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Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 2 Academic rigour This book arose from the ANZSEE (Australian New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics) conference ‘Ecological Economics: Solutions Now and in the Future’ held at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia in November 2019 (https://anzsee.org.au/2019-anzsee-conference/). In the planning for this conference we agreed that the book arising from this would be self-published so that the pdf could be given away free, and the paperback would be as cheap as possible so that students and the general public could purchase it easily. I took on the role of Editor pro bono to ensure we ended up with a book. However throughout this process we have remained committed to academic rigour. All chapters were reviewed twice by the Editor (sometimes more). Some chapters were also reviewed by other academics when the Editor thought this was needed. The Introduction was developed by the Editor and ecological economist A/Prof Philip Lawn, who originally had hoped to be co- Editor, but had to cancel due to personal reasons. Several chapters were reviewed by Dr Boyd Blackwell, President of ANZSEE. Hence, although this book was not published by a major publisher, it upholds academic rigour. The Editor, Dr Haydn Washington PANGEA Research Centre, BEES, UNSW Lead Editor of ‘A Future Beyond Growth’ (Washington and Twomey 2016); Editor ‘Positive Steps to a Steady State Economy’ (Washington 2017) Co-Director of CASSE NSW Co-Facilitator of the Ecological Economics Hub of the New Economy Network of Australia Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 2 Copyright © Haydn Washington, 2020. All Rights Reserved. Self-published ISBN: 9798662828902 Dedication: For Herman Daly - whose lucidity has added so much to ecological economics over four decades (and counting!). Acknowledgments The Editor would like to thank A/Prof Anitra Nelson of RMIT University for organizing the ANZSEE conference in November 2019, and for her support for the idea of a free pdf and low cost paperback that built on the papers presented at the conference. I would like to thank Dr Boyd Blackwell, President of ANZSEE for his support for the book. I would like to thank ecological economist A/Prof Phil Lawn for working with me to write the Introduction to the book. I would like to thank all the chapter authors for their time writing and revising (sometimes in a major way) their chapters. I would like to thank chapter reviewers, in particular A/Prof Philip Lawn, Dr Boyd Blackwell, Dr David Roser (UNSW) and others. I would like to thank CASSE International for permission to reproduce the article ‘Degrowth Toward a Steady State Economy: Unifying Non-Growth Movements for Political Impact’ from the Steady State Herald. I would like to thank Prof Joshua Farley for writing the introductory essay to the book on ‘The future of ecological economics’. Cover photo: Lichen-covered rock and ferns photographed by the Editor on his land next to Wollemi NP. This survived just a few metres from where the major bushfires of 2019/2020 stopped. For the Editor it symbolizes the renewal of life in the face of disaster. We should remember and value this regenerative aspect of life, as it can advise solutions in ecological economics, and assist society to reach an ecologically-sustainable future. Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 3 Contents Biographies of authors 5 Introduction: Ecological economics - what is the nature of the beast? Haydn Washington and Philip Lawn 13 Section I: Essay assessing options for the next 30 years 26 Chapter 1: The Future of Ecological Economics, Joshua Farley 26 Section II: Big picture solutions 52 Chapter 2: Sustainable Cities?, Ian Lowe 52 Chapter 3: Will the transition to renewable energy damage the global macro- economy?, Mark Diesendorf 67 Chapter 4: Ecological Economics and the 4th Industrial Revolution, Peter Daniels 83 Chapter 5: How Sustainable are the SDGs?, Kerryn Higgs 109 Chapter 6: Degrowth Toward a Steady State Economy: Unifying Non-Growth Movements for Political Impact, Brian Czech and Riccardo Mastini 131 Chapter 7: MMT, post-growth economics, and avoiding collapse, Stephen Williams and Samuel Alexander 139 Chapter 8: ‘Neighbourhoods that Work’ and the Walden Wage: How access to land plus a participation income could change the world, Samuel Alexander and Alex Baumann 163 Chapter 9: The need for ecological ethics in ecological economics, Haydn Washington 189 Chapter 10: Environment, economy and equity: Towards a Green New Deal?, Frank Stilwell 205 Section III: More specific solutions 221 Chapter 11: ‘New Water’ for a dry continent: Costs, benefits and improved transparency for Australia’s coastal wastewater outfall upgrades, Boyd Blackwell and John Gemmill 221 Chapter 12: Just transition to a sustainable future without ‘fossil’ gas, Jim Crosthwaite 240 Chapter 13: Transitions stories in ecological economics from the Australian ‘bush’, Anne Jennings 259 Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 4 Chapter 14: The Yarra River through the prism of history: Providing life for