Economics and Ecology United for a Sustainable World

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 OverviewSymptomatic AnalysisSystemic AnalysisAn Evolutionary View of AmericaLessons from Our Energy History Energy—The Critical ResourceThe Flow of Energy Is the Only Real EconomyFollow the Energy—Not the MoneyLessons from the Laws of ThermodynamicsFive Operating Principles ECONOMICS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE The Innate Nature of EconomicsScarcity and Human SurvivalEconomics and Human NatureRational Economic ManFrom Necessities to Wants and Subsistence to WealthMisuse of Economics in PracticeGrowth as Economic Religion Consumption TheoryConsumption for SurvivalConsumption in PracticeAffluence as an Unmitigated Public GoodToward an Economics of Enough ProductionOriginal Intention: Meet Human NecessitiesThe Goal Has Been Unlimited ProductionReconciling the DifferencesThe Concept of Productivity ExternalitiesPolitics, Economics, and ExternalitiesUnderstanding the LanguageThe Nature of MarketsImperfect Property RightsProceeding through Example—The Paper MillDrawing Some ConclusionsFacing Uncertainty DistributionThe Question of Who Gets WhatDistribution: The All-Important, Ignored ElementEconomic Methodology Thwarts RedistributionRevisiting the Notion of SurplusInequality and Economic RealitiesEquity and Social Justice—The Key to Real Sustainability Macroeconomics—Is It Still Helpful in an Age of Scarcity?Origins of MacroeconomicsBasic Macroeconomic WorldviewThe Keynesian Dilemma—Unemployment or Inflation?Controlling the EconomyRevisiting the Capitalist ScenarioAge of Scarcity Changes the ParadigmA Growing Economy, a Planet in Peril RECONCILIATION AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE The Meaning of Social-Environmental SustainabilityThe Three Pillars of SustainabilityUnderstanding the Triple Bottom-LineSustainability in Practice—The Track Record Imagining the Ideal WorldWe Can Only Move toward a PositiveEconomic Development in the Current WorldTargeting the Strategy Counsel for Getting ThereResource OverexploitationCommunities Must Actively Plan Their Own FuturesBroad-Based Participation a NecessityNeed for Bottom-Up ThinkingA Final Word on GrowthSumming Up AppendixIndex Chapters include endnotes.

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.