From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu Dec 01 2005 - 08:38:45 EST
This may be the most revealing page: it's a listing of the True Cost economists. Some surprising names made the list. In solidarity, Jerry --------------------------------------------------------------------- True Cost Economics : Economists ECONOMISTS LEAD THE CHANGE These economists are the leading visionaries in the charge to take down neoclassical economics. You'll find they provide sturdy shoulders to stand on. E.F. Schumacher E.F. Schumacher liked it when fellow economists dismissed his unorthodox ideas and called him a crank. He took the barb as a compliment because "the crank is the part of the machine which creates revolution and it is very small. I am a small revolutionary!" Besides, Schumacher's economic credentials were too impressive ... [more] Kenneth Boulding Kenneth Boulding gave the field of economics a healthy dose of self-criticism. "Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world," he argued "is either a madman or an economist." And while his fellow economists may not have appreciated the dig, they couldn't dismiss Boulding's opinion ... [more] Howard Odum Chaos theory. the laws of thermodynamics. few economists understand how these principles could possibly impact their work, even though they trumpet their profession's supposed scientific rigor. For Howard Odum, however, these principles were central to economics and life in general: "The classical struggle ... [more] Herman Daly Herman Daly has been ostracized from the fraternity of economists because he doesn't worship at the altar of unlimited growth. He believes that one of the main problems with his estranged colleagues is that "they think that the only way to solve environmental problems is to get richer and don't consider for a minute that growth ... [more] Robert Costanza Robert Costanza figures that if the earth were a company, its balance sheet would look so lousy that "we would definitely fire the CEO." And Costanza would be among the most active shareholders. He is a co-founder and past president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, which currently boasts over 3,000 members ... [more] Bill Rees Bill Rees remembers the day he had his first ecological epiphany. He was nine or ten years old, sitting down for lunch on his grandmother's country porch after toiling in her fields all day. Looking down on his plate of young new carrots, little potatoes and fresh lettuce, he "realized that there wasn't a single thing on the plate ... [more] Marilyn Waring Marilyn Waring wishes her election to new zealand's parliament at 22 - making her the country's youngest MP ever - wasn't such a remarkable feat. After all, "It's supposed to be a house of representatives, so it shouldn't have been so quaint." There was no questioning Waring's competence, however, once she rose to chair the Public Expenditures Committee after a mere two years as MP...[more] Paul Hawken A spider can spin silk as strong as kevlar, without using high temperatures or sulphuric acid. Trees use sunlight and water to make cellulose, a sugar with greater bending strength than steel. In his acclaimed book Natural Capitalism, Paul Hawken (with co-authors Amory and Hunter Lovins) proposes an industrial system ... [more] Amory Lovins To Amory Lovins, an energy efficient vehicle isn't just one that uses cleaner fuel in a traditional combustion engine. It's a machine in which every part is efficient, from lightweight carbon fiber materials shaped to reduce drag, to a clean burning hydrogen fuel cell engine...[more] Lester Brown When Lester Brown challenged China's right to advance its economy by emulating Western patterns of consumption, his critics jumped. His 1994 book, Who Will Feed China? predicted that if Chinese rates of consumption increase to US levels, neither China nor the rest of the world will be able to support its food needs ... [more] Clifford Cobb In 1995, Clifford Cobb and two colleagues from the california think tank Redefining Progress wrote an eloquent critique of the Gross Domestic Product. The article, which appeared as a cover story for the Atlantic Monthly, explained how this outmoded measure of economic growth is itself crippling progress ... [more] RISING STARS David Batker Six years ago, David Batker was arrested for talking to reporters on behalf of Greenpeace in a protest against factory trawlers in Seattle. Since then, the former World Bank economist has rarely strayed from public view as a vocal critic of the WTO and IMF, a community educator on pollution, deforestation and fisheries and as co-author of an influential study on the perils of shrimp aquaculture. In 2003, Batker's peers awarded him the first ever Herman Daly Award for his work in ecological economics. Josh Farley Josh Farley is a renaissance economist. with degrees in economics, international affairs and biology, the University of Vermont professor embodies the transdisciplinary nature of the new economics paradigm. Recently he co-authored the first comprehensive textbook on ecological economics with Herman Daly. Not content to just teach in the classroom, Farley has traveled to Australia, Brazil and the Philippines to work hands-on with community groups and governments in community-driven projects. In his opinion, "ecological economics is too important to focus primarily on academic studies that circulate among a group of . . . peers before slowly diffusing out to the broader public." Mark Anielski Mark Anielski started out as a forest economist and has become a leading light in the field of natural capital accounting. His work with the Pembina Institute and Redefining Progress has been essential to the development of the Genuine Progress Indicator. In 2001 he released a GPI scorecard for Alberta, Canada, making that province one of the few jurisdictions with an accurate measure of progress. He has used the GPI to help governments and businesses develop sustainability programs that account for all forms of capital. As far as he's concerned, "If Coca-Cola operated its accounts the way we operate our System of National Accounts, they'd be bankrupt." Peter May Peter May's work bringing agroforestry to Brazil has taken on a new dimension as the consequences of global warming become more urgent. Besides combating rainforest degradation, his work combining native plant reforestation with small-scale agriculture has created newly competitive real estate markets and local industries around seed trade and forest management. But lately it's the role these born again forests play in reducing carbon emissions that has the attention of policymakers looking for ways to implement Kyoto. As carbon credits gain credibility, look for May's agroforests to be cropping up everywhere. Tom Green The Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, Canada, accounts for a quarter of the world's remaining unprotected coastal temperate rainforest. Three years ago, conservation groups, logging companies and aboriginal groups reached a landmark agreement to develop an ecosystem-based approach to using the land. At the time, local ecological economist Tom Green co-authored an influential report on the ecological impact of economic subsidies for the logging industry. Three years later, with promises of protection slipping under political pressure, Green's economic analyses are at the forefront of the struggle to protect what's left of our natural resources. Peter Tyedmers Peter Tyedmers uses the accounting tools of ecological economics to measure the amount of energy commercial fisheries consume against the nutritional energy we're getting in return. Large scale, industrial fisheries now account for the majority of fish caught globally. According to Tyedmers, the fossil fuel energy used in most of these fisheries exceeds the nutritional energy reaped by the catch by at least ten times. In related work, Tyedmers is using natural accounting methods to measure the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by commercial fisheries. Mathis Wackernagel As a doctoral student under Bill Rees, Mathis Wackernagel helped develop Rees's idea of the ecological footprint into a tool that measures the natural resources we use compared to what nature can provide. The resulting book, Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on Earth introduced the concept to the world. Now, with his Global Footprint Network (www.ecofoot.net), Wackernagel is taking his tools for sustainability to governments and urban planners, recently working with the city of London's business council to find ways to reduce that city's footprint. Richard Howarth Are people concerned enough about the environment to change the way they consume? Who really cares about future generations? Richard Howarth is a scientist who compares our habits of consumption with our perceptions of well-being to see how willing we are to sacrifice our lifestyles for future generations. In one study, he models various carbon tax levels and the reduction in global warming each would result in. Combining economics, human psychology and ethics, his work is shaping the way policies like Kyoto will be implemented.
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