Economics as if people mattered
Robert Costanza is professor of ecological economics at the University of Vermont and director of the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics. He talks about the things most economists overlook, like the fact that growth can't continue forever on a finite planet, and the ways our well-being is not connected with how much money we have.
To solve real-world problems, he and his colleagues have found The Solutions Journal, a free, on-line journal. In recent article for the journal, they argue that a simple (in concept) regulatory change could prevent future BP-type oil gushers in the gulf. It requires knowing how much the services of the Gulf ecosystems are worth--and one of Costanza's colleagues has calculated that the Mississippi River Delta alone provides $12-47 billion or more in benefits to people each year.
Peak Oil Check-In: Subsidies to Fossil Fuels Make Our Addiction Worse (Part 1)
