Ecological Economics: What is it? Why do we need it? Will it work?
Currently, the world is experiencing unprecedented global change as the effects of massive carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere causes weather and climatic changes across the globe. This matters particularly to human beings who rely on ecosystem services, natural resources, and the predictability in weather in order to produce the food we eat, energy to warm or cool us, and systems which allow us to function on a day-to-day.
Ecological economics is a sub-discipline of economics that has been working to root economic theory in ecological and natural truths. Our economic system, which we do live in today, is nested within the real physical system of earth and even more abstractly, the universe. If we do not integrate the principles of the natural environment and particularly the way in which transfers of heat and energy work, our decisions in the economic sphere are inaccurate and do not fully realize the changing or uncertain value of resources as we extract and emit.
Essentially, natural resources and environmental spaces are not just useful to us in what we think they cost today and tomorrow, but actually how much remains on the earth and their linkage to other systems which we value and need to survive. To better understand the future of ecological economics in tandem with environmental economics, development economics, and sustainable engineering, I would consider reading The Following:
The Coal Question (1865) William Jevons
Towards a steady state economy (1973) Herman Daly
An introduction to Ecological Economics (2014) Robert Costanza, Herman Daly, John H Cumberland, Robert Goodland, Richard B Norgaard, Ida Kubiszewski, Carol Franco
Ecological Economics (2015) J Farley
The rhetoric of ecological Economics (1998) Fred Luks
The rhetoric of Inquiry or the Sophistry of Status quo? Exploring the common grounds between critical rhetoric and Institutional economics (1990) D. Sebberson
The rhetoric of Economics (1983) McClosky
Oil and the economy: A systematic review of the literature for ecological economists (2017) J Sager, G Kallis
Sustainability and Discounting the future (1991) RB Norgaard, RB Howarth
Discounting disentangled: an expert survey on the determinants of the long-term social discount rate (2015) Drupp, fReeman, Groom, Nesje
Applied Ecological economic study - the case of the Oxford Tract at UC Berkeley
I conducted a social science perspective on how Cost-benefit analysis could deploy ecological economic theory for use in local planning. The goal of the project was to identify the structural limits of economic tools in integrating climate change concerns while positing solutions derived from the principles of ecological economics. Questions, For example, included how do we value a small scale agriculture plot in California as maintaining healthY soil becomes costly due to erosion, nitrate depletion, and overfarming. How do we balance the welfare of students today with the long run welfare of publicly funded agricultural productivity research? This was explored in my paper below, which you can read here:
The social cost benefit tool in an Ecological Economic Framework: The case of the Oxford Tract.
Research Question
How does value change over generations given the uncertainty of climate change?
What weaknesses exist in the cost benefit analysis methodology that render the tool ineffective for policy in the face of climate change?
How does this
question play out in the evaluation of the Oxford Tract resources?
How do we use CBA in local land use decisions which deploy international and long-run perspectives on climate change?
Photos of the oxford tract before its slated construction can be found below. Additional information on the tract can be found here, and the status of arable farm land in the EAst Bay can be found here.
