7 - Some concluding thoughts: the role of economics in the study of resource and environmental problems

Summary

We began this volume by noting, as evidence of widespread interest in the subject, several items dealing with natural resources and the environment in an average edition of a local (San Francisco) daily newspaper. The items dealt with technical and policy options for controlling pollution, energy conservation, and prospects for oil production and gold mining in California. In each case the story was developed with little or no reference to the findings and insights of economic analysis. This is not surprising. It may not be an exaggeration to say that the “conventional wisdom,” as we have heard it expressed by those concerned with issues of resource depletion and environmental protection, holds that economics can contribute little to their resolution (or, worse, that the problems we face are due to the depredations of an economic system explained, justified, and occasionally guided by economists). To the extent that economics is seen as relevant, it follows that what is needed is a radical shift, away from the system characterized by advanced industrial technology, growth, and a largely market-determined allocation of resources, such as is found in the United States and other developed Western countries. According to this view, the discipline of economics is itself in need of a radical restructuring.