Ethics and economics : Lewis Gray and the conservation question

Abstract

Se estudia la obra "The economic possibilities of conservation" (1913) de L. C. Gray, que popularizó las ideas de American Conservation Movement. Esta obra se considera un antecedente del debate actual sobre los recursos naturales y el desarrollo sostenible.In “The Economic Possibilities of Conservation” [1913], Lewis Gray reinterpreted from an economic point of view the idea of conservation which had popularized the American Conservation Movement. He linked intergenerational equity and non-renewable resource extraction rate. Gray’s article can be considered as an antecedent of two significant debates in modern natural resource economics. On the one hand, it is a direct precedent of the environmental discussion about the meaning of discounting. On the other, it is an important element in the historical conformation of the sustainability debate.