Questions, Questions, Questions – and Some Answers

We are now about to end a long journey that took us from vague anecdotal and even spiritual descriptions of environmental problems to more systematic measurement and assessment. We then extended these assessments into prediction and policy analysis. Figure 15.1 illustrates how we set out from viewing environmental problems as symptoms of overcharged ecological carrying capacities (what’s the problem?). Economic activities are responsible for this overuse of environmental services, but they also offer solutions to mitigating environmental impacts (what’s economics got to do with it?). Integrative environmental-economic policies face trade-offs and need to set priorities. Before taking action (what can be done?), one has to compare, therefore, the significance of environmental impacts with the benefits of economic activity — now and in the future (how bad is it?).

The interaction of environment and economy spans nearly everything under the sun, and in fact the sun as well. It is no surprise that there are no definite answers to the four questions of Figure 15.1. Lack of knowledge and empirical evidence are the reasons. All one can do now, at the end of the book, is to raise these questions again and summarize the – sometimes contradictory and partial – answers in a brief synopsis of 15 questions. The solution of remaining problems will have to be left to future research.