The Economics and Ecology of Biodiversity Decline The Forces Driving Global Change

The cause of global change has been the subject of heated debate in the past few years, especially in relation to climate change and biodiversity decline. However, a systematic explanation for changes in the biosphere at global level has still to be found. In this volume, a wide range of viewpoints from ecology and economics are surveyed to see if some light can be shed on this problem. Economists analyse how economic growth predictably alters the Earth, and ecologists consider how the drive for fitness and consequent population growth changes the globe. Both look at the institutional interface between humans and biosphere, and explain global change as the consequence of human non-cooperation and conflict. The conclusion is left to the reader: the object of this volume is to initiate debate on global change at this most fundamental level.

List of contributors; Preface; Acknowledgement; 1. Why does biodiversity decline? The analysis of forces for global change Timothy M. Swanson; Part I. Diversity Decline as Choice of Development Path: 2. Incentives, development and population: a growth-theoretic perspective Jeffrey A. Krautkraemer; 3. Biodiversity, economic growth and the discount rate Bob Rowthorn and Gardner Brown; 4. Uniformity in development and the decline of biological diversity Timothy M. Swanson; Part II. Diversity Decline as Institutional Failure: 5. Decline in biodiversity and risk-adjusted net national product John M. Hartwick; 6. Biodiversity conservation as insurance Charles Perrings; 7. Property rights, externalities and biodiversity Roger A. Sedjo and R. David Simpson; Part III. Diversity Decline as Policy Failure: 8. Economic progress and habitat conservation in Latin America Douglas Southgate; 9. Prudence and profligacy: a human ecological perspective Madhav Gadgil; 10. Tropical deforestation: population, poverty and biodiversity Norman Myers; Part IV. Diversity Decline as Consequence of Development: 11. Human population dynamics and biodiversity loss Fraser D. M. Smith, Gretchen C. Daily and Paul R. Ehrlich; 12. Scale and the feedback mechanism in market economics Colin W. Clark; 13. Can economics protect biodiversity? Jonathan Roughgardern; Index.

A systematic explanation for changes in the biosphere at global level has still to be found. In this volume, economists analyse how economic growth predictably alters the Earth, and ecologists consider how the drive for fitness and consequent population growth changes the globe. Both explain global change as the consequence of human non-cooperation and conflict. The conclusion is left to the reader: the object of this volume is to initiate debate on global change at this most fundamental level.