In science, ecological economics is the study of the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense. [7] Ecological economics, in more detail, is the study of economic systems confined by ecological awareness, constraints, and scarcities often centered around ways to promote sustainability. The subject of “ecological economics” is often found intertwined with thermodynamics logic; in the sense of being syncretism of ecological thermodynamics and economic thermodynamics. [1]
Overview
The 1971-76 work of Romanian mathematician Nicholas Georgescu, according to Japanese economist Kozo Mayumi, originated the field of ecological economics. [3] Others site American economist Herman Daly, a student of Georgescu-Roegen, as an originator in the field. [4] It is also argued that the 1975-17 work of English economist Kenneth Boulding helped to pioneer in the field, having also introduced the concept of entropy in ecological economics, particularly on the subject of waste material management. [5]
In 1989, the journal of Ecological Economics was launched under the direction of founding editor American ecological economist Robert Costanza.
The 1995 book A Survey of Ecological Economics, edited by Rajaram Krishnan, Johathan Harris, and Neva Goodwin, is a collection of 95 original essays, articles, and response letters written by a wide assortment of noted thinkers, that seems to be well representative of the field of "ecological economics". [6]
Difficulties
The use and understanding of thermodynamics in this field is often baseless, largely owing to the fact the central founder of this field is Romanian mathematician Nicholas Georgescu who confused the second law in such a way as to suppose that fossil fuels are a type of entropy (or material entropy as he put conceived it) that tend to be wasted in accordance with the mandates of the second law. This has led to many obscure and nearly incorrigible papers, most written by individuals with nearly no fundamental training or schooling in thermodynamics, on subjects such as the thermodynamics of recycling. As such, the concept of "entropy" is often found way out of context, e.g. citing the first law of thermodynamics as the "law of conservation of energy-mass". [2]
References
1. Baumgärtner, Stefan. (2003). Entropy. Internet Encyclopaedia of Ecological Economics, Feb.
2. Costanza, Robert and Wainger, Lisa. (1991). Ecological Economics: the Science and Management of Sustainability (keywords: thermodynamics, entropy). Columbia University Press.
3. Mayumi, Kozo. (2001). The Origins of Ecological Economics: The Bioeconomics of Georgescu-Roegen. London: Routledge.
4. Daly, Herman E. and Farley, Joshua. (2004). Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (keywords: thermodynamics, entropy). Island Press.
5. Mayumi, Kozo and Giampietro, Mario. (2004). Ch. 5: “Entropy in Ecological Economics” (pgs. 80-101) in Modelling in Ecological Economics by John Proops and Paul Safonov. Edward Elgar Publishing.
6. Krishnan, Rajaram, Harris, Jonathan, and Goodwin, Neva R. (1995). A Survey of Ecological Economics. Island Press.
7. Heijungs, Reinout. (2001). A Theory of the Environment and Economic Systems (pg. 39). Edward Elgar.
Further reading
● Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas. (1986). “The Entropy Law and the Economic Process in Retrospect.” Eastern Economic Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, Jan.-Mar. pgs. 3-25.
● Peet, John. (1992). Energy and the Ecological Economics of Sustainability. Washington DC: Island Press.
● Sollner, Fritz. (1997). “A Reexamination of the Role of Thermodynamics for Environmental Economics (abstract).” Ecological Economics, Vol. 22, Issue 3, Sept. pgs. 175-201.
● Costanza, Robert. (1997). An Introduction to Ecological Economics (thermodynamics, 13+ pages). CRC Press.
● Buenstorf, Guido. (2000). “Self-organization and Sustainability: Energetics of Evolution and Implications for Ecological Economics”, Ecological Economics, 33: 119-134.
● Rees, William E. (2003). (ch. 8: Understanding Urban Ecosystems: an Ecological Economics Perspective, pgs. 115-36; Section: Ecological Economics and the Second Law, pgs. 120-, etc.). In Understanding Urban Ecosystems: A New Frontier for Science and Education by Alan R. Berkowitz, Charles H. Nilon, Karen S. Hollweg, Springer.
● Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten. (2011). “The Evolutionary Approach to Entropy: Reconciling Georgescu-Roegen’s Natural Philosophy with the Maximum Entropy Framework” (abs) Ecological Economics.
External links
● Ecological economics – Wikipedia.
