Environment, Economy and Society: Critical Conceptual Linkages in the Economics of Nature

The impacts of climate change have been in discussion for quite some time. It not only affects the atmosphere in terms of temperature rise, it also affects our socio-economic relations and all the webs that are tied with ecological and environmental conditions. Towards this, the paper by Sharma & Dobriyal (2014) highlights some critical linkages between climate change and the agricultural sector in the mountainous regions of Uttarakhand (Sharma & Dobriyal, 2014). Kumar (et al.) analyses the same for different crops and their productivity (Kumar, Sharma, & Ambrammal, 2014). Both the papers suggest that our wellbeing is not isolated from the balance of natural synamics that influences and is influenced by the design of development and the shaping of our consumption needs. What may be the solution then? A biased control, that ecentually leads to marginalisation and discrimination of a majority section of population! We are again in the middle of an age old debate. Probably, we do not have an outright answer as of now. But the fact that we recognise the condition we are in makes a clear case for adjustment. Such an adjustment needs a planning and effective management of our endowments. The paper ‘Database Creation and Analysis for Rational Planning’ (Naithani & Patwal, 2014) is an attempt to highlight such need for planning of resources for their sustainable use. The inaugural issue had a broader scope. Unfortunately, the issue could not cover many other aspects due to lack of sufficient number of articles. We shall make a conscious effort to take forward the discussion in the forthcoming issues.