Introduction

The earth’s human populations function as a world economy operating within a global ecosystem. The objective of this study is to develop a unified theoretical model that explains the basic dynamic interdependencies among these systems. Economic activity affects human health, human mortality, and population growth as well as the health of the global ecosystem. The ability of natural resources to provide life-sustaining services, in turn, impact important economic choices with respect to population growth, spending, and production. Policy actions taken by governments and/or central banks may improve or impair the vitality of the world ecology-economy. Government sectors decide acceptable pollution levels as well as the appropriate scales of their infrastructures. These decisions affect not only the ability of renewable resources to grow but also the productive efficiency of their industries. Central banks engage in financial transactions that affect the levels and relative magnitudes of world interest rates and exchange rates. These variables affect the levels and composition of spending around the world and consequently affect the end-of-period stocks of the various manufactured goods and natural resources, which in turn affect future production, employment, prices, and wages.