X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Robert Costanza


Ecological economics

Robert Costanza was the first president of the society and first editor of the journal, currently edited by Richard Howarth.

Ecosystem valuation

Work based upon benefit transfer, compiled by ecologist/planner Robert Costanza in the 1990s, has claimed that even just considering the most basic seventeen of these services, the combined value of the ecosystems of the Earth was worth more (US$33T) each year; more than the whole human exchange economy (US$25T) at that time (1995), which is rather strange for an exchange value.

Genuine progress indicator

Analysis by Robert Costanza also around 1995 of nature's services and their value showed that a great deal of degradation of nature's ability to clear waste, prevent erosion, pollinate crops, etc., was being done in the name of monetary profit opportunity: this was adding to GDP but causing a great deal of long term risk in the form of mudslides, reduced yields, lost species, water pollution, etc.

Gund Institute for Ecological Economics

The Gund Institute was originally founded by Robert Costanza in 1991 as the Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Maryland.

Robert Costanza

Robert Costanza (born September 14, 1950) is a leading ecological economist and Professor of Public Policy at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University.

He is a senior fellow of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm, Sweden; a senior fellow of the National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C.; a distinguished visiting professor at Lincoln University in Canterbury, New Zealand; Affiliate Fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont; and a co-chair of the Ecosystem Services Partnership.


The Planet

It includes interviews with 29 environmental scientists and experts including Dr. Stephen Peake, Herman Daly, Lester Brown, Gretchen Daily, Mathis Wackernagel, Norman Myers, Jill Jäger, George Monbiot, Robert Costanza, Will Steffen, and Jared Diamond.


see also

Accounting reform

Robert Costanza, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and others who advocate a consistent global system for valuing natural capital, note that failures in this area are particularly grim: promoting extinction, loss of biodiversity, climate change and destructive weather for the sake of such "growth".

Sustainable national income

A critical review of the method used by Robert Costanza et al. (1997) is given by Roefie Hueting et al (1998).