Short lectures on ecological economics
YouTube, 2021
This collection of videos offers a short introduction to ecological economics and its main differences with respect to environmental economis. Dan O'Neill begins by presenting the basic principles of economic thought and uses these building blocks to dive deeper in the following videos. Some of the basic ideas he touches on include the difference between strong and weak sustainability, or the concept of marginal benefits and marginal costs. However, he also goes further as to describe the ecological econmics framework and the key role played by the laws of thermodynamics in thinking of the economy as part of the broader ecosystem.
Comment from our editors:
Whether you are familiar with ecological economics or not, these videos work well both as introduction, as well as to review and strengthen concepts. O'Neill does a fantastic job at keeping his explanations simple and accessible, while making a sound case for why neoclassical econmics may not be the best-suited framework to study an open system such as the biosphere.