出版社：Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
摘要：Long century of neoclassical economics left issues of environment by the wayside. Sustainability of economic growth suddenly became the theme after the first oil crisis in the 1970s. However, the Club of Rome’s pessimistic Limits to Growth report was not adopted unequivocally. The 70s also gave birth to the discipline of ecological economics through the works of Georgescu-Roegen, who introduced thermodynamic laws into economic theory. Economic theory deals with the concept of sustainable development basically on account of one of the following three approaches: The approach promoting economic growth to address material needs of the poor is based on Bruntland’s Our Common Future (1987). The so-called "thermodynamic" approach is based on Earth’s finite carrying capacity and attempts to promote development as improvement of quality of life that does not have to be achieved via increased material consumption. The third approach perceives environment as natural capital, whose stock has to be protected. Some economists (e.g. Sen and Solow) however suggest the so-called "weak sustainability" that allows for trade-offs between natural and other types of capital, provided higher benefits are achieved. A continuing problem, however, seems to be the insufficient education of today’s economists in the area of environmental thinking.
