Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/334696 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18281
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The field of economics ought to be based on the fact that planet Earth is a rare Earth that is fundamentally an Ocean and Plant World. The rapid and continuing bulldozing of biodiversity across ocean and land that has been a feature of human society's economic development over the past two centuries or so, demonstrates that the current political and economic response, framed by the narrow human-centric concept of sustainable development, has failed. Therefore, this paper calls for a fundamental planetary turn in perspective, moving beyond sustainability towards the biocentric concept of Planetary Habitability. The point is that fixing a slow leak in a spaceship (sustainability) is insufficient when the ship's entire life support system is collapsing due to a fundamental design flaw (anthropocentrism); instead, the focus must shift to ensuring the entire ship can support life (habitability), regardless of immediate human convenience.
Subjects: 
biodiversity
sustainability
ecological economics
environment
JEL: 
Q57
Q54
B52
O44
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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