1st Edition

Economics and Ecology United for a Sustainable World

By Charles R. Beaton, Chris Maser Copyright 2012
    220 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    220 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    The earth, our home, is in crisis. There are two sides to this crisis—our global economy, and its effect on the ecology of our home planet. Despite conventional thinking that typical monetary and fiscal manipulations will put us back on the path of economic growth, the reality is not that simple. Meanwhile, the natural environment is sending unmistakable warnings. Glaciers are melting; oceans are becoming dangerously acidic; species and their ecological services are becoming extinct; and weather patterns are becoming increasingly severe and unpredictable each year. The stress on resource systems of all kinds threatens to shrink the carrying capacity of the planet, even as we call upon it for increased contributions to support a burgeoning human population.

    Co-written by an ecologist and an economist, Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World counsels the replacement of symptomatic thinking with a systemic worldview that treats the environment and the economy as an ecosystemic unit. The first part of the book establishes the methodological and biophysical principles needed to develop the concept of socioeconomic sustainability. The second part of the book examines the misuse of economics in the service of what increasingly appears to be a ruinous pursuit of material wealth and expansion. The third part offers advice on reconciling economics and ecology by proposing an economics in which the principles employed are aligned with the biophysical principles of ecology.

    This timely volume puts forth a sustainable worldview based on systemic thinking, with the emphasis more on what and how people think than on what they do. A unique reference for professionals and laypersons alike, it can also serve as a supplementary classroom text for students of economics, ecology, biology, and environmental science.

    Introduction

    SETTING THE STAGE

    Methodological Overview
    Symptomatic Analysis
    Systemic Analysis
    An Evolutionary View of America
    Lessons from Our Energy History

    Energy—The Critical Resource
    The Flow of Energy Is the Only Real Economy
    Follow the Energy—Not the Money
    Lessons from the Laws of Thermodynamics
    Five Operating Principles

    ECONOMICS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

    The Innate Nature of Economics
    Scarcity and Human Survival
    Economics and Human Nature
    Rational Economic Man
    From Necessities to Wants and Subsistence to Wealth
    Misuse of Economics in Practice
    Growth as Economic Religion

    Consumption Theory
    Consumption for Survival
    Consumption in Practice
    Affluence as an Unmitigated Public Good
    Toward an Economics of Enough

    Production
    Original Intention: Meet Human Necessities
    The Goal Has Been Unlimited Production
    Reconciling the Differences
    The Concept of Productivity

    Externalities
    Politics, Economics, and Externalities
    Understanding the Language
    The Nature of Markets
    Imperfect Property Rights
    Proceeding through Example—The Paper Mill
    Drawing Some Conclusions
    Facing Uncertainty

    Distribution
    The Question of Who Gets What
    Distribution: The All-Important, Ignored Element
    Economic Methodology Thwarts Redistribution
    Revisiting the Notion of Surplus
    Inequality and Economic Realities
    Equity and Social Justice—The Key to Real Sustainability

    Macroeconomics—Is It Still Helpful in an Age of Scarcity?
    Origins of Macroeconomics
    Basic Macroeconomic Worldview
    The Keynesian Dilemma—Unemployment or Inflation?
    Controlling the Economy
    Revisiting the Capitalist Scenario
    Age of Scarcity Changes the Paradigm
    A Growing Economy, a Planet in Peril

    RECONCILIATION AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

    The Meaning of Social-Environmental Sustainability
    The Three Pillars of Sustainability
    Understanding the Triple Bottom-Line
    Sustainability in Practice—The Track Record

    Imagining the Ideal World
    We Can Only Move toward a Positive
    Economic Development in the Current World
    Targeting the Strategy

    Counsel for Getting There
    Resource Overexploitation
    Communities Must Actively Plan Their Own Futures
    Broad-Based Participation a Necessity
    Need for Bottom-Up Thinking
    A Final Word on Growth
    Summing Up

    Appendix
    Index

    Chapters include endnotes.

     

    Biography

    Russ Beaton received his bachelor’s degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Claremont University, California. His original training was in mathematical economics and econometrics, although his doctoral thesis was in location theory and urban land economics, which became a lifetime interest.

    After teaching for 3 years at California State College at Fullerton (now Fullerton State University), and 4 years at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Beaton returned to his alma mater, Willamette University, where he taught economics and did research for 33 years.

    He has consulted and done policy-based contract research for at least six different agencies of the State of Oregon, in areas such as land use, agriculture, timber, transportation, energy, housing, and general economic policy.

    Beaton is coauthor with Chris Maser of two other books and participated in drafting the legislation, passed by the 1973 Oregon Legislature, that created Oregon’s widely acclaimed land use planning system.

    Chris Maser was trained in zoology and ecology and worked for 25 years as a research scientist in agricultural, coastal, desert, forest, valley grassland, shrub steppe, and subarctic settings in various parts of the world before realizing that science is not designed to answer the vast majority of questions society is asking it to address.

    Maser gave up active scientific research in 1987 and has since worked to unify scientific knowledge with social values in helping to create sustainable communities and landscapes, part of which entails his facilitating the resolution of social-environmental conflicts. He has contributed to more than 286 publications, including 34 books, mostly dealing with some aspect of social-environmental sustainability.

    Although he has worked and lectured in Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Slovakia, and Switzerland, he calls Corvallis, Oregon, home.