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  • From: Barry Carter <bcarter@igc.apc.org>
  • To: Unleesh@aol.com, Permacltur@aol.com, fronsk@cats.ucsc.edu, owner-permaculture@envirolink.org, permaculture@envirolink.org
  • Subject: Re: Industrialism?
  • Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 11:24:44 -0700

Dear Friends,

These issues and more are regularly discussed on the Ecological Economics
email discussion list. Subscription information for this list can be found at:

http://csf.colorado.edu/

CSF stands for Communications for a Sustainable Future. The CSF site above
also has information about subscribing to a CSF sponsored permaculture
email discussion list.

A gentleman on the Ecological Economics list posts his "links of the month"
relating to economics and the environment. Here is a sample of these links:

NATURAL CAPITALISM
http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MA97/hawken.html
This article by Paul Hawken appeared in Mother Jones March/April 1997.
"We can create new jobs, restore our environment, and promote social
stability" writes Paul Hawken. "Somewhere along the way to free-market
capitalism, the United States became the most wasteful society on the
planet. One is tempted to say that there is nothing wrong with
capitalism except that it has never been tried. Our current industrial
system is based on accounting principles that would bankrupt any
company. Conventional economic theories will not guide our future for a
simple reason: They have never placed "natural capital" on the balance
sheet. When it is included, not as a free amenity or as a putative
infinite supply, but as an integral and valuable part of the production
process, everything changes. Prices, costs, and what is and isn't
economically sound change dramatically.
To create a policy that supports resource productivity will require a
shift away from taxing the social "good" of labor, toward taxing the
social "bads" of resource exploitation, pollution, fossil fuels, and
waste. "


MEASURING PROGRESS - By Friends of the Earth
http://www.foe.co.uk/progress/index.html
"Measuring the success of our economy is vital if we are to know what
effects our policies are having on society. However, the main
'indicator' used to measure progress, the GDP, is inadequate. It is a
brute measure of total economic activity, and a poor reflection of
people's well-being. This site looks at the strengths and weaknesses of
the most advanced alternative indicator - the Index of Sustainable
Economic Welfare (ISEW). "
The ISEW indicator shown has grown from 1950 to 1975 but has been
declining steadily since then.
A particular interesting feature of the site is, that it is interactive.
You can create your own ISEW to reflect the values you feel are
important by adjusting the 9 factors, it is composed of - some of which
are ecological. You will find it quite sensitive to such adjustments,
raising the question, how good an indicator it is.


TAX WASTE, NOT WORK - a report published by "Redefining Progress"
(1997)
http://www.rprogress.org/pubs/twnw/twnw_execsum.html
"Offers a new approach to fiscal and environmental policy -- a
revenue-neutral shift to resource taxes or emission permits -- which
holds the potential to strengthen the economy, protect the environment,
and encourage investment and savings -- all in a way that could attract
broad political support. It provides an analysis of the impact of
shifting some of America's tax burden away from productive activities
that should be encouraged, such as work and savings, onto activities
that should be discouraged, such as pollution, waste, and energy
inefficiency. "
An introduction to the report was written by MIT's Paul Krugman .
It is on the site.

The Paul Hawken article is a particularly significant contribution to the
discussion of how to go about creating incentives for treating the Earth
better.

More of these links can be found on his web site at:

http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/Agerley.Harald/mylin/gatepage.html

--
With kindest regards,

Barry Carter
<bcarter@igc.apc.org>
Blue Mountain Native Forest Alliance
WEB Page: http://www.triax.com/bmnfa/index.htm
Voice: 541-523-3357
Fax: 541-523-9438

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