The Wealth of Nature

268 Pages·2003·1.28 MB·English

by  Robert Nadeau

the wealth of nature

the wealth of nature
How Mainstream Economics Has Failed
the Environment
Robert L. Nadeau
Columbia University Press New York
columbia university press
Publishers Since 
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library ofCongress Cataloging-
in-Publication Data
Nadeau, Robert, –
The wealth ofnature : how mainstream
economics has failed the environment /
Robert L. Nadeau.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-––
isbn-–– (pbk.)
. Economic development—Environmental aspects.
. Globalization—Economic aspects.
. Globalization—Environmental aspects.
I. Title.
HD . .N 
.—dc 
Columbia University Press books
are printed on permanent and
durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Designed by Audrey Smith
c 
p 
To my wife,Kathy Wax
with gratitude for all
her patience and understanding.

contents
Introduction
ix
chapter1.spaceship earth
Homo economicusand the Environmental Crisis
1
chapter2.the not so worldly philosophers
Metaphysics,Newtonian Physics,and Classical Economics
19
chapter3.the emperor has no clothes
The Neoclassical Economists and Mid-Nineteenth Century Physics
37
chapter4.no free lunch
Mainstream Economics and Globalization
77
chapter5.a green thumb on the invisible hand
Environmental Economics
113
chapter6.schisms,heresies,and keeping the faith
Ecological Economics
133
chapter7.the real economy in biology
Emergence and a New View of Order
149
contents
chapter8.the real economy in physics
Cosmic Connections
163
chapter9.toward a new theory of economics
The Costs of Doing Business in the Global Environment
185
chapter10.the ceremony of innocence
Science,Ethics,and the Environmental Crisis
207
Notes
225
Index
241
viii
introduction
O
nce, during a flight from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., I
observed vast numbers of trucks and milelong strings of railroad cars mov-
ing along extensive networks of highways and tracks that threaded in all
directions like a circulation system in some giant organism. Products from
factories and farms were moving through these arteries toward distant cities
and coastal ports, while raw or processed materials were flowing in the other
direction to processing and manufacturing plants. I imagined that the web-
like connections between electric power plants, transformers, cables, lines,
phones, radios, televisions, and computers could be compared with the
spine and branches of a central nervous system, and that centers of produc-
tion, distribution, and exchange could be likened to tissues and organs. I
enlarged this frame in my mind’s eye to include all of the centers of pro-
duction, distribution, and exchange and all of the connections between
them in the global economy. This conjured up the image of a superorgan-
ism that feeds off the living system of the planet and continually extends its
bodily organization and functions into every ecological niche.
I realized, of course, that the global economic system is not an organism.
It is a vast network of technological products and processes that human
beings created in an effort to enhance their material well-being by utilizing
the resources of nature. Our species was able to create this system because
our evolutionary history was, in one fundamental respect, unique. The evo-
lution of the bodies and brains of our ancestors resulted, about sixty thou-
sand years ago, in the capacity to acquire and use fully complex language
systems. In these systems, a limited number of basic sounds, or phonemes,
can be grouped together variously in word symbols within complex gram-
matical and syntactical structures to convey an infinite variety of meanings.
The ability to coordinate experience based on themes and narratives
and to externalize ideas as artifacts allowed our ancestors to live in non-
species-specific environments and to increase their numbers well beyond