Ecology into economics won't go, or, Life is not a concept - Stuart McBurney

In this original, philosophical and sometimes humorous look at economics from ecological first principles, Stuart McBurney argues that economics is ecologically illegitimate and ultimately unsustainable. Our social and environmental problems are caused by the economic systems we have evolved, and our current attempts to solve them through market-based incentives are as ineffective as a rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic. The culprit is economics itself, since its basic concepts are diametrically opposed to the laws of Nature. The continuing transfer of resources from poor to rich countries, accelerating climate change, rainforest destruction, the increasing control of the world?s resources by multinational corporations?indeed the entirety of our environmental crisis?can all be traced back directly to the very nature of the concepts that inspire our economic activity. We have a choice to make:?ecology or economics. We cannot have both.