The Sustainable Economy

The Hidden Costs of Climate Change and the Path to a Prosperous Future

By: Robert S. Devine

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

An original, engaging guide to creating a sustainable economy that will combat global warming while also improving our quality of life.

Pick an environmental issue. Maybe air pollution, toxic waste, or deforestation. These all seem like solid choices, but none of these is actually an environmental problem--at least, not at its heart. Deep down, they are economic problems. Nearly all the issues we classify as environmental stem from defects in the DNA of America's current market system. This is emphatically true of our greatest environmental threat: global warming.

With a focus on climate change, journalist and author Robert S. Devine reveals the fundamental flaws in the economy that enable environmental degradation. The Sustainable Economy is a book about economics, but it skips the equations and eases through the jargon, opting instead for compelling stories and surprising humor. Readers will encounter high-tech narwhals, struggling coal workers, orbiting giant mirrors, the kids who are suing the U.S. government over climate policy, and vanishing Alaskan towns.

The Sustainable Economy looks at many of the most pressing climate issues, such as melting ice caps and farm-killing droughts, but by viewing them through the revealing lens of economics, the book delivers a fresh perspective. Devine shows how the basic mechanisms of supply and demand fail when it comes to global warming and the environment. Fortunately, he also lays out a path to an improved economy that can boost our well-being while also fostering a healthy environment. Most importantly, The Sustainable Economy shows how we can overcome the political and personal obstacles blocking progress toward a sustainable, just, and prosperous economy.

Critic reviews

“Conventional, neoclassical economics has failed resoundingly to deal with the climate crisis: as The Sustainable Economy makes clear it is a market failure, an intellectual failure, and a moral failure. We clearly can't rely on the tools that have gotten us into this mess to get us out, and Robert S. Devine suggests some of the alternative possibilities.”
⁠—Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

"Activists, students, and policymakers stand to learn much from this deep dive into environmental economics."
⁠—Kirkus

Excellent, Accessible, and Imperative!

This book should be required reading for any public official with an interest. Robert Devine has taken an incredibly complicated topic and condensed it into an exhaustively researched book that covers several of the main topics related to creating a sustainable economy. In doing so, he has covered economic theory, scientific publications, legal battles, market dynamics, principles of government, and social psychology, resulting in a book that fairly and rationally examines arguments on both sides of the political aisles. The book leaves the reader with a good understanding of the challenges that humanity faces and a blueprint for how to approach it.

In addition to the excellent material the book covers, Devine has also presented the information in accessible, witty prose. The book is easy to read and the technical aspects are distilled to parts that all readers can access. I highly recommend it.