NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Ecological economics

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of academic research that addresses the dynamic and spatial interdependence between human economies and natural ecosystems. Ecological economics brings together and connects different disciplines, within the natural and social sciences but especially between these broad areas. As the name suggests, the field is dominated by researchers with a background in economics and ecology. An important motivation for the emergence of ecological economics has been criticism on the assumptions and approaches of traditional (mainstream) environmental and resource economics. Ecological economics presents a more pluralistic approach to the study of environmental problems and policy solutions, characterized by systems perspectives, adequate physical and biological contexts, and a focus on long-term environmental sustainability. Ecological economics can be regarded as a version of environmental science with much emphasis on social, political, economic and behavioral issues. Its conceptual founders are regarded to be economists Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Kenneth Boulding and Herman Daly, ecologists C.S. Holling, H.T. Odum and Robert Costanza, and physicist Robert Ayres. Daly and Costanza were critical in the institutional founding of the field - resulting in the establishment of the academic journal Ecological Economics and the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). Another notable school of thought in ecological economics is the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics.^[1] A coral reef near the Hawaiian islands is an example of a complex marine ecosystem. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Environmental economics is a subfield of economics concerned with environmental issues (other usages of the term are not uncommon). ... The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ... Environmental science is the study of the interactions among the physical, chemical and biological components of the environment; with a focus on pollution and degradation of the environment related to human activities; and the impact on biodiversity and sustainability from local and global development. ... Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, born Nicolae Georgescu (ConstanÅ£a, Romania, 4 February 1906 â€“ Nashville, Tennessee, 30 October 1994) was a Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist. ... Kenneth Ewart Boulding (January 18, 1910 - March 18, 1993) was born in Liverpool, England, graduated from Oxford University, granted United States citizenship in 1948. ... Herman Daly is an ecological economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States. ... C.S. (Buzz) Holling is a Canadian ecologist. ... Howard Thomas Odum (1924-2002), commonly known as H.T. Odum or Tom Odum, was an eminent American ecosystem ecologist and a professor at the University of Florida. ... Dr. Robert Costanza(-[?]born Sept. ... Robert Underwood Ayres, American-born physicist and economist. ...

Concept

The objective of ecological economics (EE) is to ground economic thinking and practice in physical reality, especially in the laws of physics (particularly the laws of thermodynamics) and in knowledge of biological systems. It accepts as a goal the improvement of human wellbeing through economic development, and seeks to ensure achievement of this through planning for the sustainable development of ecosystems and societies. It distinguishes itself from neoclassical economics (NCE) primarily by its assertion that economics is a subfield of ecology, in that ecology deals with the energy and matter transactions of life and the Earth, and the human economy is by definition contained within this system. In contrast, NCE has historically assumed implicitly (and, more recently, explicitly) that the environment is a subset of the human economy. In this approach, if nature is valuable to our economies, that is because people will pay for its services such as clean air, clean water, encounters with wilderness, etc. It is largely this assertion which allows for NCE to claim theoretically that infinite economic growth is both possible and desirable. However, this belief disagrees with much of what the natural sciences have learned about the world, and, according to EE, completely ignores the contributions of natural capital to the creation of wealth. Natural capital can be considered the planetary endowment of scarce matter and energy, along with the complex and biologically diverse ecosystems that provide goods and ecosystem services directly to human communities: micro- and macro-climate regulation, water recycling, water purification, storm water regulation, waste absorption, pollination, protection from solar and cosmic radiation etc.^[2]^[3] The laws of thermodynamics, in principle, describe the specifics for the transport of heat and work in thermodynamic processes. ... Sustainable development is defined as balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. ... Neoclassical economics refers to a general approach (a metatheory) to economics based on supply and demand which depends on individuals (or any economic agent) operating rationally, each seeking to maximize their individual utility or profit by making choices based on available information. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ecosystem services are processes by which the natural environment produces resources useful to people. ...

While NCE deals with the efficient allocation of resources, it ignores two other fundamental economic problems which are central to ecological economics: distribution (equity) and the scale of the economy relative to the ecosystem upon which it is reliant.^[4] EE also makes a clear distinction between growth (quantitative) and development (qualitative improvement of the quality of life) while arguing that NCE confuses the two. EE challenges the common normative approach taken towards natural resources, claiming that it undervalues natural capital by displaying it as interchangeable with human capital--labor and technology. EE counters this convention by asserting that human capital is instead complementary to and dependent upon natural capital, as human capital inevitably derives from natural capital. From these premises, it follows that economic policy has a fiduciary responsibility to the greater ecological world, and that, by undervaluing the importance of natural capital, sustainable development (as opposed to growth)--which is the only solution to elevating the standard of living for citizens worldwide--will not result. Furthermore, ecological economists point out that, beyond modest levels, increased per-capita consumption (the economist's version of "standard of living") does not necessarily lead to improvements in human wellbeing, while this same consumption can have harmful effects on the environment and even on broader societal wellbeing. Equity is the concept or idea of fairness or justice in economics, particularly in terms of taxation and welfare economics. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ... Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing the skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. ... Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. ... The court of chancery, which governed fiduciary relations prior to the Judicature Acts The fiduciary duty is a legal relationship between two or more parties, most commonly a fiduciary or trustee and a principal or beneficiary, that in English common law is arguably the most important concept within the portion... The Standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these services and goods are distributed within a population. ... In economics, consumption refers to the final use of goods and services to provide utility. ...

