Abstract
Many parts of the world are currently facing unprecedented social turmoil. Few understand that most of these “exploding” situations have a biophysical basis in patterns of consumption and the ratio of number of humans to resources available. Most “solutions” proposed are political oppression or, for the lucky, economic development, usually led by conventional economists. However, we believe that, for many regions, conventional economics, certainly alone and perhaps in their entirety, are not up to the job of addressing these crises. We propose a new discipline, Biophysical Economics, that addresses these lacunae and offers a good set of procedures for bringing much more natural science to the discipline of economics. This approach provides a stronger basis for training young people in both economics and heterodox political economy. We will need economists with this new training for a future that appears very different from today. This article outlines the rationales for further developing and teaching Biophysical Economics to demonstrate its utility and applies this economic lens to the economy of Mexico. We finish by providing an example of how a Biophysical Economics curriculum appropriate to analyzing and addressing the Mexican economic context might be developed and taught at the University of Guadalajara. This curriculum could also be adapted to other national, educational and institutional settings.
Highlights
Contemporary Economic Crises Demonstrate the Need for a Biophysical Approach to Economics1.1
In order to understand Biophysical Economics and its relation to sustainability and sustainability teaching we focus on the economy of Mexico, a country that in many ways serves as a poster child for the need for and potential benefits of a biophysical approach to economics and teaching
While this concept has hardly penetrated the ranks of conventional economists, it is clear that the time is ripe for broadening the base of economics in Mexico especially, and elsewhere
Summary
The world, and much of Latin America in particular, is facing a new suite of economic, environmental and social issues (including the COVID-19) that are proving to be quite resistant to traditional economic approaches and solutions. For most of the countries listed above Ahmed shows how, in earlier decades, increasing oil production and exports gave a new sense of prosperity to oil-producing nations and their governments, and made it possible for governments (even corrupt governments) to generate pensions, public transport, roads and other social amenities that gave the public a sense of improving social and economic conditions, sometimes even including the poor Under these conditions, people often had more children, which were often well accommodated under the improving economic conditions [14]. When peak oil was reached, and especially when exports were no longer possible, both governments and economies in general faltered, dissatisfaction with governments increased, and social chaos and sometimes wars ensued These trends are laid out very clearly for Syria, Egypt, Venezuela and elsewhere in Ahmed’s book, and clearly apply to Mexico, Argentina and the UK as well.
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