Integrative Thinking Between Economy, Society, and Environment

Economic theory has assumed environmental and social factors as ‘externalities’, meaning they are not priced into the system. Unfortunately, thinking of environmental and social factors as external to our system has negative downsides. This does not make sense, especially for an ecologist or a human rights advocate whose thinking is that a healthy planet and a safe and thriving society are the basis of all human activities. The interdependency between economy, society, and environment is simply integrated in a SDGs wedding cake below, presented by Johan Rockström, a professor in Water Systems and Global Sustainability, Stockholm University.

The wedding cake above shows that the environment (biosphere) is the basis for society and economic activities, which unfortunately has been slowly degraded. Some planetary boundaries have been extremely crossed, such as biosphere integrity, CO2 concentration, radiative forcing, and biogeochemical flows. The framework of planetary boundaries defines a safe operating space for humanity. Planetary boundaries define the ecological capacity of Earth, that is, the ability of Earth’s ecosystems to maintain their condition and to produce goods and services that we humans use where society and economy exist, as mentioned in the wedding cake.

An eroded wedding cake due to anthropogenic