Ecological Economics, Second Edition: Principles and Applications

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Scheidel, A., Temper, L., Demaria, F., & Martinez-Alier, J. (2018). Ecological Distribution Conflicts as Forces for Sustainability: An Overview and Conceptual Framework. Sustainability Science, 13, 585–598.

O’Hara, S. (1999). Economics, Ecology and Quality of Life: Who Evaluates? Feminist Economics, 5(2), 83–89. More fundamentally, neoclassical economics, even with an environmental branch, fosters the endless growth in population and economic activity on a finite planet. Yet, at one conceptual level, environmental impact is driven by population multiplied by affluence (economic activity per person) multiplied by technological impact, the well-known I=PAT identity. Neoclassical environmental economics doesn’t recognise that there are limits to growth in population and the biophysical economy on planet Earth. We must go beyond environmental economics. Ecological economicsThis essay has been adapted from a speech delivered on the occasion of the Blue Planet Prize, Tokyo, November 2014.

Costanza, R., Cumberland, J.H., Goodland, R., Norgaard, R., Kubiszewski, I., & Franco, C. ( 2015) . An Introduction to Ecological Economics (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. This textbook from mainly US-American authors of the founding generation of ecological economics is a revised version of the 1997 first edition. Differing from other textbooks mentioned here it keeps a thematic focus on economics and economic knowledge from a historical perspective, with chapters on humanity’s current dilemma, the historical development of economics and ecology, the principles and objectives of ecological economics, environmental institutions, instruments and policies. This book shows how knowledge of environmental problems developed from partial and inadequate knowledge to improved knowledge of global problems that need to be dealt with in sustainable development. To reject revolution is not to accept the status quo. The scale of the required transformation is massive, but concrete steps through which to build change are needed, and for this governments and those able to make or influence policy are needed. These steps open up a public and policy dialogue on the issues. It is possible already to establish some clear directions of travel: establishing the limits, fixing the economic model, changing the social logic. Clarifying these points will help to find new ideas in the transformation process. 1.2 2. Further Reading Suggested: Deepening, Thematically Specialised Although environmental economics made some people, especially economists, more aware of the importance of the environment, it retains the limitation inherent to neoclassical economics: it is tied to using markets to handle ‘externalities’ such as environmental pollution (Jacobs 1991). [3]Cato, M. S. (2009). Green economics: An introduction to theory, policy and practice. London: Earthscan, Dustan House.