Going to extremes

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

It only took us a century to use up the best of the planet’s finite reserves of fossil fuels. The dawning century will be a lot different.

The fat-takers cross the oceans

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

From its beginnings more than five centuries ago, European colonization has been based on an unsustainable exploitation of resources.

The Collapse of Rhetoric. Can Economists and Ecologists Talk to Each Other?

By Katy Shields, Ugo Bardi, The Seneca Effect

At the time of Seneca, rhetoric was perhaps the main skill of a man of culture: the capability of debating was valued and practiced.

Economics and the environment

By Caroline Whyte, Feasta

If I’m asked about the role economics plays in the environment and sustainability, my answer would be ‘what kind of economics are you talking about’?

Ecological and Feminist Economics: an Interview with Julie A. Nelson

By Julie Nelson, Jamie Morgan, Real World Economics Review

It’s much easier to teach students how to shift curves, solve equations, and run regressions, than to carefully observe economic life and think deeply and critically about it. Students also tend to feel comfortable – and even feel powerful – when told “here, we are handing you the exact tools and models you need to use to understand how the economy works.”

The Promise of Ecological Economics

By Aaron Karp, The Trouble

Mainstream economics offers no solutions to climate chaos; ecological economics envisions a path forward.

What is ‘Ecological Economics’ and Why Do We Need to Talk About it?

By Anitra Nelson, Brian Coffey, The Conversation

As environmental crises and the urgency to create ecological sustainability escalate, so does the importance of ecological economics. This applied, solutions-based field of studies is concerned with sustainability and development, rather than efficiency and growth.

A Green New Deal for an Ecological Economy

By Leah Temper, Sam Bliss, Uneven Earth

In their textbook Ecological Economics, Herman Daly and Josh Farley list sustainability and justice as the field’s first two goals. If the GND’s goal is to facilitate, through policy, the transition to a socially equitable low-carbon economy, then ecological economics basically bills itself as the science of the Green New Deal.

Economics 101 and Ecological Collapse

By Edward Fulbrook, Local Futures

Annually, millions of students around the world are forced to study textbooks that indoctrinate them into thinking that there is no significant causal connection between our economy and the ecosphere.

Helicopter Money and a Game of Kick the Can (Episode 12 of Crazy Town)

By Asher Miller, Rob Dietz, Jason Bradford, Nate Hagens, Resilience.org

Have you ever wondered how dolphins feel about quantitative easing? OK, probably not, but it is important to consider the effects that money and monetary policy have on the real world of energy, society, and the environment. Nate Hagens joins Asher, Rob, and Jason to discuss said dolphins, a never-ending Grateful Dead concert, and the prospects of two mature solar panels giving birth to a little bitty baby solar panel.

Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise

By Nafeez Ahmed, Insurge Intelligence

Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We’re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet’s environmental resources.

How the Light Gets In

By Tim Jackson, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity

It’s probably fitting that Michael Liebreich’s The Secret of Eternal Growth was published so close to Halloween. It’s so full of outlandish bogeymen, it sits perfectly alongside the ghouls and the ghosts of the trick-or-treat season.