Resource use can potentially result in long-term costs, and how we view these costs can determine how much emphasis we put on conservation and other alternative courses of action. This article distinguishes between two views, and considers each in the context of a utilitarian framework (the classical and neoclassical versions). The first, a global approach, discounts future costs, thus assigning weights to present and future costs. A positive discount rate implies that future costs count less than present costs. The second view argues that if costs are potentially large and very long-term, the resource base should be preserved intact. Notions of justice between generations are central to this view; it is referred to as the specialized approach.
