Truer, Greener, More Sustainable Economics
A little while back I mentioned that economic innovations surge with environmentalism.
“Once regarded as irrelevant to economic activity, environmental problems are drastically rewriting the rules for business, investors, and consumers, affecting over $100 billion in annual capital flows,” say Worldwatch Institute project co-directors Gary Gardner and Thomas Prugh.
The Worldwatch Institute report State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy (full report available for purchase: $15 e-book, $18.95 paperback) highlighted that the world’s first global, sustainable market is becoming a reality with environmental initiatives, revolutionary industrial production methods and a surge in environmentally focused investment groups.
In Green Economics: Turning Mainstream Thinking on Its Head, Worldwatch Institute’s Thomas Prugh offers what ‘truer, greener, more sustainable’ economics look like and why we should pay attention to the paradigm shift that is shaping the green economy.
Prugh’s vision of the green economy considers the following:
- Scale. Or understanding ecosystems.
- Stress development over growth.
- Make prices tell the ecological truth.
- Account for nature’s services.
- The precautionary principle.
- Commons management.
- Value women.
Get the whole picture at Green Economic: Turning Mainstream Thinking on its Head at Worldwatch Institute.
Making prices tell the ecological truth and accounting for nature’s services will be difficult without an accounting system where the balance sheet (assets & liabilities) and revenues & expenses (the income statement) do not include ecology and nature’s services. Even national income accounting which coughs up the GDP figures hardly includes ecology & nature’s services. There is a joke which has a ring of truth: half of the country is flooded and half has a drought, so on the average, we are alright.
Would you know if there is an economist who has done work in constructing an accounting system for businesses and the government which would include ecology and nature’s services?
Hi Ren,
You make some really good points that I agree with wholeheartedly. On the topic of environmental economists, I can think of a few people/organizations that might be interesting for you – Global Exchange, Redefining Progress and Environmental Economics (blog). You also might like Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management by David Anderson.
One of the ideas that the two organizations focus on is the idea of the GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) over the GDP, for the reasons you mentioned in your comment. Hope you find these links of interest, thanks for stopping by!
Ali