Ecological Economics: Reintegrating the Study of Humans and Nature

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary effort to link the natural and social sciences broadly, and especially ecology and economics. The goal is to develop a deeper understanding of the complex linkages between ecological and economic systems, and to use that understanding to develop effective policies that will lead to a world that is ecologically sustainable, has a fair distribution of resources (both among groups and generations of humans and between humans and other species), and efficiently allocates scarce resources including natural capital. This will require new approaches that are comprehensive, adaptive, integrative, multi‐scale, and pluralistic, and that acknowledge the huge uncertainties involved. Examples of integrated assessment and modeling studies at local, regional, and global scales are discussed as cases that both require and force the integration of ecology and economics and help to build common understanding of linked ecological‐economic systems.