Ecologists were seen as a
group with the single-minded aim of reducing
pollution, whereas economists would always balance
this aim against other social aims.2 Regarding the
other ideas, it is worth noting that the awareness of
basic ignorance was still not widespread in any
discipline. When the European Environment Agency
published dLate lessons from early warningsT in 2001
(Harremoe¨s et al.), the emphasis on basic ignorance
could still give rise to headlines and debate. Finally,
both mainstream economists and natural scientists
tended to consider their own work as value-free, so
they preferred to avoid what they considered political
issues such as distribution inside the present generation.
Based on such important differences it made
good sense to establish the new reputational organization
of ecological economics.