Product Description

Named one of a hundred "visionaries who could change your life" by the Utne Reader, Herman Daly has probably been the most prominent advocate of the need for a change in economic thinking in response to environmental crisis. An iconoclast economis t who has worked as a renegade insider at the World Bank in recent years, Daly has argued for overturning some basic economic assumptions. He has won a wide and growing reputation among a wide array of environmentalists, inside and outside the academy.

In a book that will generate controversy, Daly turns his attention to the major environmental debate surrounding "sustainable development." Daly argues that the idea of sustainable development--which has become a catchword of environmentalism and international finance--is being used in ways that are vacuous, certainly wrong, and probably dangerous. The necessary solutions turn out to be muc h more radical than people suppose.

This is a crucial updating of a major economist's work, and mandatory reading for people engaged in the debates about the environment.

"Daly is turning economics inside out by putting the earth and its diminishing natural resources at the center of the field . . . a kind of reverse Copernican revolution in economics."


--Utne Reader

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116115 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Review
Daly is turning economics inside out by putting the earth and its diminishing natural resources at the center of the field . . . a kind of reverse Copernican revolution in economics." --Utne Reader "Considered by most to be the dean of ecological economics, Herman E. Daly elegantly topples many shibboleths in Beyond Growth. Daly challenges the conventional notion that growth is always good, and he bucks environmentalist orthodoxy, arguing that the current focus on 'sustainable development' is misguided and that the phrase itself has become meaningless." --Mother Jones "In Beyond Growth, . . . [Daly] derides the concept of 'sustainable growth' as an oxymoron. . . . Calling Mr. Daly 'an unsung hero,' Robert Goodland, the World Bank's top environmental adviser, says, 'He has been a voice crying in the wilderness.'" --G. Pascal Zachary, The Wall Street Journal "A new book by that most far-seeing and heretical of economists, Herman Daly. For 25 years now, Daly has been thinking through a new economics that accounts for the wealth of nature, the value of community and the necessity for morality." --Donella H. Meadows, Los Angeles Times "For clarity of vision and ecological wisdom Herman Daly has no peer among contemporary economists. . . . Beyond Growth is essential reading." --David W. Orr, Oberlin College "There is no more basic ethical question than the one Herman Daly is asking." --Hal Kahn, The San Jose Mercury News "Daly's critiques of economic orthodoxy . . . deliver a powerful and much-needed jolt to conventional thinking." --Karen Pennar, Business Week

About the Author

Customer Reviews

The Giordano Bruno of Growth Heresy
Herman Daly has been warning his readers of the dangers of unrestrained growth longer than some of them have been alive! He is a tireless, thoughtful, and informed proponent of sustainable economic policy who has enjoyed more success than most growth heretics, as attested by his six years at the World Bank. But, like other heretics - whether of growth or of other dogmas - his teachings are largely ignored or ridiculed by the pharisees of proper thought. No doubt his professional status has been diminished by the stand he has taken. Felicitously, we don't burn heretics at the stake these days for undermining archaic beliefs purblindly held or the anti-growth movement might have its first martyr.

In "Beyond Growth" Daly puts forth his beliefs in a concise and readable way. I found the first few chapters a bit heavy on economic theory and terminology (Daly is after all an economist first and foremost), but once that necessary underpinning has been laid Daly goes on to discuss growth-related topics (population, international trade, ethics) in terms more familiar to the layman, expressed in a thought-provoking and even moving way. Daly not only knows, he cares. The final chapter of the book, in which he attempts to meld the concept of stewardship common to most religions with principles of sustainable development, suggests Daly's concern for growth-addicted humanity springs from a religious upbringing. If he has forsaken some of the dogmatic teachings of his youth, he has retained the kernel of the faith, a devotion to Truth and the well-being of his fellow man, to which he adheres as firmly as did his Renaissance predecessor in heresy. Such adhesion brought Bruno martyrdom at the stake; for Daly it is more likley to bring ultimate recognition as one of the most forward-thinking intellectuals of his time.

The big ugly secret about economic dogma
Daly, more than any other economist or writer on sustainability, makes clear the fallacies of traditional free-market thinking. The book illustrates very clearly why economic growth cannot be sustainable in a finite world. (Although he doesnt use the metaphor -- I'll borrow it from Edward Abbey -- the same logic explains why "sustainable" cell growth in humans is called "cancer.") Daly argues that traditional economic theory is mainly useful in only one of the three core areas of economy (the optimal price and allocation of scarce resources) and does not address in any meaningful way two other issues -- the distribution of resources and determining the overall scale of the economy that can be sustained within the biosphere. Particularly interesting is the essay on economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, which describes all of the tenets of traditional economic theory that become untenable merely when one accepts the fact that the second law of thermodynamics (the law on increasing entropy) must apply to an economy just as it applies to the biological and physical world.

What makes Daly effective as a writer is the calm humility of his intellect. Economics has practically become a religion in our society (witness the dogmatic reviews of political/economic books on this site). However, unlike other economists, who get shrill and polemical when their dogma is challenged, Daly is willing to consider possible holes in his arguments, opponents' counterarguments, and unknowns. Of course, he shreds most counterarguments in his calm, polite way, but after reading other economists the openness is refreshing.

My one complaint is the disjointed nature of the book. Although certain themes run throughout each of the seven sections, some of the pieces were originally written as separate essays, and it shows. However, given the clarity of the writing (even on very technical subjects such as Soddy's views on the nature of money) that is ultimately forgivable.

Fuses Christian ethics w/environmental economics effectively
Herman Daly fills a spiritual void in the field of economics. He explains how current capitalist economic theories dependent on unlimited growth are not only destructive to the environmental resource base upon which the economy depends, but also morally indifferent to unwanted side effects such as the unequal distribution of wealth. The strength of Daly's work is such that it may help bring two important advocacy groups that are not normally associated we each other--environmentalists and Christians--together into a powerful constituency.