ABSTRACT
One of the primary reasons for the development of ecological economics was the gradual realisation during the latter half of the twentieth century that economic growth was starting to cause more problems than it solved. Arguments about limits to economic growth and the relationship between economic growth and environmental protection proliferated in the 1960s and especially the 1970s. Many of the arguments stemmed from the publication of The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972). Some readers refused to acknowledge limits to growth; others asked: What are the alternatives to growth? Fortunately the answer to that question, at least, is quite straightforward, because there are only two basic alternatives: degrowth [Chapter 44] and the steady state economy. The focus here is the latter.
