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      Restricting environmental damage resulting from economic activities: a Polanyian analysis

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            Abstract

            Economic activities continue to cause considerable environmental damage. The extent of damage could be such that the environment in and around our planet will be affected, making survival difficult for human beings, for other animals, and for plants and insects. The paper reviews economic developments from the nineteenth century and how these have been influenced by orthodox economic theories. Markets are central to orthodox economics, and to policies which have been implemented recently to restrict global warming. Since the 1980s, policies based on orthodox economics and neoliberalism have been widely implemented by governments, and also by international organizations. Such policies are evaluated and found to be seriously inadequate. Studies of environmental implications of the development of two major sectors of the world economy follow. Policies which are concerned only to restrain climate change are unlikely to be adequate by themselves. Policies which take a holistic approach to considering all the important impacts of human economic activity on the environment have greater prospects of success. The paper concludes by suggesting research and analysis be undertaken urgently to assist with the design and implementation of more effective policies to reduce the damage to the environment caused by human economic activities.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Journal
            10.2307/j50022063
            prometheus
            Prometheus
            Pluto Journals
            0810-9028
            1470-1030
            1 September 2021
            : 37
            : 3 ( doiID: 10.13169/prometheus.37.issue-3 )
            : 223-240
            Affiliations
            Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, UK
            Author notes
            Article
            prometheus.37.3.0223
            10.13169/prometheus.37.3.0223
            c365bfaf-31d7-4c91-8064-eb38e0f0413f
            © 2021 Pluto Journals

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Custom metadata
            eng

            Computer science,Arts,Social & Behavioral Sciences,Law,History,Economics

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