ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that efforts to safeguard the environment and natural resources are not strictly recent developments. In the 19th century, courses about protecting the environment and conserving natural resources were already being offered in Germany by the professors of the German Historical School of Economics (GHSE). In the US, adherents of the New School were also concerned about the destructive use and overexploitation of natural resources. In response, they introduced classes on conservation to the political economy departments of American colleges and universities. They also sought out remedies that would help protect and conserve the natural environment. According to them, all efforts aimed at effectively protecting the environment were directly opposed to the methodological individualism and laissez-faire approach of the classical orthodoxy. This chapter explains that the emphasis that the GHSE and the New School placed on ethical economics and positive state action when it came to protecting the natural environment makes these two schools of thought very relevant to the present time, given that the world is faced with the possibility of ecological collapse and environmental disasters.
