Earth Sciences and Economics, a productive and dynamic interface awaiting exploration

Abstract

This paper sketches the historical common grounds of economics and earth sciences from their roots as scientific disciplines in the period of Enlightenment, and from a much earlier not necessarily scientifical commonality in the economic dependency of early societies on the prevalence of natural resources on the surface of the earth. It proceeds by stressing the commonality of the two disciplines in being empirical and positivistically mechanistic, without ignoring the major socio-cultural rift that occurs between their respective practitioners. The argument is put forward that societal problems, whether global or local, are often not straightforward and easily solved with the tools of a single discipline, and a plea is made for the combination of earth sciences and economics as candidates for a potent multi-disciplinary combination. Briefly, the BSc curriculum in Earth Sciences and Economics is justified and an accompanying research agenda is highlighted that starts from an empirical quantification of ecosystem services at the landscape scale of catchments.