An Ecological Economics Perspective on Sustainability and Prospects for Ending Poverty

Despite our pretensions to science, modern industrial society is as myth-bound and mystical as any that has preceded it. Our prevailing cultural myth includes a dangerous vision of global sustainability and poverty reduction centered on unlimited economic expansion, free trade and technological fixes. This paper dissects the modern myth, exposing its conceptual flaws and practical failings. It then proposes an alternative conceptual framework for development derived from ecological economics and ecological footprint analysis. The new framework recognizes that the human enterprise is a subsystem of the ecosphere whose growth is constrained by biophysical limits. If humanity is to seize control of its destiny it must arise above wishful thinking and tribal instinct. Global society needs a new cultural myth rooted in humanity's unique claim to intelligence and self-awareness in the face of danger. Human security depends on equitable development—not growth—within the means of nature. Sustainability with social justice can be achieved only through an unprecedented level of international cooperation rooted in a sense of compassion for both other peoples and other species.     

基于生态足迹的生态盈亏平衡分析——以辽宁省长海县为例

生态足迹方法是一种度量可持续发展程度的指标,通过估算维持人类的自然资源消费和同化人类产生的废弃物所需要的生物生产性面积即生态足迹的大小,并与给定区域的生态承载力进行生态盈亏平衡分析,来衡量研究区域的可持续发展状况。生态足迹方法从人类需求占用角度为评估区域可持续发展状态提供了较好的测量方法。当一个地区的生态承载力小于生态足迹时,出现生态赤字,生态赤字表明该地区生态安全受到胁迫;当生态承载力大于生态足迹时,则产生生态盈余,此时认为该地区生态系统是安全的,人类的发展处于可持续状态。可见生态盈亏平衡分析可以为地区可持续发展提供生态预警作用。     

基于STIRPAT模型分析社会经济因素对甘肃省环境压力的影响

运用生态足迹理论分析了甘肃省环境可持续性动态变化特征,甘肃省环境可持续性状况随时间的变化呈现出显著的阶段性特征．并以1998年为分水岭,之前,人类生产消费活动处于环境承栽范围之内,此后,出现人均生态足迹赤字且总体呈显著的上升趋势。同时。万元GDP生态足迹以较快的速度递减,表明资源利用效率得到很大提高．且潜力依旧巨大。以1991—2006年甘肃省生态足迹时间序列数据作为环境压力的衡量指标,利用STIRPAT模型分析了人口数量、经济（人均GDP）、社会（城市化水平和产业结构）等人文驱动力对环境压力的影响。结果表明．人口数量的增加,富裕程度的增强都将不同程度地加剧人类对环境的影响,而产业结构的适当调整能有效减轻环境压力。     

生态承载力约束下的重庆市适度人口规模情景预测

本文考虑区域生态承载力的"可能度"和人们对生态产品和服务消费的"满意度",提出结合生态足迹法和"可能-满意度"法的适度人口规模预测方法。以重庆市为研究区,在分析该区生态足迹和生态承载力的基础上,依据土地利用总体规划和不同收入国家的生态足迹水平,构建生态承载力约束下的生态足迹发展情景,对该区适度人口规模进行预测。结果表明:重庆市在生态足迹缓慢增长情景下的"可能-满意度"最高,对应适度人口规模为3306万人,该指标主要取决于土地利用变化与人们生态产品和服务消费结构和水平的变化。因此,重庆市应严格实施土地利用总体规划,引导人们通过调整消费结构降低生态足迹,这对于实现区域可持续发展和保护三峡库区生态安全具有重要意义。     

人口预测的方法比较——以生态足迹法、灰色模型法及回归分析法为例

人口预测是城乡规划的重要内容之一,本文以陕西省汉中市人口预测为例,运用生态足迹法、灰色模型法及回归分析法,对2015年汉中市总人口进行预测,并针对预测结果进行比较分析,得出：基于生态足迹分析的预测所得汉中人口规模偏大,其原因在于生态足迹分析的本质——环境容量;灰色模型预测所得结果较为保守,其原因在于原始数据序列经累加生成后发展趋势稳定;回归分析预测结果居于二者之间,其原因在于综合多种不同的回归模型,人口变化发展趋势较为灵活。     

