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The Imperative of Macroeconomics for Ecologists

964 BioScience • November 2002 / Vol. 52 No. 11 I human population and per capita consumption have been widely recognized as threats to ecological integrity. Therefore, one might expect economic growth (a function of increasing population and per capita consumption) to occupy center stage at ecological conferences, infuse the policy implications of ecological research, and shape the public education programs of ecological organizations. This would make the ecological professions much more relevant to society. After all, economic growth is ubiquitous in public dialogue; population and per capita consumption are not. Furthermore, in the middle of the policy arena is a massive table devoted to economic growth, while population and per capita consumption occupy some folding chairs in a dimly lit corner. Yet explicit reference to economic growth in the ecological literature is a rarity, probably for three major reasons: (1) lack of expertise on economic-scale issues, (2) a mistaken notion that problems posed by economic growth are obvious to the general public, and (3) fatalistic philosophy. Each of these could be readily overcome with a modicum of study, probably much less than generally realized.