SEEKING SOLUTIONS: CONNECTING ECONOMICS WITH HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
The fifth annual “Our Health, Our Environment: Making the Link” lecture series explored the relationship between the natural world, human society and our economic system. The series introduced Ecological Economics, a growing transdisciplinary field that aims to improve and expand economic theory to integrate the earth’s natural systems, human values and human health and well-being. The series started with a lecture on the principles of ecological economics, and continued to show how its solution-oriented approaches go beyond traditional ecology and economics to create a healthy, sustainable future at local, regional and global scales.
Principles of Ecological Economics: Guidance for a Sustainable Society
with Robert Costanza, PhD
January 23, 2008
What is ecological economics? Dr. Robert Costanza, an internationally renowned ecological economist, presented an overview. He explained the key concepts of ecological economics – notably, how ecosystems and their functions provide vital goods and services that directly benefit people, and how the valuation of ecosystem services in dollar terms gives critical economic justification for ecological sustainability. He also discussed how the framework of ecological economics promotes and sustains human health and well-being.
Dr. Costanza is professor and director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, a premier institution studying the relationships between human, ecological and economic systems. He is the cofounder and past president of the International Society for Ecological Economics, is past chief editor of the society’s journal, Ecological Economics and currently serves on editorial boards of various journals and steering committees of many organizations relating to sustainability.
Dr. Costanza’s video available from the Seattle Channel.
The Future of the Puget Sound Region: Applying Ecological Economics to Our Area
with David Batker, MS, and Katherine Davies, DPhil
February 13, 2008
What does an application of ecological economics mean to the Puget Sound region? The region currently serves as a major case study for a whole-system-based analysis by the Gund Institute. The effort is headed locally by Earth Economics where David Batker is the founder and director. He gave an overview of the critical concepts of ecological economics with specific application to the Puget Sound watershed and presented ideas and solutions for our region.
Using the health cost of diseases due to environmental factors as an example, Dr. Katherine Davies, director and faculty member of the Center for Creative Change at Antioch University Seattle, expanded our understanding of the ecological economics framework and highlighted the connection between our health, environment and economy. Together, Mr. Batker and Dr. Davies touched upon many of the elements necessary to sustain human well-being, including the vital importance of health and the environment, and present ideas for transforming the economy to support a healthy future in the Puget Sound region.
PowerPoint handouts for Dr. Davies’s lecture: Applying Ecological Economics to Puget Sound: Health, Environment, Economy (68 KB)
The Future of Energy: Applying Ecological Economics to Global Issues
with Cutler Cleveland, PhD
March 12, 2008
How useful is ecological economics in the real world? Dr. Cutler Cleveland, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University, will illustrated the key concepts of ecological economics as applied to energy economics. A particularly timely issue since energy is one of the most pressing issues in our society, energy economics is expected to grow more important every year due to increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and the connection to global warming. Dr. Cleveland elucidated many of the transdisciplinary aspects of energy and energy’s central role in society. Within the framework of ecological economics, he talked broadly about the relationship between the environment and society, including energy sources, distribution and taxation.
PowerPoint handouts for Dr. Cleveland’s lecture: Energry 101 (1,240 KB)
Lecture information sheet
Link to article co-written by Dr. Cleveland, The fundamental principles of energy, as posted on The Encyclopedia of Earth website.
Economics for the 21st Century: Creating a Collective Vision for a Sustainable Future
with Joshua Farley, PhD, and David Korten, PhD
April 30, 2008
Why do we need to imagine our future vision collectively? A broad, overlapping consensus around the goal of sustainable development is emerging but society still lacks a clear unified vision of what it entails. Ecological economics argues that without a coherent, relatively detailed, shared vision of what a sustainable society would look like, there will be no political will or united effort to take us from here to there. For the sake of future generations, we need to create one. Together, can we rethink the goals of our economic system to better support a sustainable future?
Dr. Joshua Farley is professor of Community Development and Applied Economics at the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont. Dr. David Korten is author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning and cofounder of Positive Futures Network. The presentation focused on envisioning a desirable, sustainable future and provided us with rich perspectives on potential economic models.
Link to Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable America website
Why It’s the New “Great Depression”, an interview with Fortune’s Allan Sloan
Banks Deep into Unregulated “Gambling” with Marketplace Senior Business Correspondent Bob Moon
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Town Hall Seattle
Center for Creative Change, Antioch University Seattle
The Russell Family Foundation
ORGANIZED BY:
The Institute for Children’s Environmental Health (ICEH)