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Green economics loosely defines a theory of economics by which an economy is considered to be component of the ecosystem in which it resides. A holistic approach to the subject is typical, such that economic ideas are commingled with any number of other subjects, depending on the particular theorist. Proponents of feminism, postmodernism, the ecology movement, peace movement, Green movement, green anarchism and the anti-globalization movement have used the term to describe very different ideas. Accordingly, green economics has been viewed as external to mainstream economics, although there are varying degrees of diffusion and debate on what are the points of contention. It is thus preferable to refer to a loose school of "green economists" rather than any single "green economics".
1 Green is non-neoclassical
Neoclassical economics represents the main body of modern economics. Neoclassical economists begin with a set of assumptions that enable a mathematical treatment of the subject. The typical assumptions take societal preferences as fixed, rather than allowing them to evolve within the analysis. This co-evolution of ecological, environmental, and economic systems is a focus of green economics.
The greens are often confused both with political Greens and with mainstream environmental economists. The green economists share broader ecological and social concerns, including a distrust of capitalism itself, that lie outside the mainstream concerns of the neoclasssical subfields environmental economics, resource economics, and sustainable development.
2 Tendencies and factions
Various subgroups of these economists avoid the label green or Green in part to avoid association with political Green Parties and their broader goals. Often these use the term ecological economics.
This article covers those who have extended this analysis or reject measures of global "sustainability" - few of whom now use the older terms or accept Natural Capitalism. Those who focus clearly and only on sustainabilitySustainability is an economic, social, and ecological concept. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society and its members are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, wh are a distinct group concerned with environmental financeThe field of environmental finance part of both environmental economics and the conservation movement, exploits various financial instruments (most notably land trusts) to protect biodiversity. - the use of financial instrumentsFinancial instruments package financial capital in readily tradeable forms they do not exist outside the context of the financial markets. Their diversity of forms mirrors the diversity of risk that they manage. Financial Instruments can be categorised ac to set up incentives to save ecologyEcology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both its physical habitat, which can be described as th, especially endangered speciesAn endangered species is a species whose population is so small that it is in danger of becoming extinct. Many countries have laws offering special protection to these species (forbidding hunting, banning their habitats from development, etc. to prevent t or fragile ecoregions.
3 Life versus not
What seems to define green economists most clearly is the rejection of all analyses of factors of productionClassical economics distinguishes between three factors of production which are used in the production of goods: Land or natural resources naturally-occurring goods such as soil and minerals. The payment for land is rent. Labor human effort used in produc or means of productionIn Marxist economics and its contemporary derivatives, the means of production refers to physical, non-human, inputs used in production. This includes factories, machines, and tools, along with both infrastructural capital and natural capital, the classic that fail to clearly and fundamentally distinguish between living (nature, persons)and non-living (financial, social, instructional, infrastructural) roles in a productive process. Some have detailed critiques of " Fordism" (after Henry Ford) and " productivism", as best developed by Alain Lipietz of the French Greens . They characterize the belief in such concepts as " economic growth" as a delusion, an ideology, and worse, as they disrupt and destroy ecological growth in life support capacity of a natural ecosystem: air and water filtering, food production, fiber growth. These often characterize their work as " social ecology" and may employ the Marxist analysis of means of production.
However, there is also a strain of "right greens" who emphasize the role of tax, trade, and tariff laws in encouraging destructive behavior - they often characterize " dirty subsidy" or " dirty money " as the problem - and seek to change banking rather than social values.
