Ecological Economy and Protection of the Earth's Ecosystem

The current world economy has put ecosystems and human societies at a critical impasse. Neo-liberal capitalism, in the pursuit of profit maximization, turns all the elements of nature into commodities and justifies it scientifically. The current research mainly aims to present a conceptual framework for ecological economics. In strictly scientific terms, ecological economy refers to an economic system that is in harmony with the basic principles of ecology and "systemic principles of life". In a broader sense, ecological economics refers to economic theory and practice that does not consider the economy to be dominant over nature, society, and culture, but rather believes that the economy should be active within nature, society, and culture. In terms of methodology, four basic principles are determined for ecological economics based on the theory of living systems and the philosophy of organisms. These four principles are nested systems, self-generating networks, open systems, and cognitive interactions. The main question is how these principles can be used to design an ecological economic system that facilitates life at the individual, social and environmental levels. The current research connects ecological economics to systems theory, which justifies the significance of this research. The findings show that ecological economics should give priority to activities that maximize the well-being of humans, non-humans, and the whole ecosystems, and its primary goal should be to serve life processes in social and ecological systems.