The current controversy over the future of the forest in Clayoquot Sound is seen by many as typifying the unsolvable conflict between jobs and the environment. In The Green Economy, Michael Jacobs rejects both the traditional Green demand for 'zero growth' and the new economic orthodoxy which seeks to give the environment a monetary value. In their place, he defines the concept of 'sustainability,' as founded in a concern for future generations. But what is sustainable development? How can it be achieved?

Michael Jacobs' profile page

Michael Jacobs is an environmental economist, consultant on local economic development and environmental policy, and a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University.

Michael Jacobs is one of the most talented and innovative writers in the environmental movement of the 1990s.

RSA Journal

Cogent and persuasive ... stands out on the expanding shelves of Green literature.

Financial Times

Jacobs takes the reader through a thorough and cogent treatment of virtually all the main questions currently at issue in the field of environmental economics. In a field rife with ideological polemic from both critics and defenders of "economic approaches" to environmental problems, it is refreshing to read a clear and even-handed discussion of the issues. Readers interested in the economics and politics of the environment will find themselves both more knowledgeable and more thoughtful about the economics and politics of the environment after reading this book.

The Canadian Geographer