Temporal variation in the relationship between environmental demands and well-being: a panel analysis of developed and less-developed countries

This study assesses the degree to which the relationship between the environmental demands of countries (measured as ecological footprint per capita) and well-being (measured as life expectancy) has changed over the last several decades (1961–2007) and whether the nature and extent of these changes differ between developed and less-developed countries. Pooled ordinary least squares regression results indicate that decoupling has occurred among developed countries, where the relationship between ecological footprint and life expectancy weakened substantially over time, becoming negative in later years. In less-developed countries, the relationship has intensified substantially, with the effect of ecological footprint on life expectancy becoming stronger over time. Fixed-effects regression results provide similar results for developed countries but indicate slight decoupling between increases in ecological footprint and life expectancy among less-developed countries. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of contraction and convergence approaches to sustainability.     

城市旅游生态足迹动态分析——以宝鸡市为例

基于生态足迹理论,对陕西省宝鸡市2001年、2004年和2007年的旅游生态足迹分别进行了测评。计算出宝鸡市2001年、2004年和2007年的人均旅游生态足迹分别为0．081543hm^20．064396hra^20．05492hm^2。结果分析表明：1．人均旅游生态足迹与游客量不呈正相关关系：2．影响城市旅游生态足迹总体变化的关键因子主要有旅游流的数量与方式、旅游者的消费水平和结构、旅游者的空间行为和旅游目的地（景区）的利用与经营发展水平等因素;3．旅游饭（酒）店的能源生态消费实际上比建筑生态消费大。但随着旅游业的发展和游客需求的变化。特别是对高星级饭店需求的增加．这种规律有弱化的趋势。     

生态足迹模型回顾与研究进展

生态足迹模型是一种测度和比较人类经济系统对自然生态系统服务的需求与其生态承载力之间差距的测量方法。运用该模型可以定量地评估区域生态经济系统与人口数量之间是否协调发展,是可持续发展研究定量化的一个十分重要的方面。生态足迹概念自提出以来,被广泛应用于各国(区域)环境、经济和社会发展等诸多领域。由于生态足迹概念和模型提出与发展的时间较短,因此,该模型的研究还存在一些不足,如模型静态性问题、生产力状况与土地合理利用等。在有关国际机构、政府部门、非政府组织和相关研究机构的广泛关注和参与下,其相关理论和研究方法正在不断完善,其应用范围也将不断扩大。     

人口赤字与生态环境关系研究——生态足迹理论在新疆的应用

在既定的生态承载力和既定的生活目标追求下,实际人口数量超过生态系统的承载力,必定产生一定的人口赤字.在对外界进口依赖不大的情况下,主要靠超额利用当地的自然资本存量来承载这些超载的人口,因此对自然生态系统产生负面影响.本文以新疆为例,应用生态足迹理论,分析人类消费的供需矛盾及对生态系统的影响力,反映出新疆人口过度,人口赤字逐年上升.人口赤字以及由此带来的过度的人类活动对生态环境的影响加剧.滥垦、滥伐、滥牧、不合理的水资源利用等人类经济活动成为近些年来推动新疆荒漠化的主要原因.     

基于生态足迹模型的青海省人口与资源环境协调发展研究

论文从生活消费入手,采用修正生态足迹模型,评估青海省人口发展与资源环境协调水平。结果显示：2010年青海省城乡居民消费足迹小于人均生态承栽力,不存在生态赤字,但土地结构与生态承载力结构不对等．存在结构赤字。城镇居民人均消费足迹略高于农村居民,但全省城镇居民足迹总量低于农村居民：城镇不同收入组居民消费环境基尼系数小于收入基尼系数,消费占用生态环境资源相对公平;从消费项看,交通消费基尼系数最大,食品消费基尼系数最小。研究提出培养可持续消费观念,引导绿色、健康和环境友好型的消费模式等建议措施。     

