Review of Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development, by Herman Daly Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development. Herman E. Daly. 253 pp. Although I've never met him, I must admit: economist Herman Daly has had a big impact on my life. Student-initiated seminars (like most forms of activism) were rare at Princeton University at the time, but our goals were ambitious: to uncover the limits of growth economies, from the Soviet to the U.S. model. In spring 1981, Isles was born. Beyond the quixotic story of Isles' founding, why should Daly's work be important to community builders? What is the goal of the economy? As a former economist at the World Bank, Daly takes them head on in Beyond Growth with reasoned arguments and increasingly intellectual elegance. Daly clarifies that the economy is only a subset of the larger environment. Daly is the grandfather of steady state economic theory (increasingly called environmental economics). If growth is not going to lift us out of poverty, what will? Perhaps Daly's message is working.
Restoration ecology Recently constructed wetland regeneration in Australia, on a site previously used for agriculture Restoration ecology emerged as a separate field in ecology in the 1980s. It is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action. The term "restoration ecology" is therefore commonly used for the academic study of the process, whereas the term "ecological restoration" is commonly used for the actual project or process by restoration practitioners. Definition[edit] E. History[edit] Restoration needs[edit] On a more anthropocentric level, natural ecosystems provide human society with food, fuel and timber. Conservation biology and restoration ecology[edit] With regard to biodiversity preservation, it should be noted that restoration activities are not a substitute, but are complementary for conservation efforts.
The economic heresy of Herman Daly If economics is a religion, the World Bank is perhaps its grandest church. For the last half century, the venerable institution at 1818 H Street in Washington, D.C., has been dispatching its missionaries around the globe, spreading the theology of the free market to the heathens. And if economics is a religion, Herman Daly is its arch-heretic, a member of the high priesthood turned renegade. From 1988 to 1994, Daly was the World Bank’s senior environmental economist, a lonely voice of dissent in an organization that frowns on unbelievers. During his six-year tenure, Daly, the economist-turned-ecovisionary whose works established ecological economics as a discipline, succeeded in getting the World Bank to take notice of the environment in its policies and programs. At last, frustrated with the institution’s unwieldy bureaucracy and antiquated policies, he resigned. It was Daly’s parting shot not only at the World Bank, but at the entire edifice of neoclassical economics. Don’t Bank on It
Environmental engineering Environmental Engineering is the integration of science and engineering principles to improve the natural environment, to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate pollution sites.[citation needed] Furthermore, it is concerned with finding plausible solutions in the field of public health, such as arthropod-borne diseases, implementing law which promote adequate sanitation in urban, rural and recreational areas. It involves waste water management and air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, radiation protection, industrial hygiene, environmental sustainability, and public health issues as well as a knowledge of environmental engineering law. It also includes studies on the environmental impact of proposed construction projects. Environmental engineers study the effect of technological advances on the environment. Most jurisdictions also impose licensing and registration requirements. Development[edit] Scope[edit] The U.S.
Time to Stop Worshipping Economic Growth There are physical limits to growth on a finite planet. In 1972, the Club of Rome issued their groundbreaking report—Limits to Growth (twelve million copies in thirty-seven languages). The authors predicted that by about 2030, our planet would feel a serious squeeze on natural resources, and they were right on target. In 2009, the Stockholm Resilience Center introduced the concept of planetary boundaries to help the public envision the nature of the challenges posed by limits to growth and physical/biological boundaries. They defined nine boundaries critical to human existence that, if crossed, could generate abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. (Click image for larger view)The global economy must be viewed from a macro-perspective to realize that infringement of the planetary boundaries puts many life support ecosystems in jeopardy. These boundaries apply to the economy because the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ecosystems that make life on earth possible.
