Ecological Economics offers an authoritative overview of a rapidly developing discipline lying at the interface of economics, natural science and philosophy. This pioneering new book focuses on the concepts and methods required to integrate sciences and humanities in order to build ecological economics.Ecological Economics as a practice seeks to comprehend the evolving interactions between humans and the natural world. Ranging across the discipline from its conceptual and philosophical foundations to problems of global warming and waste production in the chemicals industry, the authors confidently address the central dilemma of control over nature by humans ignorant of the environmental impacts of their actions. Faber, Manstetten and Proops argue convincingly for an evolutionary approach to human-nature interactions and for the use of natural science concepts, such as entropy. Students and researchers concerned with environmental, resource and ecological economics will welcome Ecological Economics as a convincing and innovative approach to the creation of a discipline capable of contributing to a new relationship between human and non-human nature.

Klimawandel, Artensterben, Energie- und Rohstoffmangel sind globale Herausforderungen, die unmittelbar mit unserer Wirtschaftsweise verbunden sind. Sie betreffen unser Dasein im Kern und gefährden die Möglichkeiten, heute und in Zukunft, als Gesellschaft und individuell, ein gutes Leben zu führen.  Der Raum der Fragen, für die wir Antworten benötigen, erscheint grenzenlos und das Finden des „richtigen“ Pfades für den globalen Wandel zunehmend utopisch. Wie behalten wir angesichts hochkomplexer Zusammenhänge und Wechselwirkungen den Überblick? Wie können wir Wesentliches vom Unwesentlichen unterscheiden? Welche grundlegenden Beziehungen in der Natur müssen wir in Rechnung stellen? Welche Wirtschaftsweise ist angemessen? Was ist gerecht? Und unter welchen Bedingungen sind Menschen veränderungsbereit? Dieses Buch bietet Orientierung. Es behandelt Konzepte aus den Natur-, den Wirtschaftswissenschaften und der Philosophie – u.a. Zeit, Thermodynamik, Knappheit, Verantwortung und Gerechtigkeit – die aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln ein Verständnis der anstehenden Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit ermöglichen. Idealerweise dienen sie als Leitlinien für wirksame Entscheidungen und zeigen auf, wie trotz immenser Herausforderungen Wandel möglich wird. Das Buch richtet sich an alle, die am Wandel in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit mitwirken wollen - sei es in Politik, Wirtschaft, Verwaltung oder Zivilgesellschaft.

In today's world - despite the dramatic anthropogenic environmental changes - a proper understanding of the relationship between humanity and nature requires a certain detachment. The pressing problems in their whole extent will only be fully understood and solved with comprehensive and patient analysis. Accordingly, this book develops new perspectives on fundamental questions of biology, ecology, and the economy, integrated within a framework of a terminology specially devised by the authors. By illuminating the epistemological backgrounds of ecological-economic research, the authors lay foundations for interdisciplinary environmental research and offer guidelines for practical action. In close contact to the findings of present-day biology and economics, they demonstrate the fruitfulness as well as the shortcomings of modern science for the understanding of the proper place of humankind in nature.. Frequently, current problems in the fields of economics, ecology, politics, philosophy and biology are discussed in a kind of "dialogue" with thinkers and poets like Bacon, Quesnay, Kant, Goethe and Novalis. On the other hand, the book offers traits of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of thought: a precise, analytical approach to theory and a pragmatic approach to action. Both approaches are used by the authors complementarily. Thus the authors lay the foundations for an ecological economical and political practice which is able to tackle concrete environmental problems on an encompassing and long-term basis. This translated volume will be of great use and interest to students of ecology, economics and in particular environmental education, sustainable development and environmental ethics.

In today's world - despite the dramatic anthropogenic environmental changes - a proper understanding of the relationship between humanity and nature requires a certain detachment. The pressing problems in their whole extent will only be fully understood and solved with comprehensive and patient analysis. Accordingly, this book develops new perspectives on fundamental questions of biology, ecology, and the economy, integrated within a framework of a terminology specially devised by the authors.

By illuminating the epistemological backgrounds of ecological-economic research, the authors lay foundations for interdisciplinary environmental research and offer guidelines for practical action. In close contact to the findings of present-day biology and economics, they demonstrate the fruitfulness as well as the shortcomings of modern science for the understanding of the proper place of humankind in nature.. Frequently, current problems in the fields of economics, ecology, politics, philosophy and biology are discussed in a kind of "dialogue" with thinkers and poets like Bacon, Quesnay, Kant, Goethe and Novalis. On the other hand, the book offers traits of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of thought: a precise, analytical approach to theory and a pragmatic approach to action. Both approaches are used by the authors complementarily.