It rejects the view of energy economics that growth in the energy supply is related directly to well being, focusing instead on biodiversity and creativity - or natural capital and individual capital, in the terminology sometimes adopted to describe these economically. In practice, ecological economics focuses primarily on the key issues of uneconomic growth and quality of life. Ecological economists are inclined to acknowledge that much of what is important in human well-being is not analyzable from a strictly economic standpoint and suggests an interdisciplinary approach combining social and natural sciences as a means to address this. A new start for the article is proposed under Energy economics/new. ... Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity is the variation of taxonomic life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth. ... Look up Creativity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Uneconomic growth, in welfare economics, human development theory and some forms of ecological economics, is economic growth which reflects or creates a decline in human well-being. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ...

A study was carried out by a number of leading ecological economists to determine the price of the services provided by the environment. This was determined by looking at the price to filter water and other such services provided by the environment. The total was determined to be 33 trillion dollars (in 1997 US dollars), more than twice the total GDP of the world at the time of the study.^[5] However, the study was criticized by both mainstream environmental economists - for being inconsistent with assumptions of monetary valuation - and ecological economists - for being inconsistent with an ecological economics focus on biological and physical indicators.^[6] Environmental economics is a subfield of economics concerned with environmental issues (other usages of the term are not uncommon). ...

History

The origination of ecological economics as a specific field per se is credited to ecologist and University of Vermont Professor Robert Costanza, who founded the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and carried out much of the founding research while at the University of Maryland. His University of Maryland colleague, Herman Daly, who was trained as a conventional economist but who had also studied ecology, was a co-founder and has been a major intellectual contributor to the field. Economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994) who was among Daly's teachers at Vanderbilt University, provided ecological economics with a conceptual framework based on the material and energy flows of economic production and consumption. His magnum opus The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971) has been highly influential.^[7] Nobel prize-winning chemist, Frederick Soddy (1877-1956), and economist Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993) are among other intellectual precursors. Furthermore, some key concepts of what is now ecological economics are evident in the writings of E.F. Schumacher, whose book Small is Beautiful - A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (1973) was published just a few years before the first edition of Daly's comprehensive and persuasive Steady-State Economics (1977).^[8]^[9] Ecological economics' intellectual ancestry may be traced in large part to political economy, a refinement of early economic theory that includes among its earlier researchers Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. Mill, in particular, by hypothesizing that the "stationary state" of an economy might be something that could be considered desirable, anticipated later insights of modern ecological economists, without having had their experience of the social and ecological costs of the dramatic post-World War II industrial expansion. CUNY geography professor David Harvey was one of the first to explicitly add ecological concerns to political economic literature. This parallel development in political economy has been continued by analysts such as sociologist John Bellamy Foster. Dr. Robert Costanza(-[?]born Sept. ... Herman Daly is an ecological economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States. ... Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, born Nicolae Georgescu (ConstanÅ£a, Romania, 4 February 1906 â€“ Nashville, Tennessee, 30 October 1994) was a Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist. ... Frederick Soddy in 1922. ... Kenneth Ewart Boulding (January 18, 1910 - March 18, 1993) was born in Liverpool, England, graduated from Oxford University, granted United States citizenship in 1948. ... Ernst Friedrich Fritz Schumacher (1911-1977) was an economist with a professional background as a statistician and economist in Britain. ... Robert Thomas Malthus, FRS (13th February, 1766 â€“ 29th December, 1834), usually known as Robert Malthus, although he preferred to be known as Thomas Malthus, was an English demographer and political economist. ... David Ricardo (18th April, 1772â€“11th September, 1823), a political economist, is often credited with systematizing economics, and was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith. ... John Stuart Mill (20th May 1806 â€“ 8th May 1873), a British philosopher and political economist, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. ... David Harvey can refer to: David Harvey, former Leeds United goalkeeper (soccer) David Harvey, Marxist geographer David Harvey, philosopher David Harvey, Grammy Award winning producer D.Q.Harvey, statistician and treasurer of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians David Harvey, television presenter and executive David Harvey, author of Monuments... The Politics series Politics Portal This box: Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... John Bellamy Foster is an editor of the Monthly Review, a prominent socialist magazine. ...

References

Contents

Concept

History

References

Further reading

External links

See also

Contents

Concept GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

History

References

Further reading

External links

See also

Concept