full spectrum of animal and plant genetic material. Although a nation can protect biodiversity within its own

borders, no nation acting alone can protect biodiversity around the world. Global warming and biodiversity are

examples of international externalities.

Bringing the nations of the world together to address environmental issues requires a difficult set of

negotiations between countries with different income levels and different sets of priorities. If nations such as

China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and others are developing their economies by burning vast amounts of fossil fuels

or by stripping their forest and wildlife habitats, then the world’s high-income countries acting alone will not
294 12 • Environmental Protection and Negative Externalities

be able to reduce greenhouse gases. However, low-income countries, with some understandable exasperation,

point out that high-income countries do not have much moral standing to lecture them on the necessities of
{"title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "file_type": ".pdf", "upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:24:38.309401", "creator": "PDFMiner", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "batch_upload": true, "file_size_mb": 26.99, "total_pages": 597, "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf"}