Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival

"Foreword -- Preface -- Section I: The Ecological Economics Perspective and Why It's Needed -- 1 The Origins of Our Economic Worldview -- Classical Economics, Key Figures, Assumptions -- The Birth of Neoclassicism -- Driven to Abstraction: The Neoclassical Legacy -- 2 The Ecological Economics Perspective -- The Coevolutionary Paradigm -- Scale, Throughput, and Carrying Capacity -- The Mostly Invisible City -- Substitutability vs. Complementarity -- Technological Optimism vs. Prudent Skepticism -- Entropy and Economics -- What Sustainability Means -- Section II: The Definition, Function, and Valuation of Natural Capital -- 3 What Natural Capital Is and Does -- What Does Natural Capital Do? -- Biodiversity, Ecosystem Function, and the Economy -- Four Functions of Natural Capital -- 4 Depletion and Valuation -- Some Evidence of Natural Capital Depletion -- The Green Devolution -- A Fearful Asymmetry: Accounting for Natural Capital -- The Monetary Valuation of Natural Capital -- When ""Discounted"" Doesn't Mean a Bargain -- An Alternative -- Section Ill: Managing Natural Capital for Sustainability -- 5 Investing in Natural Capital: Incentives and Obstacles -- The Nutshell Case for Natural Capital Investment -- Why We Ignore Natural Capital -- Command-and-Control Regulation -- Incentive-Based Systems -- 6 Some Investment Strategies -- Green Taxes -- Graded Ecozoning -- Natural Capital Depletion Taxes -- The Link Between Human and Natural Capital -- The Precautionary Polluter-Pays Principle -- Ecological Tariffs -- Natural Capital and International Trade -- Property Rights Regimes -- Resource Utilities -- Two Sustainability Profiles -- Afterword -- Appendix: Some Tools For Personal and Community Action -- Glossary -- -References -- Index."