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Preface xi
Acknowledgments xii
1. Humanity's Current Dilemma 1
1.1 The Global Ecosystem and the Economic Subsystem 6
1.2 From Localized Limits to Global Limits 7
First Evidence of Limits: Human Biomass Appropriation 8
Second Evidence of Limits: Climate Change 9
Third Evidence of Limits: Ozone Shield Rupture 11
Fourth Evidence of Limits: Land Degradation 12
Fifth Evidence of Limits: Biodiversity Loss 13
1.3 Population and Poverty 14
1.4 Beyond Brundtland 15
1.5 Toward Sustainability 16
1.6The Fragmentation of Economics and the Natural Sciences.. 17
2. The Historical Development of Economics and
Ecology 19
2.1The Early Codevelopment of Economics and Natural
Science 23
Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand 23
Thomas Malthus and Population Growth 25
David Ricardo and the Geographic Pattern of Economic Activity 27
Sadi Carnot, Rudolf Clausius, and Thermodynamics 28
Charles Darwin and the Evolutionary Paradigm 29
John Stuart Mill and the Steady-State 32
Karl Marx and the Ownership of Resources 33
W. Stanley Jevons and the Scarcity of Stock Resources 36
Ernst Haeckel and the Beginnings of Ecology 36
Alfred J. Lotka and Systems Thinking 38
A. C. Pigou and Market Failure 39
Harold Hotelling and the Efficient Use of Resources over Time 42
2.2 Economics and Ecology Specialize and Separate 46
2.3 The Reintegration of Ecology and Economics 48
General System Theory 51
Open-Access Resource Management and Commons Institutions 53
Energetics and Systems 56
Spaceship Earth and Steady-State Economics 62
Adaptive Environmental Management 63
Coevolution of Ecological and Economic Systems 64
The Role of Neoclassical Economics in Ecological
Economics 69
Critical Connections 72
Increased Efficiency and Dematerialization 72
Ecosystem Health 73
Environmental Epistemology 74
Political Ecology 75
Conclusions 75
3. Problems and Principles of Ecological Economics 77
3.1 Sustainable Scale, Fair Distribution, and Efflcient
Allocation 80
From Empty-World Economics to Full-World Economics 83
Reasons the Turning Point Has Not Been Noticed 84
Complementarity vs. Substitutability 85
Policy Implications of the Turning Point 86
Initial Policy Response to the Historical Turning Point 91
3.2 Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and Ecological Services 92
Biodiversity and Ecosystems 94
Ecosystems and Ecological Services 95
Defining and Predicting Sustainability in Ecological Terms 96
Ecosystems as Sustainable Systems 99
3.3Substitutability vs. Complementarity of Natural,
Human, and Manufactured Capital 100
Growth vs. Development 102
More on Complementarity vs. Substitutability 104
More on Natural Capital 104
Sustainability and Maintaining Natural Capital 106
3.4 Population and Carrying Capacity 108
3.5 Measuring Welfare and Well-Being 111
The GNP and Its Political Importance 112
GNP: Concepts and Measurement 114
From GNP to Hicksian Income and Sustainable Development 120
From GNP to a Measure of Economic Welfare 127
The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare 132
Toward a Measure of Total Human Welfare 135
Alternative Models of Wealth and Utility 139
3.6 Valuation, Choice, and Uncertainty 140
Fixed Tastes and Preferences and Consumer Sovereignty 141
Valuation of Ecosystems and Preferences 142
Uncertainty, Science, and Environmental Policy 144
Technological Optimism vs. Prudent Skepticism 148
Social Traps 151
Escaping Social Traps 152
The Dollar Auction Game 154
3.7 Trade and Community 156
Free Trade? 157
Community and Individual Well-Being 158
Community, Environmental Management, and Sustainability 159
Globalization, Transaction Costs, and Environmental Externalities 164
Policy Implications 167
4. Policies, Institutions, and Instruments 177
4.1 The Need to Develop a Shared Vision of a Sustainable
Society 177
4.2History of Environmental Institutions and
Instruments 180
4.3 Successes, Failures, and Remedies 185
The Policy Role of Non-Government Organizations 186
Adaptive Ecological Economic Assessment and
Management 187
Habitat Protection, Intergenerational Transfers, and Equity 189
4.4 Policy Instruments 192
Regulatory Systems 195
Incentive-Based Systems: Alternatives to Regulatory Control 197
The Role of Economic Efficiency 198
Pollution Fees and Subsidies 199
Popular Critiques of the Incentives for Efficiency Approach 200
Advantages and Disadvantages of Incentive-Based Systems of
Regulation 204
Three Policies to Achieve Sustainability 206
Natural Capital Depletion (NCD) Tax 207
The Precautionary Polluter Pays Principle (4P) 209
Ecological Tariffs: Making Trade Sustainable 215
Toward Ecological Tax Reform 215
A Transdisciplinary Pollution Control Policy Instrument 217
Implementation and Operational Considerations 221
Appropriate Policies, Instruments, and Institutions for
Governance at Different Levels of Spatial Aggregation 222
The Local Level 222
Land Purchasing and Conservation Easements 226
Full-Cost Pricing 227
The Regional Level: Reducing Counterproductive Interregional
Competition for Growth 228
The National Level: Toxic Release Inventory and the Public's
Right to Know 230
The EIS as a National Policy Instrument 231
Ecological Labeling 232
Other National Policies 232
The International Level and the Third World 234
The Global Level 236
Conclusions 239
Further Reading 243
References 243
About the Authors 267
Index 269