Utilitarismos ou equidade? Dilemas éticos na política social e ambiental

Resumen

UTILITARIANISM OR EQUITY? DILEMMAS FOR ENVIRONMENT AND LAND USE. The aim of this note is to stimulate discussion as to the criteria behind land use planning and the distribution of natural resources to achieve a sense of social well-being. When determining strategies on how to use these resources and other environmental services, considerations involving efficiency versus equity reveal value choices and contradictory opinions that we seek to question. Numerousexamples demonstrate that certain economic policy choices which affect environment and land planning are responsible for the emergence of predicaments known as the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ and the ‘tragedy of the commons’. ‘No free lunch’ belongs to a group of conservation laws that steers towards the painful awareness that traditional economic policy has still severe limitations.