Nothing is more important to our world than finding a more comfortable relationship between the economy and the environment. While issues such as species loss, nitrate pollution, water scarcity and climate change are now attracting the political attention they deserve, their origin in the way our economy is organized is less frequently recognized. This book makes that connection both theoretically – with references to a number of heterodox approaches to economics – and practically through a number of specific issues.
Environment and Economy begins by introducing readers to the pioneers of this field, such as Fritz Schumacher and Paul Ehrlich, who first drew attention to the disastrous consequences for our environment of our ever-expanding economy. Part II outlines the contributions to the field of Neoclassical Economics, Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics, Green Economics and Anti-Capitalist Economics. Part III takes a pluralist approach to using economic tools to solve a range of environmental problems: economic growth, resource depletion, pollution, globalization, climate change and markets vs. commons.
Written in an accessible style, this introductory text offers students an engaging account of the ways that the various traditions of economic thought have approached the environment, bringing them together for the first time in one volume. The text is complemented by boxes, case studies and recommended reading for each theme addressed. It will be of value to students interested in environmental sciences, geography, green issues and economics.
Part I: Setting the scene
1. Introduction: an economy within the environment
2. The whistle-blowers
Part II Economic schools and the environment
3. Neoclassical economics
4. Environmental economics
5. Ecological economics
6. Green economics
7. Anti-capitalist economics
Part III: Issues and policies
8. A range of policy approaches
9. Economic growth
10. Climate change: the greatest example of market failure?
11. All that the earth provides: the economics of resources
12. Pollution
13. Globalization vs. localization
14. Markets or commons
15. Conclusion: Is it the economy? Are we stupid?
Biography
Molly Scott Cato was the Green MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar until the UK left the European Union in January 2020 and is now Professor of Green Economics at Roehampton University. She was previously Director of the Welsh Institute for Research into Cooperatives. In 2009 she published Green Economics and in 2012 The Bioregional Economy, both books developing a vision of a just and sustainable economy. Molly has published widely on issues relating to sustainable economics and the social economy. She lives in Stroud where she is inspired by the lived example of a sustainable community.
