• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Authors’ Biographies
• I
  • 1: How We Do Economics Today
    • 1.1 Introduction
    • 1.2 Supplying Maximum Human Well-Being Through Markets
    • 1.3 Microeconomics and the Process of Self-regulation
      • 1.3.1 The Primacy of Exchange
    • 1.4 Two Definitions of Scarcity
    • 1.5 How the Structure of the Economy Is Perceived
    • 1.6 Supply, Demand, and Their Theoretical Interaction in Markets
      • 1.6.1 Assumed Constants for Demand
      • 1.6.2 Assumed Constants for Supply
      • 1.6.3 Self-regulations and  Changes in the Supply and Demand Curves
      • 1.6.4 Behind the Demand and Supply Curves
    • 1.7 Margins and Marginal Utility
      • 1.7.1 Market Structures
    • 1.8 Macroeconomics
    • 1.9 Postwar Macroeconomics
    • 1.10 The Focus on Growth
    • 1.11 The Need for Biophysical Economics
    • References
  • 2: How We Got to Where We Are Today: A Brief History of Economic Thought and Its Paradoxes
    • 2.1 Introduction
    • 2.2 Surplus and Scarcity
    • 2.3 Economic Surplus as Energy Surplus
    • 2.4 The “Big Es”
    • 2.5 The Present as History [4]
    • 2.6 Schools of Economic Thought
    • 2.7 The Mercantilists
      • 2.7.1 Mercantilist Theory
    • 2.8 Classical Political Economy: The Physiocrats, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and John Stuart Mill
      • 2.8.1 The Origins of Wealth and Value
      • 2.8.2 Smith on Money
      • 2.8.3 Classical Political Economy and the Distribution of Wealth and Income
      • 2.8.4 The Origin of the Concepts of Diminishing Marginal Return and Comparative Advantage
      • 2.8.5 Balancing Supply and Demand
      • 2.8.6 Growth, Accumulation, and the Steady State
    • 2.9 Proper Role of the Government
    • 2.10 Karl Marx
      • 2.10.1 The Origins of Value and Wealth
      • 2.10.2 Supply and Demand
        • Accumulation
      • 2.10.3 Marx and the State
        • Marx on Money
        • The Metabolic Rift
    • 2.11 The Origin of Neoclassical Economics
      • 2.11.1 Value and Wealth
      • 2.11.2 The Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution
    • 2.12 What Most Economists Missed: The Impact of Industrialization
      • 2.12.1 Supply and Demand
      • 2.12.2 The Neoclassical Perspective of Indefinite Growth
      • 2.12.3 Accumulation and Growth
    • 2.13 Thorstein Veblen and the American Institutionalists
    • 2.14 Keynesian Economics
      • 2.14.1 Keynes and the Taming of Economic Cycles
      • 2.14.2 Accumulation and Growth
    • 2.15 Biophysical Economics
    • 2.16 Summary
    • References
  • 3: Problems with How We Do Economics Today
    • 3.1 Introduction [1]
      • 3.1.1 Economic Issues Appropriately Assessed with Conventional Economics
    • 3.2 Some Fundamental Myths of NCE
      • 3.2.1 Myth 1: A Theory of Production Can Ignore Physical and Environmental Realities
      • 3.2.2 Myth 1a: The Economy Can Be Described Independently of Its Biophysical Matrix
      • 3.2.3 Myth 1b: Economic Production Can Be Described Without Reference to Physical Work
      • 3.2.4 Specific Criticism 1: Thermodynamics
      • 3.2.5 Specific Criticism 2: Boundaries
      • 3.2.6 Specific Criticism 3: Validation
      • 3.2.7 Myth 2: A Theory of Consumption Can Ignore Actual Human Behavior
      • 3.2.8 Myth 2a: Homo Economicus Is a Scientific Model That Does a Good Job of Predicting Human Behavior
      • 3.2.9 Myth 2b: Consumption of Market Goods Can Be  Equated with Well-Being and Money Is a Universal Substitute for Anything
      • 3.2.10 How the Neoclassical Model Fails to Deal with Distributional Issues
      • 3.2.11 What Economists Think of These Ideas
      • 3.2.12 Why Theory Matters
    • References
  • 4: Biophysical Economics: The Material Basis
    • 4.1 Background to Biophysical Economics
    • 4.2 What Is Biophysical Economics?
