Summarize Donella Meadows' comparison of neoclassical and ecological economics.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The first commandment of economics is: Grow. Grow forever. . . . The first commandment of the earth is: Enough. Just so much and no more. . . .

Economics says: Compete. . . . The earth says: Compete, yes, but keep your competition in bounds. Don't annihilate. Take only what you need. Leave your competitor enough to live. Wherever possible, don't compete, cooperate. . . . You're not in a war, you're in a community. . . .

Economics says: Use it up fast. Don't bother with repair; the sooner something wears out, the sooner you'll buy another. This makes the gross national product go round. Throw things out when you get tired of them. . . . Get the oil out of the ground and burn it now. . . . The earth says: What's the hurry? . . . When any part wears out, don't discard it, turn it into food for something else. . . .

Economics discounts the future. . . . a resource ten years from now is worth only half of what it's worth now. Take it now. Turn it into dollars. The earth says: Nonsense. . . . give to the future. . . . Never take more in your generation than you give back to the next.

The economic rule is: Do whatever makes sense in monetary terms. The earth says: Money measures nothing more than the relative power of some humans over other humans, and that power is puny compared with the power of the climate, the oceans, the uncounted multitudes of one-celled organisms that created the atmosphere, that recycle the waste, and that have lasted for 3 billion years. The fact that the economy, which has lasted for maybe 200 years, puts zero values on these things means only that the economy knows nothing about value-or about lasting.