The development of environmental thinking in economics

There has always been a sub-group of established economists trying to conve y an environmental critique of the mainstream. This paper traces their thin king into the late 20th century via the development of associations and jou rnals in the USA and Europe. There is clearly a divergence between the conf ormity to neo;classical economics favoured by resource and environmental ec onomists and the acceptance of more radical critiques apparent in ecologica l economics. Thus, the progressive elements of ecological economics are inc reasingly incompatible with those practising neo-classical environmental ec onomics who try to reduce all concepts to fit within the confines of their models. A group of people can be identified who teach that ecological econo mics is nothing more than a name for the link between mainstream economics and ecology. A new movement and paradigm are unnecessary for such ends. Thi s viewpoint is argued to be inconsistent with the roots and ideas of the ec ological economics movement. Ecological economics is seen here to be synthe sising various types of economics (e.g., socialist, institutional, environm ental) and moving back to explicit inclusion of ethical issues in the mode of classical political economy. This inevitably means rediscovering neglect ed past works and exploring new ways of thinking about socio-economics and the environment.