    • 4.3 Conceptual Sources of Biophysical Economics
    • 4.4 Biophysical Basis of Early Economists
    • 4.5 Ecology as a Source of Ideas
    • 4.6 Limits to Growth
    • 4.7 What Can One Do with  Biophysical Economics?
    • 4.8 Secular Stagnation
    • 4.9 Why Have Not Most Traditional Economists Paid More Attention to Biophysical Economics?
    • 4.10 Are We Becoming More Resource Efficient?
    • 4.11 Biophysical Economics as a Means of Synthesizing Traditional Approaches to the Generation of Wealth
    • 4.12 Summary
    • References
  • 5: Biophysical Economics: The Economics Perspective
    • 5.1 Introduction
    • 5.2 A Selective History of Biophysical Economic Thought
      • 5.2.1 Energy and the US Economy
      • 5.2.2 The Ecology of the  Economic Process
      • 5.2.3 Historical Perspective and Current Research Trends
      • 5.2.4 The Need to Reintegrate the Natural Sciences with ­Economics
      • 5.2.5 The Early History of Modern Ecological Economics
      • 5.2.6 A New Biophysically Based Paradigm
      • 5.2.7 EROI, Peak Oil, and the  End of Economic Growth
      • 5.2.8 Ecological Economics and Institutional Change
      • 5.2.9 Ecological Economics, Degrowth, and Institutional Change
    • 5.3 Hydrocarbons and the  Illusion of Sustainability
    • 5.4 Toward an Economic Theory for Biophysical Economics
    • 5.5 Secular Stagnation, the Theory of Monopoly Capital, and the Institutions of Accumulation
    • 5.6 The Social Structure of Accumulation
    • 5.7 Equations and the  Conceptual Model
    • References
• II
  • 6: The Evolution of Humans and Their Economies
    • 6.1 The History of Formal Thought on Surplus Energy
    • 6.2 The Prehistory of Human Society: Living on Nature’s Terms
      • 6.2.1 African Origin and  Human Migrations
      • 6.2.2 The Dawn of Agriculture: Increasing the Displacement of Natural Flows of Energy
      • 6.2.3 Human Cultural Evolution as Energy Evolution
      • 6.2.4 The Possibility, Development, and Destruction of Empire
    • 6.3 Mediterranean Cultures
      • 6.3.1 Greece
      • 6.3.2 Rome
      • 6.3.3 The Rise of Islam [23]
      • 6.3.4 The Lasting Legacies of Ferdinand and Isabella
      • 6.3.5 Other Regions of the Earth
    • 6.4 The Energetics of Preindustrial “Modern” Societies: Sweden and the Netherlands
    • 6.5 A Somewhat Cynical View of Human History
      • 6.5.1 The Repeated Collapse of Empires
    • 6.6 Summary
      • 6.6.1 Surplus Energy and Contemporary Industrial Society
    • References
  • 7: Energy, Wealth, and the American Dream
    • 7.1 Waves of Colonists to  America: First Asians and then Europeans
    • 7.2 Industrialization and ­Isolationism
    • 7.3 Spindletop and the Beginning of the Affluent Society
    • 7.4 The Creation and Spread of the “American Dream”
    • 7.5 Two World Wars Separated by the Great Depression
    • 7.6 The Rise of Affluence for Many
    • 7.7 The Increasing Role of Government
    • 7.8 The “Oil Crises” of the  1970s: Hints at Limits to Economic Growth
    • 7.9 The Limits to Growth
    • 7.10 Crumbling Pillars of Prosperity
    • 7.11 The 20-Year Energy Breather
    • 7.12 Political and Economic Response to Oil Price Increases Since 2000
    • 7.13 Why Does the Energy Issue Keep Emerging?
    • 7.14 Debt, Inequality, and Who Gets What
    • 7.15 Are We Seeing the End of the American Dream?
    • 7.16 The Future of the  American Dream
    • References
  • 8: The Petroleum Revolution and the First Half of the Age of Oil
    • 8.1 The First Half of the  Age of Oil [1]
    • 8.2 The Industrial Revolution
    • 8.3 Peak Oil: How Long Can We Depend on Oil?
