Sustaining what for whom?

1
Sustaining what for whom?

• Optimizing in the face of scarcity

2
What is sustainability?

• A non-declining capital stock weak
  sustainability.
• Natural capital assets...should not decline
  through time. Pearce strong sustainability

3
Of the myriad definitions

• They are all trying to get at several things
• facing limits
• meeting needs
• equity
• avoiding disaster

4
Toward what purpose?

• Avoid human emiseration resulting from
  irreversible damage to ecosystems.
• Implication now and into the future

5
Economics and sustainability

• All economics begins with one premise
• Every action has an opportunity cost.
• Why?
• Scarcity is a given.

6
Enter ecological economics

• Markets do many things well, but they do not
  recognize ultimate limits.
• 1st and 2nd Laws
• Optimization at the margin ignores scale.
• The assumption of substitutability

7
Achieving sustainability requires

• Modifying economic models.
• Thinking in time scales to which we are not
  accustomed.
• Reconsidering whether GDP really measures
  beneficial change.
• Letting prices reflect real opportunity costs.