Thus the authors lay the foundations for an ecological economical and political practice which is able to tackle concrete environmental problems on an encompassing and long-term basis. This translated volume will be of great use and interest to students of ecology, economics and in particular environmental education, sustainable development and environmental ethics.

This ground-breaking book focuses on neo-Austrian capital theory and its application to the modelling of long-run economy-environment interactions. The book begins by presenting an overview of the modelling approach and offers an historical survey of capital theory and its development. The authors then provide a detailed introduction to the neo-Austrian modelling technique and extend it to include time horizons and growth models. The model is then applied to environmental issues such as green national accounts, resource rents and climate change to show how the neo-Austrian approach gives fresh and illuminating insights. An empirical application to the iron and steel industry is also presented. Capital and Time in Ecological Economics will be of interest to ecological and environmental economists, economic capital theorists and all those following developments in the neo-Austrian approach to economics.

This groundbreaking book takes a fresh look at how environmental problems emerge from economic activity and how they may be addressed in a responsible and sustainable manner. At its centre is the concept of joint production. This captures the phenomenon whereby several effects necessarily emerge from one activity and whereby human action always entails unintended consequences. This, according to the authors, is the structural cause behind modern-day environmental problems. Combining concepts and methods from philosophy of science, systems theory, thermodynamics, economics and ethics in a truly interdisciplinary manner, the authors convincingly argue that the joint-production perspective has fundamental and far-reaching implications for the valuation of economic goods, the dynamic analysis of economy-environment interactions, and the accumulation of stocks in ecological-economic systems. Complementing the joint-production perspective with the ethical notion of responsibility, the authors develop principles of sustainable environmental policy, and give philosophical support to the precautionary principle. Four extensive case studies illustrate and deepen the approach. With a wide range of analysis and case studies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in ecological economics, environmental and resource economics, environmental policy and regulation, environmental valuation, as well as environmental ethics and responsibility.

The global greenhouse effect may be one of the greatest challenges ever to face humankind. If fossil fuel use, and the consequent CO emissions, 2 continue to increase at their current trend, there is the possibility that over the next century there will be massive climate change and the flooding of coastal areas. The economics profession is beginning to respond to this challenge, through seeking to understand the economic processes which detennine the demand for energy, the proportion of this energy supplied by fossil fuels, and the policy instruments available for reducing fossil fuel demand while still supplying appropriate amounts of energy. This study is a contribution to that literature. We examine the impact of structural changes in the German and UK economies upon CO emissions 2 over the last two decades, and explore the potential for further structural change to reduce such emissions. This study is different from much of the current literature, in that we do not presuppose that the respective economies consist of only one, or a few, sectors. Instead, we analyse the interrelationships of 47 sectors for about 20 years, using input-output methods. We also deal with the effects of the changing sectoral structure of imports and exports of these two countries on the 'responsibility' for CO emissions. On the basis of this extensive evidence we have a solid 2 foundation to develop different scenarios to show how the 'Toronto target' of reducing CO emissions by 20% over 20 years can be achieved.

This book has been used as a text in the Departments of Econo- mics at the University of Heidelberg (FRG) during the last decade and the University of Bern (Switzerland) during the last seven years. We therefore were glad when Dr. Muller of Springer-Verlag offered to publish a soft cover version of the second edition, to make the next economically more accessible to students. Heidelberg and Bern, January 1995 Malte Faber Horst Niemes Gunter Stephan Preface to the First Edition This book is one of the products of a three-year research project. Our objectives were: - to apply neo-Austrian capital theory to long-run problems of en- vironmental protection and resource use; - to develop an approach that takes physical relationships into consideration; - to narrow the gap between theory and practice in environmental economics. For this purpose, we established three interrelated research pro- grams. In the first of these we supplemented and generalized neo- Austrian capital theory (STEPHAN 1980, REISS 1981, FABER 1986). In the second which is presented in this volume we developed an interdisciplinary approach to natural resources. Using concepts and methods from thermodynamics we investigated environmental and resource problems and their interrelationships. Finally, in the third research program we authored the monograph "Umweltschutz und Input-Output-Analyse. Mit zwei Fallstudien aus der Wassergiite- wirtschaft" (Environmental Protection and Input-Output-Analysis.