    • 8.4 Quality of Petroleum
    • 8.5 Quantity of Petroleum
    • 8.6 Pattern of Use Over Time
    • 8.7 Net Energy from Oil
    • 8.8 Geography of Oil
    • 8.9 Energy and Political Costs of Getting Oil
    • 8.10 Deep Water and Extreme Environments
    • 8.11 How About Natural Gas?
    • 8.12 The Future: Other Technologies
    • 8.13 The Social Importance of These Supply Uncertainties
    • References
• III
  • 9: The Petroleum Revolution II: Concentrated Power and Concentrated ­Industries
    • 9.1 Introduction
    • 9.2 Petroleum and Economic Concentration
    • 9.3 Why Study Monopoly
    • 9.4 Petroleum and the Social Revolution
    • 9.5 The Rise of Standard Oil
    • 9.6 Further Challenges to the Standard Empire
    • 9.7 New Sources and New Rivals
    • 9.8 Markets Lost and  Markets Found
    • 9.9 The Age of Gasoline
    • 9.10 Industrial Concentration as a Consequence of Concentrated Energy
    • 9.11 Threats and Opportunities
    • 9.12 The Loss of Worker Power and the Gain in Financial Power
    • 9.13 The Great Crash
    • 9.14 Conclusion
    • References
  • 10: Twentieth Century: Growth and the Hydrocarbon Economy
    • 10.1 Introduction
    • 10.2 Historical Antecedents: Depression and War
    • 10.3 The Second World War and the End of the Depression
      • 10.3.1 The Postwar Economic and Social Order
      • 10.3.2 The Marshall Plan
      • 10.3.3 Emergence of the Importance of the Middle East
      • 10.3.4 The Age of Economic Growth
      • 10.3.5 Peak Oil and Stagflation
      • 10.3.6 The Fateful Year of 1973
      • 10.3.7 The End of the Liberal Growth Agenda
      • 10.3.8 The Fateful Year of 1979
      • 10.3.9 The Emergence of  Supply-Side Economics
      • 10.3.10 Warning Signs in the Early Twenty-First Century
      • 10.3.11 The Housing Bubble, Speculative Finance, and the Explosion of Debt
      • 10.3.12 The Deficit and the National Debt
    • 10.4 Conclusion
    • References
  • 11: Globalization, Development, and Energy
    • 11.1 Trade and Imperialism
    • 11.2 The Concept of Development and Its Relation to Trade
      • 11.2.1 The Leverage of Debt
      • 11.2.2 The Logic for Liberalizing Economies
      • 11.2.3 We Need to Test Our Economic Theories About Globalization, Development, and Efficiency
      • 11.2.4 Definitions of Efficiency
      • 11.2.5 Testing the Hypothesis that Freer Trade Leads to Economic Efficiency
      • 11.2.6 Results of Testing for Biophysical Efficiency Following Liberalization
      • 11.2.7 Development as an Increase in Energy Use
      • 11.2.8 Development in More Detail: Assessment of Sustainability in Costa Rica
      • 11.2.9 Discussion
    • References
  • 12: Are There Limits to Growth? Examining the Evidence
    • 12.1 Early Warning Shots
    • 12.2 The Reversal
    • 12.3 A Closer Look at the Arguments
    • 12.4 Avoiding Malthus
    • 12.5 Energy Scarcity
    • References
  • 13: The Petroleum Revolution III: What About ­Technology?
    • 13.1 New Hubbert Peaks?
    • 13.2 New Technologies to the Rescue?
    • 13.3 EROI
    • 13.4 Conclusion
    • References
• IV
  • 14: What Is Energy and How Is It Related to Wealth ­Production?
    • 14.1 Energy: The Unseen Facilitator
    • 14.2 A History of Our ­Understanding of Energy
    • 14.3 Newton’s Laws of Motion
    • 14.4 The Mechanical Equivalent of Heat
    • 14.5 What Is Energy?
    • 14.6 Quality of Energy
    • 14.7 What Are Fuels?
