Knowra Ecological economics Ecological economics Ecological economics studies economies as embedded in societies and ecosystems, emphasizing biophysical limits, distribution, and the relationship between human well-being and the natural world.
Thermodynamics : The physical science of heat, energy, work, and the limits on their transformation. The laws of energy and entropy constrain the materials and energy economies can use.
Steady-state economy : An economy that maintains stable stocks of people and artifacts while limiting material and energy throughput. It translates ecological limits into a proposed economic condition beyond continual growth.
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen : A Romanian-American economist who applied thermodynamics to economic production and growth. His work helped establish the biophysical foundations of ecological economics.
Environmental economics : The application of economic tools to environmental problems, often focusing on externalities, incentives, and valuation. It commonly treats environmental damage as a problem to correct within standard economic analysis.
Ecosystem services : Benefits people obtain from ecosystems, including food, flood regulation, and nutrient cycling. They make visible how economies depend on ecological functions that markets often omit.
Ecological footprint : An accounting measure of the biologically productive area needed to support a population's resource use and waste. It estimates whether consumption exceeds the regenerative capacity of ecosystems.
Herman Daly : An American ecological economist known for developing the steady-state economy concept. He shaped the field's critique of indefinite economic growth.
Neoclassical economics : An economic tradition that explains choices and markets through preferences, scarcity, and marginal analysis. Ecological economics challenges models that give limited attention to biophysical scale and dependence.
Natural capital : The stocks of natural resources and ecological systems that generate goods and services. It represents ecological assets on which economic production and human welfare depend.
Doughnut economics : A framework for meeting social foundations while remaining within ecological ceilings. It visualizes the field's aim of combining human needs with planetary limits.
Show all 20