Bioeconomics – the Essence of Nicholas Georgescu–Roegen’s Legacy

The ever augmenting climate debate nowadays sent us back on the field of research to one of the first economists that truly understood the devastating effects of human activity over our planet – no other than the founding father of bioeconomics, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. Reflecting upon all the factors that contributed to the tremendous insightfulness and incredible topicality of his convictions, we embark on a synopsis of the great Romanian economist’s lifetime work and on an analysis of his fundamental heritage for the human kind, fitting it in the pattern of the main biographical circumstances which influenced his academic development and interests. We will try to outline the key moments which determined the transition from a purely mathematics-driven formation to an authentic interest for the economic science, its social character and the fitting of the bio-physic setting in this context, only to end up analysing the multiple layers of bioeconomics and to further canvass the different acceptations of what we proudly consider to be the essence of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s message for posterity.