Abstract
This introductory chapter explains why economics has to play a central role in dealing with environmental problems and how environmental economics may serve as a valuable complement to natural sciences in finding solutions to environmental challenges. In particular, it is expounded how economic processes are generically embedded in ecological cycles and how pollution has serious effects on ecosystems and human well-being. This chapter then describes that the market system usually fails to address environmental problems in an adequate way so that environmental policy is needed to internalize the external effects caused by pollution.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Baas (1905: 13), epidemics like those of smallpox brought about environmental regulations in the German town of Freiburg with regard to the cleaning of streets.
- 2.
On the material balance principle, see also Perman et al. (2011: 23ff.).
- 3.
- 4.
The term “sustainability” has been coined by Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714) in a forestry context (von Carlowitz, 1713).
- 5.
Adam Smith (1723–1790) is frequently called the “father of modern economics“ (see, e.g., Sen, 1993).
- 6.
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Buchholz, W., Rübbelke, D. (2019). Introduction: Economics and Environmental Degradation. In: Foundations of Environmental Economics. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16268-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16268-9_1
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