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OVERVIEW As the name suggests, the field is comprised of researchers with a background in Economics and Ecology . An important motivation for the emergence of ecological economics has been criticism on the assumptions and approaches of traditional (mainstream) Environmental And Resource Economics . Ecological economics presents a more pluralistic approach to the study of environmental problems and policy solutions, characterized by systems perspectives, adequate physical and biological contexts, and a focus on long-term Environmental Sustainability . Ecological economics can be regarded as a version of Environmental Science with much emphasis on social, political, economic and behavioral issues. Its conceptual founders are regarded to be economists Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen , Kenneth Boulding and Herman Daly , ecologists C.S. Holling , H.T. Odum and Robert Costanza , biologist Gretchen Daily and physicist Robert Ayres . Daly and Costanza were critical in the institutional founding of the field - resulting in the establishment of the academic journal ''Ecological Economics'' and the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). Another notable school of thought in ecological economics is the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics.Masood, E. and Garwin, L. 1998. Costing the Earth: when ecology meets economics. ''Science'' 395: 426-427. HISTORY The origination of ecological economics as a specific field ''per se'' is credited to economist Herman Daly , a professor at University of Maryland and formerly an economist for the World Bank. Ecological economics has been popularized by ecologist and University of Vermont Professor Robert Costanza , who founded the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and carried out much of the founding research while at the University of Maryland. Economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994) who was among Daly's teachers at Vanderbilt University, provided ecological economics with a conceptual framework based on the material and energy flows of economic production and consumption. His ''magnum opus'' ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process'' (1971) has been highly influential.Georgescu-Roegen, N. 1971. ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Nobel prize-winning chemist, , David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill . Mill, in particular, by hypothesizing that the "stationary state" of an economy might be something that could be considered desirable, anticipated later insights of modern ecological economists, without having had their experience of the social and ecological costs of the dramatic post-World War II industrial expansion. CUNY geography professor David Harvey was one of the first to explicitly add ecological concerns to political economic literature. This parallel development in Political Economy has been continued by analysts such as sociologist John Bellamy Foster . TOPICS IN ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS Concept The objective of ecological economics (EE) is to ground economic thinking and practice in physical reality, especially in the laws of physics (particularly the Laws Of Thermodynamics ) and in knowledge of biological systems. It accepts as a goal the improvement of human wellbeing through economic development, and seeks to ensure achievement of this through planning for the Sustainable Development of ecosystems and societies. It distinguishes itself from Neoclassical Economics (NCE) primarily by its assertion that economics is a subfield of ecology, in that ecology deals with the energy and matter transactions of life and the Earth, and the human economy is by definition contained within this system. In contrast, NCE has historically assumed implicitly (and, more recently, explicitly) that the environment is a subset of the human economy. In this approach, if nature is valuable to our economies, that is because people will pay for its services such as clean air, clean water, encounters with wilderness, etc. It is largely this assertion which allows for NCE to claim theoretically that infinite economic growth is both possible and desirable. However, this belief disagrees with much of what the natural sciences have learned about the world, and, according to EE, completely ignores the contributions of Natural Capital to the creation of wealth. Natural capital can be considered the planetary endowment of scarce matter and energy, along with the complex and biologically diverse ecosystems that provide goods and Ecosystem Services directly to human communities: micro- and macro-climate regulation, water recycling, water purification, storm water regulation, waste absorption, pollination, protection from solar and cosmic radiation etc.Daily, G.C. 1997. ''Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems''. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. ''Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis''. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Allocation of resources While NCE deals with the efficient allocation of resources, it ignores two other fundamental economic problems which are central to ecological economics: distribution () while arguing that NCE confuses the two. EE challenges the common normative approach taken towards natural resources, claiming that it undervalues natural capital by displaying it as interchangeable with Human Capital --labor and technology. EE counters this convention by asserting that human capital is instead complementary to and dependent upon natural capital, as human capital inevitably derives from natural capital. From these premises, it follows that Economic Policy has a Fiduciary responsibility to the greater ecological world, and that, by undervaluing the importance of natural capital, sustainable development (as opposed to growth)--which is the only solution to elevating the Standard Of Living for citizens worldwide--will not result. Furthermore, ecological economists point out that, beyond modest levels, increased per-capita Consumption (the economist's version of "standard of living") does not necessarily lead to improvements in human wellbeing, while this same consumption can have harmful effects on the environment and even on broader societal wellbeing. Energy economics It rejects the view of Energy Economics that growth in the energy supply is related directly to well being, focusing instead on Biodiversity and Creativity - or natural capital and individual capital, in the terminology sometimes adopted to describe these economically. In practice, ecological economics focuses primarily on the key issues of Uneconomic Growth and Quality Of Life . Ecological economists are inclined to acknowledge that much of what is important in human well-being is not analyzable from a strictly economic standpoint and suggests an interdisciplinary approach combining social and natural sciences as a means to address this. Services provided by the environment A study was carried out by a number of leading ecological economists to determine the price of the services provided by the environment. This was determined by looking at the price to filter water and other such services provided by the environment. The total was determined to be 33 trillion dollars (in 1997 US dollars), more than twice the total - for being inconsistent with assumptions of Monetary Valuation - and ecological economists - for being inconsistent with an ecological economics focus on biological and physical indicators.Norgaard, R.B. and Bode, C. 1998. Next, the value of God, and other reactions. ''Ecological Economics'' 25: 37-39. SEE ALSO REFERENCES FURTHER READING
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