Rural Development and Sustainable Economy

Book Abstract

Environmental economics developed in its present form in the 1960s as a result of the intensification of pollution and the heightened awareness among the general public in Western countries about the environment and its importance to our existence. Economists became aware that, for economic growth to be indefinitely sustainable,the economic system needs to take into account the uses of the environment that we have already mentioned, so that natural resources are not depleted and so that the environment is not overused as a waste sink. Environmental economists view the environment as a form of natural capital which performs life support, amenity, and other functions that cannot be supplied by man-made capital. This stock of natural capital includes natural resources plus ecological systems, land, biodiversity, and other attributes.