A Tayside ecologist has marked another milestone in an extraordinary journey from the rock pools of Easthaven to Washington DC.
Keith Skene’s research career as an ecologist has taken him from agro-forestry projects in Kenya to Western Australian laterite soils, and from dung beetle ecology on the slopes of El Cerro del Aripo to primate behaviour in Caribbean swamps.
Along the way he collected many gongs, being the first student from Dundee University to be awarded the Association of Rhodes Scholars in Australia Scholarship.
Having taught for 13 years at Dundee University, latterly as convener of the Board of Environmental and Applied Biology, in 2010 Keith left to found the Biosphere Research Institute.
This is an interdisciplinary centre of expertise across science, arts and economics, working with universities, government and charities across Europe and tasked with addressing some of the major challenges facing the planet.
Its patron is Professor Seaton Baxter, a leader in sustainability thinking.
Keith’s latest book, Sustainable Economics: Context, Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century Practitioner, has had a huge impact, published on both sides of the Atlantic.
Showcased at the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center Sustainability Forum last May in Washington DC, it marks a milestone in publishing, being the first comprehensive text on the subject of sustainable economics.
Leading thinkers in the field have praised the book, including Dr Ian Roderick, director of the Schumacher Institute, and Julie Hill, chairwoman of WRAP and a UK Government adviser on the environment for 15 years.
She said it would equip anyone in business, or studying business and economics to “disentangle their industrial ecology from their circular economy, and make them seriously question their role in shaping the future”.
On the World Service, Mr Skene explained why an ecologist has written a book on economics which discusses western consumerism.
He said: “The linguistic roots of the two words, ecology and economics, are similar and this is not by chance.
“Ecology comes from the Greek meaning study of the house, while economics comes from the Greek meaning numeration of the house.
“Early in my career I realised that not only do we act and think as if economics is central to our society, politics and working life, but in reality it is the ecology of our planet that determines if we survive as a species.
“Economics has the greatest impact on the environment of all of our activities, and thus economics and ecology must become happy bedfellows if we are to enjoy a sustainable future.”