Green giant or straw man? Environmental pressure and civil conflict, 1961–99

The proposition that environmental scarcity causes violent conflict attracts both popular and academic interest. Neomalthusian writers have developed theoretical arguments explaining this connection, and have conducted numerous case studies that seem to support the view that scarcity of biological assets such as land and other renewable resources causes conflict. So far there have been few systematic quantitative or comparative studies, and the few that exist have focused on particular forms of environmental degradation or on a small subset of resources, particularly mineral wealth. We test a more general argument about the effects of resource scarcity by examining the most widely-used measure of environmental sustainability: the ecological footprint. Contrary to neomalthusian thinking, we find that countries with a heavier footprint have a substantially greater chance of peace. Biocapacity and the ecological reserve also predict to peace, but these results are more fragile. Separate tests for smaller conflicts, for the post-Cold War period, and with additional control variables do not yield stronger support for the scarcity thesis. On the whole, the neomalthusian model of conflict receives little support from this analysis. We cannot exclude that erosion of the earth’s carrying capacity can increase conflict in the long run, but an empirical analysis with the ecological footprint measure does not provide any support for such a position.     

Motivational and nonmotivational determinants of child-number desires

The number of children desired by individuals—often referred to as family size desires or preferences—is a central construct in much research designed to understand and predict fertility. It is often used as a proxy for the construct of childbearing motivation. This paper presents a theoretical framework that organizes and elucidates the relationship between these two constructs. That relationship is examined using a reliable, valid measure of childbearing motivation and data from 195 husbands and 196 wives with no children and 196 husbands and 196 wives with one child. The results indicate that childbearing motivation has a complex relationship with child-number desires, characterized by curvilinearity and a failure to distinguish among those desiring more than two children. We discuss the implications of this pattern.     

Bequests as a heir "disciple device."

This paper develops a model ofinter vivos gifts and bequests in a setting of moral hazard and adverse selection. Altruistic parents do not perfectly know how much effort their children make to earn their living, nor do they know their true level of ability.Inter vivos gifts take place prior to the realization of the children's earnings whereas at the moment of bequests, parents do observe them. We show that an optimal transfer policy generally uses a mix ofinter vivos gifts — deemed as more efficient — and bequests — deemed as more redistributive.We are thankful to Allessandro Cigno, Jacques Cremer, Claude d Aspremont and anonymous referees for their comments.Responsible editor: Alessandro Cigno     

Cross-National Variation in Violent Crime Rates: Race, r-K Theory, and Income

Rushton's theory of r-K race differences was examined in relation to the rate of murder, rape, and serious assault per 100,000 population and Gross Domestic Product per Person for 74 countries from the 1993–1996 International Crime Statistics published by INTERPOL and the 1999 CIA World Fact Book. Each country was assigned to one of the three macro-races East Asian, European, and African. The results corroborated earlier findings that violent crime is lowest in East Asian countries, intermediate in European countries, and highest in African and in Black Caribbean countries. The median number of violent crimes per 100,000 population were: 7 East Asian countries—34; 45 European countries—42; and 22 African and Black Caribbean countries—149, respectively. The median Gross Domestic Product per Person was highest in East Asian countries ($12,600), intermediate in European countries ($7,400), and lowest in African and Black Caribbean countries ($1,900). Across the three population groups there was an ecological correlation of –.96 between crime and wealth (wealthier countries had less crime). Finer-grained analyses, however, found that while wealth was negatively related to crime across European or East Asian countries, it was positively related to crime for the African and Black Caribbean countries (i.e., the wealthier an African or Black Caribbean country, the greater its rate of violent crime). Future research needs to examine genetic factors in addition to cultural factors as well as their interactions.     

