Ecology

Investigators at Faculty of Economics Report Research in Ecology and Economics

  2012 JUL 6 (VerticalNews) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Ecology, Environment & Conservation -- Researchers detail new data in Ecology and Economics. According to news reporting originating in Zaragoza, Spain, by VerticalNews journalists, researchers stated "This paper analyzes wood consumption in Britain over the period 1850-1938. We calculate the apparent consumption of wood, taking into account both net imports of wood and the home harvest."

  The news reporters obtained a quote from the research by the authors from the Faculty of Economics, "We then develop some quantitative exercises that correlate wood consumption with GDP, with prices of wood and iron (as an alternative material to wood) and with other measures. The main conclusion is that, although wood had lost its economic centrality after the energy transition, wood consumption continued to grow in Britain both in absolute and relative terms, showing a positive elasticity to GDP superior to the unit. This result allows us to reach a more complete understanding of the socio-metabolic transition associated with the Industrial Revolution. Britain faced the increase in wood demand by relying almost entirely on imported wood, reinforcing the idea that the decoupling of economic growth from land use must to be handled with care, and should be observed not at the national level but on a global scale."

  According to the news reporters, the researchers concluded: "Although British economic development was to a great extent focussed on what has been called the 'subterranean forests' of coal, it simultaneously supported large tracts of surface foreign forest."

  For more information on this research see: Not only subterranean forests: Wood consumption and economic development in Britain (1850-1938). Ecological Economics, 2012;77():176-184. Ecological Economics can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Ecological Economics - www.elsevier.com/wps/product/cws_home/503305)

  Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting I. Iriarte-Goni, Fac Econ, Dept. of Appl Econ & Econ Hist, Zaragoza 50005, Spain.

  Keywords for this news article include: Spain, Europe, Zaragoza, Economic Growth, Ecological Economics, Economic Development, Ecology and Economics

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