Ecological Economics

Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times.

Digital technology was supposed to usher in a new age of distributed prosperity, but so far it has been used to put industrial capitalism on steroids. Its not technologys fault, but that of an extractive, growth-driven,economic operating system that has reachedthe limits of its ability to serveanyone, rich or poor, human or corporate.

Gaian Economics is the second volume in the Four Keys to Sustainable Communities series and sets out to explore how we can develop healthy and abundant societies in harmony with our finite planetary resources.

Senior executives who have committed their organizations to improved sustainability are realizing that implementation is particularly challenging. While a lot has been written on ethical and strategic factors, there is a dearth of information on the practical nuts and bolts of implementation.

 In a time of social and ecological crisis, what can we as individuals do to make the world a better place?

'The Commons' is a generic term that denotes everything we share. The commons includes our entire life support system, both natural and social. The air and oceans, the web of species, wilderness and flowing water - all are parts of the commons.