ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS AND GLOBAL CHANGE |
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24 Oktober 2003 Guestlecture: Roberto Costanza, Professor of Ecological Economics, The University of Vermont, USA PLACE: Alterra-WEST, Droevendaalsesteeg, ZAAL 1, between 12:00-14:00 o'clock (24 October 2003)
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The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth’s life-support system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the Earth System (Costanza et al., 1997). Many processes operate in the Earth system. One can distinguish processes in the ocean, the atmosphere and on land. The Earth’s climate, including the hydrological cycle, encompasses both the abiotic and the living world, the terrestrial and marine biosphere. The land surface – atmosphere interface is important for the functioning of the Earth System, through interactions via energy and momentum fluxes, as well as through the biogeochemical cycles. Additionally, humans alter biophysical processes. Global environmental changes give rise to multiple stresses that interact with each other as well as with stresses of more localized origin to impact upon people, places and systems, including both human and environmental systems. It is clear, the value of the world’s ecosystem and our natural capital is influenced by global change.
Ecological economics is a new cross-disciplinary approach to understanding and managing the ecology and economics of our world for sustainability, on local, regional, and global scales. Robert Costanza has sought to protect biological diversity and achieve long-term sustainability by integrating ecology and economics. His plans include using the tools of environmental dispute resolution to improve problem solving where both economics and ecological forces threaten biological diversity.
More info:
About Costanza’s institute: University of Vermont
Biography Costanza: Biography
Dutch Network Ecological Economics: Nature Evaluation
Literature:
Costanza, R., R. d'Arge, R. de Groot, S. Farber, M. Grasso, B. Hannon, S. Naeem, K. Limburg, J. Paruelo,
R.V. O'Neill, R. Raskin, P. Sutton an dM. Van den Belt. 1997. The value of the world's ecosystem
services and natural capital. Nature 387:253-260.
Costanza R., 2000. Visions of alternative (unoredictable futures and their use in policy analysis. Conservation Ecology 4(1):5. URL: Visions article
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| Updated 21.08.2003 by Jeroen Veraart jeroen.veraart@wur.nl |  |