Ecological Economics

Goods and services from the natural world are vital components of the human economy. Ecosystem processes provide energy and regulate wastes, and natural resources are used for a variety of goods and services, including food, medicine, and recreation. Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field that studies the allocation of natural resources, with emphasis on the view of the human economy as a subset of the ecological world. Drawing on expertise from the natural [Page 821]and social sciences, physics, and other fields, ecological economists seek to include natural resources in the traditional economic view of capital and promote limitations of growth in favor of sustainable development. The field further redefines traditional ideas of sustainability to include responsible use of resources that does not preclude future generations ...