    • 14.8 Why Energy Is So Important: Fighting Entropy
    • 14.9 Laws of Thermodynamics
    • 14.10 Types of Energy
    • 14.11 Energy and Life in More Detail…
    • 14.12 Energy Storage
    • 14.13 A Big Jump in the Earth’s Energy Supplies for Life
    • 14.14 More on Energy and Evolution
    • 14.15 Maximum Power
    • 14.16 Natural Economies
    • 14.17 Summary So Far: Surplus Energy and Biological Evolution
    • 14.18 Energy and Economics in Early and Contemporary Human Economies
    • References
  • 15: The Basic Science Needed to Understand the Relation of Energy to ­Economics
    • 15.1 Understanding Nature
      • 15.1.1 What Is Nature?
      • 15.1.2 Human Explanation of Nature
      • 15.1.3 Cause and Effect
    • 15.2 The Scientific Method
      • 15.2.1 Formalizing Our Search for Truth Amidst Uncertainty
      • 15.2.2 The Need for Science to Understand How Economies Work
      • 15.2.3 Steps in the Scientific Method
    • 15.3 The Physical World
      • 15.3.1 Energy Sources
      • 15.3.2 Basic Thermodynamics
      • 15.3.3 Entropy and Its Relation to Human Economies
      • 15.3.4 A Little Geology of Importance to Economics
      • 15.3.5 Concentration, Depletion, and the “Best First” Principle
      • 15.3.6 The Formation of  Fossil Fuels
      • 15.3.7 A Little Chemistry of ­Importance to Economics
      • 15.3.8 Conservation of Matter: Supplies of Inputs
      • 15.3.9 Carbon Chemistry
      • 15.3.10 Nitrogen chemistry and the Haber-Bosch process
      • 15.3.11 Phosphorus
      • 15.3.12 Conservation of  Matter: Wastes
      • 15.3.13 Chemistry and Physics
      • 15.3.14 Climate and the Hydrological Cycle
      • 15.3.15 The Hydrologic Cycle
      • 15.3.16 Climate Change
      • 15.3.17 How Climate Change Can Affect Human Economies
    • 15.4 The Biological World
      • 15.4.1 Natural Selection and Evolution
      • 15.4.2 How Does Natural Selection Work? The Ecological Theatre and the Evolutionary Play
      • 15.4.3 Adaptation to Biotic Agents
      • 15.4.4 Ghosts of Natural Selection Past
      • 15.4.5 The Units of Selection
      • 15.4.6 Energy and All Biology
      • 15.4.7 Ecology
      • 15.4.8 Ecological Stability
    • 15.5 Is Economics Science?
    • References
  • 16: The Required Quantitative Skills
    • 16.1 The Basic Mathematics You Need to Know to Understand Economics
      • 16.1.1 What Mathematics Then Are most Useful?
      • 16.1.2 Mathematical Functions and Forcing Functions
      • 16.1.3 Growth: Linear Versus Nonlinear
    • 16.2 Statistics
      • 16.2.1 Correlation
      • 16.2.2 Econometrics
    • 16.3 Calculus
      • 16.3.1 What Is the Proper Use of Mathematics in Economics and Natural Science?
      • 16.3.2 Analytic Versus Numeric
      • 16.3.3 So, Then, Why Is Economics, Which Is so Complex, so Analytical?
      • 16.3.4 Now We will Appear to Contradict Ourselves
    • References
  • 17: Is Economics a Science? Social or Biophysical?
    • 17.1 Introduction: Much Early Economics was Biophysical
      • 17.1.1 Economics as a Social Science?
      • 17.1.2 Behavioral
      • 17.1.3 Biophysical
      • 17.1.4 Moral
      • 17.1.5 Other Economists Agree with Us
      • 17.1.6 Is Economics a Science?
    • References
• V
  • 18: Energy Return on ­Investment
    • 18.1 Introduction [1]
      • 18.1.1 Economic Cost of Energy
    • 18.2 What Is EROI?
