Chapter 5 Ethics and environmental economics

This chapter discusses several efforts by economists and others to develop criteria of sustainability with respect to both particular resources and the whole economic system. These are meant to provide ethical guidance concerning appropriate behavior where resource depletion or environmental degradation threatens to reduce the welfare of future generations. It considers a critique of all the major humanistic ethical ideas in Western philosophy after Aristotle. The assessment sets the stage for a statement concerning the alternative humanistic ethical systems to analyze further on in terms of their implications for environmental economics. Having accomplished this epitomization, several examples are applied of the alternative humanistic ethics that have formalized to some particularly vexing problems in environmental economics. The chapter sets out on the tasks with humility. The issues in the chapter are potentially so important for the future of environmental economics that one feels that attempt must be made.