Energy economics is a subfield of economics that focuses on energy relationships as the foundation of all other relationships. It is a radical subfield of
ecological economics in that it assumes that
food chains[?] in
ecology are directly analogous to energy supply chains in human industries; However, it goes much further in assuming that these relationships are decisive, much as
Marxist economics assumes that capital ownership relationships are decisive, in determining human actions.
Buckminster Fuller, in his "Cosmic Costing[?]", was an early advocate of energy economics. Modern theorists of energy economics are also often students of complexity theory, e.g. Joseph Tainter[?].
Energy economics is considered by some an offshoot of deep ecology movements - they share the view that human beings can suffer population dieoff[?] when an energy supply is exhausted. This is considered inescapable. Accordingly, a prime motive of energy economics is energy conservation[?].
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