Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

ECOLOGISM - Coggle Diagram

- - - - In 1966 Kenneth Boulding created this idea of the ‘spaceship earth’ which emphasizes the notion of limited and exhaustible wealth and the idea that our natural world is a ‘closed system’. Boulding claims that humans throughout time have acted as if economic resources are endless and that we have a ‘cowboy state’ displaying ‘reckless, exploitative and violent behaviour’.
    - - an alternative approach to economic activity, for Schumacher this idea was based on the principle of ‘right livelihood’,
        
        this is in contrast to traditional economic theories which assumes that individuals are just ‘utility maximisers’.
      - Buddhist economics - encourages individuals to work together and develop skills, without the obsession of wealth generation
      - Links to ideas of localism and sustainable shopping.
  - - - Such communities would be economically diverse; they would produce food and a wide range of goods → contain agriculture and small scale industry
  - - - Social ecologists support strong sustainability which places far greater stress on preserving ‘natural capital’ and is more critical of economic growth.
  - - - conditions of material scarcity breed egotistical and acquisitive values, meaning that politics is dominated by economic issues.
    - - Schumacher warned ‘man is now too clever to survive without wisdom’.
    - - Red - Economic (socialist). Green - Environmental (ecologist)
        
        environmentalists still largely view socialist parties as ‘grey’ as they strive for economic growth for human ends.
  - - - The understanding that there are environmental ‘limits to growth’, things like pollution and exhaustion of energy sources. Ultimately economic growth and prosperity is a threat to the environment.
        
        Commitment to 'sustainable development' - weak sustainability
    - - The theory that the market will respond to ecological pressures and that goods will adopt ‘green’ technologies, consumer sovereignty acknowledges the trend towards ‘responsible consumption’.
        
        Capitalism can only continue through sustainable development, the market listens to consumer demands.
      - providing tax structures that encourage an ‘eco-friendly’ lifestyle.