a city, Judith Buckrich 274 Chapter 15: Therefore Change: introducing ecological economics into the New Zealand high school curriculum, David Hay 287 Chapter 16: Greenprints and bioregional governance – ecological economics in practice?, Michelle Maloney 310 Chapter 17: Towards sustainable and equitable solutions through responsible innovation and the circular economy, Anna Phelan 328 Conclusion – Whither ecological economics?, Haydn Washington 341 Tables and Figures Table I.1: Models Described as Being Part of Ecological Economics 15 Table 3.1: Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) in USD/MWh from different bulk electricity generation technologies in the USA and Australia 68 Table 4.1 Selected primary characteristics of the Industrial Revolutions 86 Table 11.1: Total ‘New Water’ Results by State or Territory 231 Table 11.2: Net benefits and Costs of outfalls, ranked by state totals 231 Figure 3.1: Typical flow diagram for electricity generation from fossil fuels 70 Figure 3.2: The net energy ‘cliff’: NTG graphed against EROI 71 Figure 4.1 - Cross-Country Plot of Depression Disorders by Income Per Capita – 2016 99 Figure 5.1: Material Extraction, 1970-2017 116 Figure 5.2: Material footprint and GDP, 1990-2015 118 Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 5 Figure 8.1: House Prices have grown much faster than incomes since the mid-1990s 167 Figure 11.1: Australia’s Coastal Wastewater Outfalls 223 Figure 11.2: State per person discharge, 2016 224 Figure 11.3: State nutrient discharge, 2016 225 Figure 11.4: Re-prioritised solutions to meeting water demands 226 Figure 11.5: Economic benefits captured and not captured by the study 228 Figure 12.1 Gas pipelines in Australia 242 Figure 15.1 Time trend of humanity's ecological demand 293 Figure 15.2 The Strong Sustainability Equation 294 Figure 15.3 Teachable elements of the Strong Sustainability Equation 295 Figure 15.4 Resource flows in the Real Economy 298 Figure 15.5 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Pathways 301 Figure 15.6 Two scenarios for humanity’s future 302 Figure 15.7 Scenarios – a tool for Futures Thinking 303 Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 6 Biographies of authors Samuel Alexander is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He teaches a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Critical Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ as part of the Master of Environment. He is also co-director of the Simplicity Institute and a research fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. His recent books include Degrowth in the Suburbs (2019), Carbon Civilisation and the Energy Descent Future (2018), and Art Against Empire (2017). Most of his work is available at: samuelalexander.info Alex Baumann is an academic at the University of Western Sydney and is currently lecturing in Sustainable Futures. His expertise is in urban commons for housing and local production - and how this non-privatised approach to land provides an alternative to our reliance on unsustainable market growth and consumerism. As a practical expression of this work, Alex is involved with the 'Neighbourhood That Works' project (www.ntwonline.weebly.com). This project aims to reframe public housing policy, providing an example of local collaborative development on public land. Boyd Blackwell holds a PhD from the University of Queensland on the economics of coastal foreshore management and is the President of the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics. He joined the Australian Maritime College in 2006 to help develop a national centre for coastal conservation on the Mornington Peninsula. During this time, he forged a strong research connection with the Clean Ocean Foundation, supporting their initiatives for an upgrade to the Boags Rock outfall at Gunnamatta beach. He did this by initiating student field trips to the site and partnering on the development of the National Outfall Database. Judith Buckrich is the author of fourteen books about Melbourne people and places including Melbourne’s Grand Boulevard: The Story of St Kilda Road, The Long and Perilous Journey: A History of the Port of Melbourne, Collins: Australia’s Premier Street and Acland Street: the Grand Lady of St Kilda. She won a Victorian Community History Award for The Village of Ripponlea (2016) and the Fellowship of Australian Writers (Vic) award for non-fiction for Acland Street: the Grand Lady of St Kilda (2017). She is President of the Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future - 7 PMI Victorian History Library. Her current project is a thematic history of the Yarra River. Jim Crosthwaite trained in agricultural economics, and later developed an interest in political economy and ecological economics. For 24 years he worked for the Victorian Government on the economic and social dimensions of biodiversity planning, and including biodiversity priorities in agriculture and natural resource management programs. This work triggered his interest in ecological economics. Jim completed his PhD in 2001 on Farm Businesses and Natural Resource Management.
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