095 Environmental Economics - Counting What Counts

A Sustainability Now Interview with Josh Farley

What if our metrics for economic health are simply upside down? How can a “healthy” economy—measured by rising GDP—coexist with ecological collapse, mental health crises, and widening inequality?

Josh Farley, ecological economist, isn’t just rethinking economics—he’s redesigning it. A professor at the University of Vermont and Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment, his work bridges economics, ethics, and ecology, challenging the very foundation of how we think about money, nature, and our collective future.

With clarity and a sharp eye for absurdity, Farley unpacks the dangerous delusion of GDP as a measure of well-being—revealing how our systems reward depletion and call it growth, while sidelining equity, health, and ecological integrity.

Instead, he offers a new paradigm: one that prioritizes regeneration over extraction and collective stewardship over unchecked consumption. It’s not just a critique—it’s a grounded, hopeful invitation to redesign economics for a world that actually works.

If you’ve ever sensed that the numbers aren’t telling the whole story—this conversation is the deeper math you’ve been waiting for.