Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment
Current measures of the quality of life are, by and large, insensitive to our dependence on the natural environment. Dasgupta, a distinguished professor of economics at the University of Cambridge, aims to remedy that. In a style that is both engaging and rational, he argues that the most valid measure of human well-being encompasses not only manufactured assets but also human capital (skills), knowledge (ideas) and the natural environment, which includes "minerals and fossil fuels, soils, fisheries, sources of water, forests and woodlands, watersheds, the oceans, places of beauty and tranquility, and the atmosphere." The sobering picture that emerges from this important book contrasts sharply with the one portrayed in most literature on economic development. Human Well-Being is intended both for scholars and for "the general citizen interested in what are among the deepest and most urgent social problems we face today.Editors of Scientific American--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.