Integrated geography Environmental geography (also, integrative geography,[1] or integrated geography) is the branch of geography that describes and explains the spatial aspects of interactions between human individuals or societies and their natural environment,[2] so-called coupled human–environment systems. Origins[edit] It requires an understanding of the dynamics of geology, meteorology, hydrology, biogeography, ecology, and geomorphology, as well as the ways in which human societies conceptualize the environment (cultural geography). Thus, to a certain degree, it may be seen as a successor of Physische Anthropogeographie (English: "physical anthropogeography")—a term coined by the Vienna Geographer Albrecht Penck in 1924—and geographical cultural or human ecology (Harlan H. Barrows 1923). Focus[edit] References[edit]
Environmental economics Sub-field of economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues.[1] It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world. ... Environmental economics is distinguished from ecological economics in that ecological economics emphasizes the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem with its focus upon preserving natural capital.[3] One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing "strong" sustainability and rejecting the proposition that human-made ("physical") capital can substitute for natural capital.[4] History[edit] Topics and concepts[edit] Market failure[edit] Externality[edit] Common goods and public goods[edit] Valuation[edit]
Sustainability measurement Sustainability measurement is a term that denotes the measurements used as the quantitative basis for the informed management of sustainability.[1] The metrics used for the measurement of sustainability (involving the sustainability of environmental, social and economic domains, both individually and in various combinations) are still evolving: they include indicators, benchmarks, audits, indexes and accounting, as well as assessment, appraisal[2] and other reporting systems. They are applied over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.[3][4] Some of the best known and most widely used sustainability measures include corporate sustainability reporting, Triple Bottom Line accounting, and estimates of the quality of sustainability governance for individual countries using the Environmental Sustainability Index and Environmental Performance Index. Sustainability indicators and their function[edit] Metrics at the global scale[edit] United Nations Indicators[edit] Metrics Auditing Coal[edit]
Ecosystem model A structural diagram of the open ocean plankton ecosystem model of Fasham, Ducklow & McKelvie (1990).[1] An ecosystem model is an abstract, usually mathematical, representation of an ecological system (ranging in scale from an individual population, to an ecological community, or even an entire biome), which is studied to gain understanding of the real system.[2] Ecosystem models are formed by combining known ecological relations (e.g. the relation of sunlight and water availability to photosynthetic rate, or the relation between predator and prey populations) with data gathered from field observations. These model systems are then studied in order to make predictions about the dynamics of the real system. Ecosystem models have applications in a wide variety of disciplines, such as natural resource management,[4] ecotoxicology and environmental health,[5][6] agriculture,[7] and wildlife conservation.[8] Types of models[edit] Model design[edit] Validation[edit] where, Applications[edit]
Green gross domestic product The green gross domestic product (green GDP) is an index of economic growth with the environmental consequences of that growth factored into a country's conventional GDP. Green GDP monetizes the loss of biodiversity, and accounts for costs caused by climate change. Some environmental experts prefer physical indicators (such as "waste per capita" or "carbon dioxide emissions per year"), which may be aggregated to indices such as the "Sustainable Development Index". Calculating Green GDP[edit] Calculating green GDP requires that net natural capital consumption, including resource depletion, environmental degradation, and protective and restorative environmental initiatives, be subtracted from traditional GDP.[1] Some early calculations of Green GDP take into account one or two, but not all environmental adjustments. Rationale[edit] The motivation for creating a Green GDP originates from the inherent limitations of GDP has as an indicator of economic performance and social progress.
Greenwashing While greenwashing is not new, its use has increased over recent years to meet consumer demand for environmentally friendly goods and services. The problem is compounded by lax enforcement by regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, the Competition Bureau in Canada, and the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice in the United Kingdom. Critics of the practice suggest that the rise of greenwashing, paired with ineffective regulation, contributes to consumer skepticism of all green claims, and diminishes the power of the consumer in driving companies toward greener solutions for manufacturing processes and business operations.[6] Usage[edit] Hotel "greenwashed" laundry card The term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westervelt in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of placing placards in each room promoting reuse of towels ostensibly to "save the environment."