    • 18.3 Relation of EROI to Monetary Cost
      • 18.3.1 History
    • 18.4 Seeking an Acceptable EROI Protocol
    • 18.5 The Best Analyses of the Energy Costs
    • 18.6 How Much Energy Is Needed to “Get the Job Done”: Calculating EROI at the Point of Use
    • 18.7 Extended EROI: Calculating EROI at the Point of Use Correcting for the Energy Required for Creating and Maintaining Infrastructure
    • 18.8 Why Should EROI Change Over Time? Technology Versus Depletion
      • 18.8.1 EROI for US and North American Domestic Resources and Its Implications for the “Minimum EROI”
    • 18.9 The Surplus Available to Run the Rest of the Economy
    • 18.10 EROI of Obtaining Energy Through Trade
      • 18.10.1 The Trade-off between EROI and Total Energy Used in Generating “Civilization”
    • 18.11 Conclusion
    • References
  • 19: Peak Oil, EROI, Investments, and Our Financial Future
    • 19.1 Introduction
    • 19.2 The Age of Petroleum
    • 19.3 How Much Oil Will We Be Able to Extract?
    • 19.4 Decreasing Energy Return on Investment
    • 19.5 The Balloon Graph
    • 19.6 Economic Impacts of Peak Oil and Decreasing EROI
    • 19.7 The “Cheese Slicer” Model
    • 19.8 Results of Simulation
    • 19.9 Discussion
    • 19.10 What Level EROI Do We Need?
    • 19.11 Conclusion
    • References
  • 20: The Role of Models for Good and Evil
    • 20.1 Definitions: Models and Analytic vs. Simulation Models
    • 20.2 Models and Reality
    • 20.3 The Importance of Paradigms
    • 20.4 Paradigms and Models
    • 20.5 So, then, Why Is Economics, Which Is So Complex, So Analytical?
    • 20.6 How Have Models in Fact Been Used in Economics
    • 20.7 Some Problems with the Standard Neoclassical Model
    • 20.8 If the Basic Neoclassical Model Is Unrealistic, Why Do Economists Continue to Use It?
    • 20.9 A Final Thought on the Proper Use of Mathematics
    • 20.10 Now We Will Appear to Contradict Ourselves
    • References
  • 21: Applying a Biophysical Economics Approach to Developing Countries
    • 21.1 Other Somewhat Related Biophysical Approaches
    • 21.2 Explicit Procedures for Creating a Biophysical Economic Analysis for a Country or Region
    • 21.3 Step 1: State your Objectives (with the Right People)
    • 21.4 Step 2: Assemble a Database of Critical Biophysical Parameters
      • 21.4.1 Taking Demography into Account
    • 21.5 Step 3: Make an Assessment of Critical Economic Parameters over Time
    • 21.6 Undertaking a Biophysical Assessment of the Current Economy
    • 21.7 Predicting the Future Energy Needs of a Society
    • 21.8 Predicting Land Use Change
    • 21.9 Predicting Net Economic Output as a Function of Land Type
    • 21.10 Assessing the Energy and Other Cost of a Development Scheme
    • 21.11 Include Social Assessments
    • 21.12 Construct a Comprehensive Simulation of the Future and Make the Right Decisions!
    • 21.13 Make the Right Decisions
    • References
• VI
  • 22: Peak Oil, Secular Stagnation, and the Quest for Sustainability
    • 22.1 Introduction [1]
    • 22.2 What Is the Source of the Crash of 2008?
    • 22.3 Energy Price Shocks and the Economy
    • 22.4 The Relation of Oil and Energy More Generally, to Our Economy
    • 22.5 Energy and the Stock Market
    • 22.6 A Financial Analyst Concurs
    • 22.7 Is Growth Still Possible?
    • 22.8 An Energy-based Theory of Economic Growth
    • 22.9 Predicting Future Economic Expansion
    • 22.10 EROI and Prices of Fuels
    • 22.11 Summary
    • References
  • 23: Fossil Fuels, Planetary Boundaries, and the  Earth System
    • 23.1 Introduction
    • 23.2 A Systems Approach
    • 23.3 Planetary Boundaries
    • 23.4 Climate Change
    • References
  • 24: Is Living the Good Life Possible in a Lower EROI Future?
    • 24.1 What Are the Main Issues for Transitioning to the Future?
      • 24.1.1 Labor
      • 24.1.2 Debt
      • 24.1.3 International
    • 24.2 Choosing a Better Future
    • 24.3 What We Need to Do: A Biophysical Plan for a Sustainable Future
      • 24.3.1 What We Must Do if We Are to be Truly Sustainable
      • 24.3.2 Why We Are Not Entirely Optimistic
      • 24.3.3 Why We Have Reason to Be Optimistic
    • References
• Index

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