Interview With An Ecological Economist

Q: So I take it that the two disciplines don’t mesh that well. Classical economists do not see nature as scarce nor do they always see its biophysical carrying capacity as a limiting factor to the continued expansion of Gross Domestic Product. In principle, most economists see no limit to the growth of the production of goods and services (measured by GDP growth) with technology and substitution of human/produced capital for natural capital with technology as having a continuous promise of redemption. Ecological economists see natural, human and social capital as assets that can depreciate, and that these need to be treated as such in the system of national accounts; they have thus proposed alternative measures to the GDP. More: http://grandinite.blogspot.com/2005/03/anielski-and-braaten-cafe.html