in part for negotiating reasons for the highly indebted countries and the G77. Now a movement for “climate justice” has spread and is gaining weight in international negotiating for a such as the UNFCCC meetings in Delhi and Bali. This paper reviews some of the history of these three ideas, and discusses their potential to reshape the discussion of “burden sharing” in the post-Kyoto world where development is constrained by climate change.