Population control and politics

At all times and places population and resources must be kept in balance with each other if a high, or at least acceptable, quality of life is to be maintained. Evidence is presented that thinkers and men and women of affairs have been aware of these necessities from time immemorial and that the ancients invented most of the basic concepts of modern population ecology, at leastin embryo. This task is a problem of social control, the central process in all societies. If society's controllers and their institutions are aware, intelligent, flexible, and suitably motivated, there is no reason why most problems of population, development, and pollution should not be solved and then kept permanently in check. This must involve politics, there is no way out. As Aristotle pointed out, "Man is a political animal," and it is only through politicking that we can set up, maintain, change, and generally operate our social control systems. Deeply dysfunctional attitudes towards freedom and control—especially population control—are described and analysedvia a ten-stage argument, and helpful proposals put forward. The function which scientists in general and social scientists in particular can perform in helping human-kind to solve its complex and manifold problems is heavily stressed. Scientists in general should not become politicians, but politicians in general should become numerate and "ecolate"—to quote Garrett Hardin, and start to think more deeply and longer-term. To focus practical thinking the concepts "survival-theory" and the "principle of minimum innovation" are set forth and a final plea made for the necessity and therefore moral legitimacy of controlling numbers as well as resources. If population control seems slow in returning—it used to be the norm—recent events in Eastern Europe give good grounds for optimism about the fluidity of both human values and political institutions.     

The ideology of population control in the UN draft plan for Cairo

This paper examines the influence of population control ideology on the draft plan for the UN Cairo Conference on Population and Development. It is argued that this draft plan can only be fully understood in the context of the recent history of the population control movement and of the empirical reality of population control in particular countries. The paper focuses on the origins of the ideology of population control in the eugenics movement initially, and more recently in organisations such as International Planned Parenthood Federation. The role of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in promoting an incremental approach towards the wider acceptance of population control since the first intergovernmental conference on population in Bucharest in 1974, is outlined. Despite the serious loss of credibility for the UN, through the association of the UNFPA with the Chinese population control programme — the most coercive programme of its type in history — the UN in the draft plan for Cairo continues to promote the ideology of population control. This paper argues for the need to develop a more positive model of development, which acknowledges the complementarity between the lack of development of poorer countries and their potential for significant progress, and the overdevelopment of industrialised regions, whose future growth is increasingly based on intense competition for shrinking markets.This article is based on a paper, presented to the International Geographical Union Congress at Prague, 21–27 August 1994.     

The flood control saga in the Passaic River Basin

Flooding is a natural phenomenon which engineers and politicians have attempted to control since the beginning of time. The Passaic River Basin in northern New Jersey has been recognized as a significant floodprone area in the United States since colonial times. Several State and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposals have been abandoned because of both economic and environmental objections to expensive public works projects. During the early part of the Twentieth Century, houses were built in the floodway of the Passaic River, an area where lives and personal belongings were at highest risk.The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a $1.0 billion flood control tunnel plan while a local watershed association, the Passaic River Coalition, has recommmended a buy-out of the houses at highest risk at a cost of $103 million. This paper introduces that innovative concept for flood management—relocating people out of the rivers path—in the most urban area in the United States.     

The costs of immigration to taxpayers: Toward a uniform accounting framework

Large scale immigration to the United States and a sluggish national economy have brought to the forefront of the current immigration policy debate, the question of whether immigrants fully pay—in the form of taxes—for the public services they use. Recent estimates of the costs of immigration differ so widely that they have confused rather than enlightened that debate. This paper argues that a uniform accounting framework must be agreed to if future studies are to provide credible and reliable estimates of costs and benefits upon which immigration policy can be formulated. The key conceptual, factual, and accounting issues that are to be addressed for the development of such a framework are outlined.     

Urban temporary out-migration under economic reforms: Who moves and for what reasons?

Studies of temporary migration in developing countries often focus on rural outmigration and are preoccupied with problems it may bring to cities. Using a unique data set from two surveys conducted in Zhejiang province, China, this paper examines the other side of the coin — temporary migration from urban places — and thereby provides an important complement to studies focusing on rural-urban migration. The analysis identifies three types of temporary migrations: on-business, economic, and family-related. Using multinomial logit model, the analysis suggests that the three types of temporary migration differ significantly from each other in both their causes and migrants' socioeconomic characteristics; so does urban-urban migration from urban-rural migration. The considerable urban-rural temporary migration attests to the fact that temporary migration is not a one-way process; its positive selectivity further indicates that a considerable human capital flows from urban to rural areas through urban-rural temporary migration, which provides rural areas much needed science and technology and becomes an important facilitating factor of rural socioeconomic development.This article is based on a paper, presented at the meetings of the American Sociological Association, Pittsburgh, August 1992.