Global warming threatens the extinction of life on Earth. It can no longer be a matter of economics or the environment. We can all have “enough” and we can all do more to help the environment. But if we do not do both, we will have neither.
Professor Eggert’s thought-provoking new book, “Meadowlark Economics: Exploring Values for a Sustainable Future” (revised) (copyright 2015; Booklocker Inc.) contains 20 essays and uses the lark as a symbol of what it has gone wrong in our economy and as a symbol of the essentials of our existence.
Alarmed by the lark’s gradual disappearance from his local field, Professor Eggert began to examine the economic and ecological factors at play. His research soon led him to explore alternatives to our traditional views of economics.
Professor Eggert writes: “Given the problems we face in our immediate and long-term future, and the slow evolution of economic values we are seeing in response, I sometimes wonder about the relevance of my fellow economists among our shortcomings there is our limited understanding of the many ecological consequences of our economic decisions.
Note that “economy” and “ecology” have the same prefix, eco, from the Greek oikos, which literally means “home.” Thus, the original definition of economy implied careful stewardship of household resources, whereas ecology forces us to try to understand and appreciate the interrelationships within Nature’s “home.”
I believe that these two households are becoming more interdependent and their futures are more and more closely linked. When we don’t calculate ecological values or see the connections, we pave the way for losses that are unintended and unintended.
One example (on a small scale, to be sure) is occurring in and around our upper Midwest dairy region. We are losing our larks!
Those of us who walk, bike, or jog our country lanes enjoy the few larks that remain. Its song is pleasant, its color and its flight enchanting. The complete disappearance of the larks would be, quite simply, ethically wrong and would also diminish the quality and richness of our lives.
Why are we losing our larks?”
In addition to “Meadowlark Economics,” which examines the value of the lark and how we can all be lark economists, the book includes “Thoreau as Economic Prophet,” “Top Soil Drama,” Darwin’s Finches, and the Mustangs of Ford, “Then the Sun Came Up”, “Crafts and Salvation” and “The Next Age of Repair”.
James Eggert is a writer and faculty member emeritus at the University of Wisconsin – Stout, where he taught undergraduate students for 33 years. He is also the author of “What Is Economics (4th Edition)”, “Invitation to Economics”, “Low-Cost Ground Shelters”, and “The Wonder of the Tao”.
“Meadowlark Economics: Exploring Values for a Sustainable Future” ($13.95 for the print version and $5.99 for the eBook version) is available from all online booksellers or can be ordered through any physical bookstore.
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