An Economist’s Ode to the Forests and the Sea

Wim Naudé ()
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Wim Naudé: RWTH Aachen University

No 18281, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The field of economics ought to be based on the fact that planet Earth is a rare Earth that is fundamentally an Ocean and Plant World. The rapid and continuing bulldozing of biodiversity across ocean and land that has been a feature of human society’s economic development over the past two centuries or so, demonstrates that the current political and economic response, framed by the narrow human-centric concept of sustainable development, has failed. Therefore, this paper calls for a fundamental planetary turn in perspective, moving beyond sustainability towards the biocentric concept of Planetary Habitability. The point is that fixing a slow leak in a spaceship (sustainability) is insufficient when the ship’s entire life support system is collapsing due to a fundamental design flaw (anthropocentrism); instead, the focus must shift to ensuring the entire ship can support life (habitability), regardless of immediate human convenience.

Keywords: ecological economics; sustainability; biodiversity; environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 O44 Q54 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-hpe
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