|
Written by wujinon
|
|
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
|
Page 1 of 2
-
Goodland [1] suggests that the widely accepted definition of economic sustainability is maintenance of capital, or keeping capital intact. This can be traced back to Hicks’s definition of income–the amount one can consume during a period and still be as well off at the end of the period – without reducing the real intergeneration equity.
Goodland further suggests that economic and manufactured capital is substitutable. In his paper Sustainability: Human, Social, Economic and Environmental, he notes:
-
Historically, economics has rarely been concerned with natural capital (NC) (e.g., intact forests, healthy air). To the traditional economic criteria of allocation and efficiency must now be added a third, that of scale (Daly, 1992). The scale criterion would constrain throughput growth-the flow of material and energy (NC) from environmental sources to sinks.
-
Economics values things in money terms, and has major problems valuing NC, intangible, intergenerational, and especially common access resources, such as air. Because people and irreversibles are at stake, economic policy needs to use anticipation and the precautionary principle routinely, and should err on the side of caution in the face of uncertainty and risk."
[1] Goodland, R., 2002, Encyclopaedia of Global Environmental Change. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
 Add as favourites (27) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 2530
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 January 2008 )
|
Sustainability ABC 
