ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a set of economic tools to help in making informed environmental decisions. It attempts to categorize the different types of economic rule sets that tend to apply most directly to environmental decisions. The chapter explores several categories of economics that are relevant in environmental decision-making. It discusses the question of value from a macro-perspective of societal goals. The chapter reviews the traditional dominant form of measuring progress—gross domestic product (GDP)—and looks at some alternatives to this progress indicator. Gross national happiness (GNH) is offered as an alternative measure of human well-being over that of GDP. Its main difference lies in its focus on different criteria than GDP to measure happiness. GNH and the genuine progress indicator are both alternative indicators to GDP, and are meant to offer a more realistic interpretation of how our economic activity matches core human values of well-being and progress.
