Elements of Ecological Economics

ISBN-13: 9780415473804 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 164 str.

Jan Otto Andersson;Ralf Eriksson

Opis

Elements of Ecological Economics provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of ecological economics, an interdisciplinary project trying to give answers to the problems related to the overexploitation of the earth's resources today. These include the problems of global warming (the greenhouse effect) and the overuse of the seas (e.g. overfishing). The book also gives an exposition of the closely related problems of global welfare and justice. The book covers topics including:

• the general policy perspective required by sustainability
• economic growth in a historical perspective
• sustainability conceptions and measurement within ecological economics
• economics and ethics of climate change
• global food security
• the state of the seas on earth and locally (the Baltic Sea).

As an introductory-level text the book will be useful to undergraduate students taking basic courses in economics and related fields, and will be comprehensible to anyone interested in environmental problems. Through the separate chapters on the problems of climate change, sustainable food production, and the overuse of the seas, the reader will easily see the practical relevance to the theoretical concepts presented and used in the book.

This text, which is tailor made for short courses in ecological economics, takes as its starting point the notion of the “global-ethical trilemma”: the interrelation between justice, sustainability and prosperity. Defiantly pluralistic in tone, the book introduces to the student different attempts to reconcile these three goals and provides a balanced review of how this can be achieved. Issues discussed include:

- the economics of climate change

- world food production

- natural resource extraction

- distributive justice in the context of the environment

The book analyzes the relationship between ecological and environmental economics and applies approaches and techniques from both disciplines. Laced with a range of case studies, exercises and questions, the book provides an excellent introduction to the interrelationship between ecology and economics.

Spis treści

1. The Global Ethical Trilemma  2. Economic Growth and Human Development  3. Ethics and Ecological Economics  4. Environmental Economics  5. Ecological Economics: The Science of Sustainability  6. The Economics and Ethics of Climate Change  7. Global Food Security  8. Man and the Seas: The Oceans and the Baltic Sea  9. Growth and Degrowth: Is Another Economy Possible?

O autorze

Ralf Eriksson is a lecturer in economics at Åbo Akademi University of Turku, Finland. Jan Otto Andersson is also currently a lecturer in economics at Åbo Akademi University of Turku, Finland. He is also a founding member of Basic Income European Network (BIEN) and the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE).