The steady-state economy -- Herman Daly

"The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse." For 30 years eco-economist Herman Daly has been asking how we can avoid unlimited "growth" with all its environmental impacts on a limited earth. How can we produce less stuff, and have a better quality of life? He founded CASSE: Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy with other eco-economists such as David Orr, Robert Costanza, Josh Farley, Lisa Krall, and Peter Victor. His books include Steady-State Economics, For the Common Good (with theologian John Cobb), Valuing the Earth, Beyond Growth, Ecological Economics (with Josh Farley), Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development.  Here are some key ideas from the CASSE website:

• What is economic growth?
• Why is economic growth a threat to the environment?
• Why is economic growth a threat to economic sustainability, national security, and international stability?
• Can’t technology alleviate the threat of economic growth?
• Can’t the economy continue growing for quite a while without bumping up against ecological limits?
• Can’t “green growth” allow the economy to continue growing without causing harm?
• Can’t we continue growing the economy indefinitely as we transition to an information economy?
• Why should we emphasize the phrase “economic growth” in discussions on the environment and national security?
• What would a steady state economy look like?
• Would we have to give up individual freedoms in a steady state economy? 

See also CASSE's impressive list of advisers, board and international staff; its blog newsletter; Daly's biography and publications. He has taught economics in the US and Brazil, founded the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE), now a discipline in its own right -- an alternative to the "market fundamentalism" of the Chicago School, and the "growth at any cost" of neoliberalism, which he calls the spreading of Western over-consumption worldwide. In 1996 he won the Right Livelihood Award.