This second edition is brought about by two factors. First, the initial printing sold out much more rapidly than we expected. Second, several colleagues have been kind enough to suggest that this book not only has a contribution to make to ecological economics, but also has relevance to economics general. Thus our OUf distinction distinction between between genotypic genotypic and phenotypic evolution may be used to characterise not only economic sectors, but also whole economies, and in particular economic schools of thought. For instance, the Austrian subjectivist school deals explicitly with ignorance and the emergence of novelty, and may therefore be used to analyse genotypic development. In contrast, neoclassical economics deals principally with phenotypic development. When Dr. Muller Muller of Springer-Verlag suggested the production of a second edition, we were therefore pleased that this book might remain available. Several readers and in particular reviewers of the first edition remarked, in one way or the other, that they had questions concerning several of our OUf concepts, concepts, such as genotype, phenotype, ignorance, surprise, sUlprise, novelty, novelty, knowledge, knowledge, predictable predictable and unpredictable processes etc. Of course, all these concepts are of importance for evolution in general and for invention and innovation of new techniques in particular. We therefore considered some modifications and extensions of the original text, but on the advice of colleagues, have restricted oUfselves ourselves to correcting mistakes that crept into the first edition and to two extensions ofthe of the text, text, one major, one smaller."

The neglect of time in general and of the time structure of production in particular in mainstream economics led to the rebirth of the Austrian tradition in the seventies. The names of BERNHCLZ, HICKS, KIRZNER and VON WEIZSACKER are representative of different approaches. In 1979 my "Introduction to Modern Austrian Capital Theory" appeared, in which I unified various papers BERNHOLZ and I had written. I also linked our approach to those of VON NEUMANN, of HICKS and of neoclassical capital theory. These "Studies" supplement and continue my "Introduction" in various ways. With all the authors of the present volume I have cooperated for several years. This volume is subdivided into five parts. The first one, Historical Perspectives, gives first an outline on the development of Austrian capital theory from its origins to the present. Next it relates Modern Austrian Capital Theory to SRAFFA's theory and to the Austrian subjectivists' pure time preference theory of interest. The latter theory is represented in its opposition to the traditional productivity-cum-time preference explanation of interest, which is. common t9 neoclassical and BOHM-BAWERKian capital theory alike. The Austrian subjectivist pure time preference theory has been misinterpreted in its recent presentation, which has led to misunderstandings. It is shown that there is no real contradiction between the two appoaches.

During the fifties and the sixties the neoclassical concept of the production function was criticized in numerous papers. In particular, the aggregation of different capital goods into a single number was reprehended. A second essential disadvantage, namely the neglect of the time structure of the production process, found, however, rela tively little attention. While up to the thirties the Austrian capital theory which stressed the time aspect of production was an important school, it fell into oblivion after the great capital controversies of the thirties. It took over thirty years, i. e. till the beginning of the seventies be fore it came to a renaissance of the Austrian capital theory by var ious writers. We may roughly classify the different attempts of Hits rebirth in modern economics" into three groups: 1. The approach of ~ [1970, 1973, 1973a] has received most of the attention in the literature (Burmeister [1974], Faber [1975], Fehl [1975], ~[1975], Hagemann and ~ [1976]). It will be shown in Chapter 9 that ~ is only in so far a Neo-Austrian as he does explicitly take into consideration the vertical time structure of the production process. But he does not use the Austrian concepts of superiority of roundabout methods, of time preference and of the period of production. 2. The latter concept has been revived by the second group, to which Tintner [1970], von Weizs~cker [1971a, 1971b, 1974], ~ [1971, 1976 and ~ [1973, 1975, 1976] belong.

Jedes Jahr verursacht unsere bisherige Produktions- und Verbrauchsweise grosse Mengen an Hausmull. An Industrieabfall, Bauschutt und Bodenaushub kommt noch die zehnfache Abfallmenge hinzu. Weit uber die Halfte dieser Mengen werden bisher deponiert. Sowohl aus geologischen als auch aus politischen Grunden ist das noch verfugbare Volumen der bundesdeutschen Deponien begrenzt und reicht nur noch wenige Jahre aus. Ein Umdenken in der Abfallwirtschaft ist daher erforderlich: Abfalle mussen in grossen Mengen vermieden oder wieder verwertet werden. Dazu ist es notwendig, dass Produktions- und Verbrauchsweise sich andern. Ziel des Buches ist es zu zeigen, wie das durch die Erhebung einer Abgabe auf zu deponierende Abfalle bewirkt werden kann und welche wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen zu erwarten sind. Anhand von Szenarien und Fallstudien werden die durch eine Abfallabgabe ausgeloesten Anpassungsprozesse erlautert, umweltpolititische Rahmenbedingungen und Schwierigkeiten der Durchsetzung werden diskutiert. Die erste Auflage wurde grundlich redaktionell uberarbeitet und an einigen Stellen erganzt. Insbesondere wurde ein zusatzliches Kapitel uber umweltpolitische Handlungsprinzipien angefugt, in dem die Autoren ihre Erfahrungen zusammenfassen, die sie seit Erscheinen der ersten Auflage in Diskussionen mit Vertretern von Politik, Behoerden, Verbanden, Industrie und Wissenschaft gewonnen haben.