An Introduction to Ecological Economics

by Costanza, Robert; Cumberland, John; Daly, Herman; Goodland, Robert; Norgaard, Richard; Costanza, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781884015724
• ISBN10: 1884015727
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-07-01
• Publisher: CRC Pr I Llc

Summary

This is an official publication of the International Society for Ecological Economics. It is designed to be the first major text merging both ecology and economy. This book provides a complete and comprehensive treatment of this newly emerging field.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi	(1)
Acknowledgments	xii
1. Humanity's Current Dilemma	1	(18)
1.1 The Global Ecosystem and the Economic Subsystem	6	(1)
1.2 From Localized Limits to Global Limits	7	(7)
First Evidence of Limits: Human Biomass Appropriation	8	(1)
Second Evidence of Limits: Climate Change	9	(2)
Third Evidence of Limits: Ozone Shield Rupture	11	(1)
Fourth Evidence of Limits: Land Degradation	12	(1)
Fifth Evidence of Limits: Biodiversity Loss	13	(1)
1.3 Population and Poverty	14	(1)
1.4 Beyond Brundtland	15	(1)
1.5 Toward Sustainability	16	(1)
1.6 The Fragmentation of Economics and the Natural Sciences	17	(2)
2. The Historical Development of Economics and Ecology	19	(58)
2.1 The Early Codevelopment of Economics and Natural Science	23	(23)
Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand	23	(2)
Thomas Malthus and Population Growth	25	(2)
David Ricardo and the Geographic Pattern of Economic Activity	27	(1)
Sadi Carnot, Rudolf Clausius, and Thermodynamics	28	(1)
Charles Darwin and the Evolutionary Paradigm	29	(3)
John Stuart Mill and the Steady-State	32	(1)
Karl Marx and the Ownership of Resources	33	(3)
W. Stanley Jevons and the Scarcity of Stock Resources	36	(1)
Ernst Haeckel and the Beginnings of Ecology	36	(2)
Alfred J. Lotka and Systems Thinking	38	(1)
A. C. Pigou and Market Failure	39	(3)
Harold Hotelling and the Efficient Use of Resources over Time	42	(4)
2.2 Economics and Ecology Specialize and Separate	46	(2)
2.3 The Reintegration of Ecology and Economics	48	(29)
General System Theory	51	(2)
Open-Access Resource Management and Commons Institutions	53	(3)
Energetics and Systems	56	(6)
Spaceship Earth and Steady-State Economics	62	(1)
Adaptive Environmental Management	63	(1)
Coevolution of Ecological and Economic Systems	64	(5)
The Role of Neoclassical Economics in Ecological Economics	69	(3)
Critical Connections	72	(3)
Increased Efficiency and Dematerialization	72	(1)
Ecosystem Health	73	(1)
Environmental Epistemology	74	(1)
Political Ecology	75	(1)
Conclusions	75	(2)
3. Problems and Principles of Ecological Economics	77	(100)
3.1 Sustainable Scale, Fair Distribution, and Efficient Allocation	80	(12)
From Empty-World Economics to Full-World Economics	83	(1)
Reasons the Turning Point Has Not Been Noticed	84	(1)
Complementarity vs. Substitutability	85	(1)
Policy Implications of the Turning Point	86	(5)
Initial Policy Response to the Historical Turning Point	91	(1)
3.2 Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and Ecological Services	92	(8)
Biodiversity and Ecosystems	94	(1)
Ecosystems and Ecological Services	95	(1)
Defining and Predicting Sustainability in Ecological Terms	96	(3)
Ecosystems as Sustainable Systems	99	(1)
3.3 Substitutability vs. Complementarity of Natural, Human, and Manufactured Capital	100	(8)
Growth vs. Development	102	(2)
More on Complementarity vs. Substitutability	104	(1)
More on Natural Capital	104	(2)
Sustainability and Maintaining Natural Capital	106	(2)
3.4 Population and Carrying Capacity	108	(3)
3.5 Measuring Welfare and Well-Being	111	(29)
The GNP and Its Political Importance	112	(2)
GNP: Concepts and Measurement	114	(6)
From GNP to Hicksian Income and Sustainable Development	120	(7)
From GNP to a Measure of Economic Welfare	127	(5)
The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare	132	(3)
Toward a Measure of Total Human Welfare	135	(4)
Alternative Models of Wealth and Utility	139	(1)
3.6 Valuation, Choice, and Uncertainty	140	(16)
Fixed Tastes and Preferences and Consumer Sovereignty	141	(1)
Valuation of Ecosystems and Preferences	142	(2)
Uncertainty, Science, and Environmental Policy	144	(4)
Technological Optimism vs. Prudent Skepticism	148	(3)
Social Traps	151	(1)
Escaping Social Traps	152	(2)
The Dollar Auction Game	154	(2)
3.7 Trade and Community	156	(21)
Free Trade?	157	(1)
Community and Individual Well-Being	158	(1)
Community, Environmental Management, and Sustainability	159	(5)
Globalization, Transaction Costs, and Environmental Externalities	164	(3)
Policy Implications	167	(10)
4. Policies, Institutions, and Instruments	177	(66)
4.1 The Need to Develop a Shared Vision of a Sustainable Society	177	(3)
4.2 History of Environmental Institutions and Instruments	180	(5)
4.3 Success, Failures, and Remedies	185	(7)
The Policy Role of Non-Government Organizations	186	(1)
Adaptive Ecological Economic Assessment and Management	187	(2)
Habitat Protection, Intergenerational Transfers, and Equity	189	(3)
4.4 Policy Instruments	192	(51)
Regulatory Systems	195	(2)
Incentive-Based Systems: Alternatives to Regulatory Control	197	(9)
The Role of Economic Efficiency	198	(1)
Pollution Fees and Subsidies	199	(1)
Popular Critiques of the Incentives for Efficiency Approach	200	(4)
Advantages and Disadvantages of Incentive-Based Systems of Regulation	204	(3)
Three Policies to Achieve Sustainability	206	(11)
Natural Capital Depletion (NCD) Tax	207	(2)
The Precautionary Polluter Pays Principle (4P)	209	(6)
Ecological Tariffs: Making Trade Sustainable	215	(1)
Toward Ecological Tax Reform	215	(2)
A Transdisciplinary Pollution Control Policy Instrument	217	(5)
Implementation and Operational Considerations	221	(1)
Appropriate Policies, Instruments, and Institutions for Governance at Different Levels of Spatial Aggregation	222	(21)
The Local Level	222	(6)
Land Purchasing and Conservation Easements	226	(1)
Full-Cost Pricing	227	(1)
The Regional Level: Reducing Counterproductive Interregional Competition for Growth	228	(2)
The National Level: Toxic Release Inventory and the Public's Right to Know	230	(4)
The EIS as a National Policy Instrument	231	(1)
Ecological Labeling	232	(1)
Other National Policies	232	(2)
The International Level and the Third World	234	(2)
The Global Level	236	(3)
Conclusions	239	(4)
Further Reading	243	(2)
References	245	(22)
About the Authors	267	(2)
Index	269