The wealth of ecosystems: How invisible hands «organism autonomy, biodiversity, connectivity» mold biological and environmental fitness in the economy of nature
| Autor: | Bernard C. Patten |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Ecology media_common.quotation_subject Biodiversity General Decision Sciences 010501 environmental sciences 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Profit (economics) Invisible hand Capital accumulation Economy Natural capital Parallels Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Division of labour Autonomy 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common |
| Zdroj: | Ecological Indicators. 100:4-10 |
| ISSN: | 1470-160X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.10.050 |
| Popis: | Adam Smith’s classic, The Wealth of Nations (Smith, 1776), laid down the foundations for free-market, and later growth, economics. Goals, resources, currencies, labor, and skills in human enterprise all have parallels in the economy of nature: ▪ Self-interested people have counterparts in survival-driven species; ▪ Opportunities and markets are reflected in resource and habitat niches; ▪ Division of labor is expressed in role niches and biodiversity; ▪ Persistence of economic growth is matched in that of biological growth; ▪ Growth in money-flow mirrors matter- and energy-flow in ecosystems; ▪ Capital accumulation as monetary profit in economics is expressed as the standing stocks of natural capital in ecology; and finally, ▪ Smith’s invisible hand, generating “greatest goods for the greatest many”, finds specificity in the utility theory and mathematics of ecology’s network environ analysis. These parallels, and the fact that man is a part of nature also, suggest the same laws direct both ecology and economics. This paper summarizes the Janus Hypothesis (Patten, 2016) as a candidate theory determining natural (and human) economics. The hypothesis holds that three relational “ABC”s— a utonomy, b iodiversity, and c onnectivity—self-organize to maximize biological and environmental fitness in the transactional economy of nature. Applicability to human economics is axiomatic. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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