Early reviews of “The Progress Illusion”

I’m so grateful for early reviews of my new book “The Progress Illusion: Reclaiming Our Future from the Fairytale of Economics” (Island Press, 2022). “Erickson’s cri de coeur is bracing and coherent. Progressives should take heed.”~ Publishers Weekly “Erickson’s powerful new book shows how flawed economic thinking has shaped not only our economy but also

The Inconvenient Truth of Herman Daly: there is no economy without environment

Jon D. Erickson, University of Vermont Herman Daly had a flair for stating the obvious. When an economy creates more costs than benefits, he called it “uneconomic growth.” But you won’t find that conclusion in economics textbooks. Even suggesting that economic growth could cost more than it’s worth can be seen as economic heresy. The

The Progress Illusion: Reclaiming Our Future from the Fairytale of Economics

My new book with Island Press is out! Below is a brief synopsis, and here’s a link to the publisher’s web site: https://islandpress.org/books/progress-illusionhttps://islandpress.org/books/progress-illusion. We live under the illusion of progress: as long as GDP is going up and prices stay low, we accept poverty and pollution as unfortunate but inevitable byproducts of a successful economy.

Crash Course in Ecological Economics

Our 16-minute crash course in ecological economics has nearly 35,000 views. Closing in on the millions of students who get a course in conventional economics every year!

New Book on “Sustainable Wellbeing Futures”

We have a new edited book coming out in May 2020 entitled Sustainable Wellbeing Futures: a Research and Action Agenda for Ecological Economics. This work is the product of a workshop supported by the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont, and includes contributions from a broad range of scholars and practioners dedicated

After the Pandemic – Designing a Just and Resilient Economy for All

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the immense brittleness and vulnerability of the world’s economy. Extended supply chains have collapsed, many staples are in short supply, and life-saving healthcare in many countries is being rationed. In plotting a course forward, should world leaders aim for a return to an economic system that was so easily and

The UVM Economist Behind Bernie’s Job Numbers

By Arno Rosenfeld. Cross-posted from Gund Institute for Environment.February 6, 2020 When Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign released job numbers for its Green New Deal proposal last fall, projecting it would put 20 million people to work, it raised some eyebrows. Politico suggested the figures were “outlandish,” while The New York Times cautioned that job growth was “not so

A Just Transition to a Right-Sized Economy

What are the elements of a just transition to a smaller economic system? For example, imagine degrowth of material-intensive activities offset by growth in leisure. Or the freeing of time from the overworked to the underemployed. In Herman Daly’s exploration of a steady-state economy, he reminds us of the writings of the social critic Bertrand

University of Vermont to Host United Nations Biosphere Delegation

Cross-posted from University of Vermont Communications, October 9, 2019 On October 11, representatives from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Man and Biosphere Program (MAB) and the U.S. National Park Service will gather at the University of Vermont for the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve’s (CABR) Annual Meeting.  The meeting will focus on how

New research on phosphorus surplus in Vermont agriculture

New research by PhD alum Michael Wironen is out in the journal of Global Environmental Change on “Phosphorus Flows and Legacy Accumulation in an Animal-Dominated Agricultural Region from 1925 to 2012” (aka Vermont).  We found that although the overall surplus of phosphorus in agricultural in Vermont has declined since the 1950s, excess phosphorus continues to