Greece is not just running a fiscal deficit; it is also running an ecological one. It would need the total ecological resources and services of three Greeces in order to meet its citizens’ demand on nature for food, fiber, timber, housing, urban infrastructure, and carbon sequestration.

There are two ways our economies can grow, ecological economists point out: through technological change, or through more intensive use of resources. Only the former, they say, is worth having.

Mathew Parr, Senior Advisor in Natural Capital at the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands, blogs that there are many in economics and business who understand that the path to a brighter, more prosperous future involves understanding and maintaining natural capital.

An interview with environmental economist Steve Polasky, commemorating 10 years of work on the Natural Capital Project.