The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics, Hazel Henderson, (New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1981), 411pp.
Understanding environmental problems; market approaches; of general applicability to environmental problems; written for the first part participant.
The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics, is a criticism of economic theory as a basis for policy-making and calls for a re-conceptualization of environmental problems.
The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics, is required reading for ENVD 4035 as taught by Professor Fred Andreas. This work will be interesting to those who find market approaches to environmental problems inadequate. Henderson's work is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to the anticipation of policy-making in a post-economic era. The author forecasts the end of what she calls ?flat earth economics' and the bankruptcy of macroeconomics. Henderson asserts that post- Keynesians are no improvement over their predecessors. She predicts (and offers evidence for the move in that direction) a changing corporate-social contract. Finally, the author examines the contrast between nuclear energy versus solar energy as symptomatic of a paradigm shift from a disposable society to a renewable resources society.
In part two, Henderson asserts that economics is not merely a tool used for policy- making, but is politics itself. She considers economists apologists and likens them to snake-oil salesmen. Part three is devoted to what Henderson sees as the future. She asserts that rather than struggling more diligently against the present problems as they are currently defined, what is required is a re-conceptualization of the problems. Henderson believes that a common cause is arising from the similarities in the concerns of workers and environmentalists (rather controversial assertion). The author examines and refutes assertions that there is a productivity decline. She predicts a new scientific and technological revolution away from hardware toward software. Finally Henderson offers the panacea to: "Think globally and act locally."
The Politics of the Solar Age: alternatives to Economics raises significant questions about and criticism of the traditional market approach to the solution of environmental problems. Henderson does a credible job of addressing the shortcomings of economic theory..
T. A. O'Lonergan