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IZA Discussion Paper No. 18281
November 2025
An Economist’s Ode to the Forests and the Sea

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.

Kommunikation
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Netzwerkkoordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

Das IZA@LISER-Netzwerk ist eine weltweite Gemeinschaft für exzellente Forschung in der Arbeitsmarktökonomie und angrenzenden Fachgebieten. Nach dem Wechsel von Bonn wird das Netzwerk nun am Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) koordiniert.

Über das IZA@LISER Network
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