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Published in:
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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Introduction: Economics and Environmental Degradation

Authors : Wolfgang Buchholz, Dirk Rübbelke

Published in: Foundations of Environmental Economics

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This introductory chapter explains why economics has to play a central role in dealing with environmental problems and how environmental economics may serve as a valuable complement to natural sciences in finding solutions to environmental challenges. In particular, it is expounded how economic processes are generically embedded in ecological cycles and how pollution has serious effects on ecosystems and human well-being. This chapter then describes that the market system usually fails to address environmental problems in an adequate way so that environmental policy is needed to internalize the external effects caused by pollution.

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next chapter Environmental Externalities and Their Internalization Through Voluntary Approaches
Footnotes
1
According to Baas (1905: 13), epidemics like those of smallpox brought about environmental regulations in the German town of Freiburg with regard to the cleaning of streets.
 
2
On the material balance principle, see also Perman et al. (2011: 23ff.).
 
4
The term “sustainability” has been coined by Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714) in a forestry context (von Carlowitz, 1713).
 
5
Adam Smith (1723–1790) is frequently called the “father of modern economics“ (see, e.g., Sen, 1993).
 
6
We refer the interested reader to books specifically dealing with resource economics, e.g., Pittel (2002), Greiner and Semmler (2008), Barnett and Morse (2013), and Bergstrom and Randall (2016).
 
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Metadata
Title
Introduction: Economics and Environmental Degradation
Authors
Wolfgang Buchholz
Dirk Rübbelke
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Book
Foundations of Environmental Economics

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16267-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-16268-9

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16268-9_1