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Drawing on both economics and ecology, this book offers telling insights into the confusing "jobs versus environment" debates as well as charts a recommended path towards a more co-habitable relationship. Avoiding the extreme views that economic growth will either destroy or save our natural environment, this book takes a more discriminating stance and illuminates why our nation's natural environment is both better and worse than forty years ago.
List of contents
1. Dueling Paradigms 2. Our Precious Endowment 3. Understanding our Natural Endowment 4. A Tale of Two Energy Crises 5. Dysfunctional Markets 6. Nature as Guide 7. Closing the Materials Loop 8. Shifting Back to Renewable Energy Sources 9. Economic Succession 10. Economic Resiliency 11. Conclusion
About the author
Bob Williams is Professor of Economics at Guilford College, North Carolina, USA.
Summary
Professor Bob Williams examines the essential elements that give ecosystems their durability. These key characteristics are: self-regulating cycles of key materials, a plentiful and durable energy source, an ability to adjust to changing circumstances, and the capacity for resiliency in the face of unpredictable disruptions. In separate chapters, each of these natural attributes are applied to our economy and 20 polices are recommended to shift our economy toward each of these objectives. The policies include marketable waste emission permits, a "carbon" tax, split-rate property taxation, environmental assurance bonds, a revamped home mortgage deduction, and an inheritance tax. These policies function to implement the principle of full-cost pricing in order to ensure market incentives that encourage environmentally temperate behaviour and decisions.
This book will be of interest to students of Ecology and Economics, at undergraduate and postgraduate level alike, as well as anyone seeking an understanding of key ecological concepts that are critical to fully appreciating the role of natural capital in our economic affairs
Additional text
"Bob Williams has written an insightful, clear, and up to date book that brings economics and ecology together in a fruitful way. Highly recommended!"-Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland, USA
"Greening the Economy breaks new ground in articulating the critical relationships between ecosystem services upon which our lives depend and the difficult policy choices that must be made to restore and preserve those services. The book offers concrete local examples and a fresh roadmap to policymakers, academics, and citizens interested in market-based solutions to environmental challenges."- Trip Van Noppen, President, Earthjustice
