Quite true that energy is missing from the standard production function. In fact, all of nature is missing! That is why mainstream economics believes in infinite growth. No, I repeat, No, economic activity can occur without inputs from nature. And we use so much of nature that we are interfering with its basic functions of reproduction and waste assimilation - big time - we are consuming natural sources and sinks at approx twice the rate they can regenerate. It this advanced state of ecological overshoot that makes degrowth (of using natural resources) both necessary and inevitable. More important than climate change alone ( a symptom of overshoot), or capitalism ( humans destroyed natural systems from overuse before Adam Smith - now we just do it on a global scale rather than just locally), reducing material throughput is the central focus of degrowth - on the path to a steady state economy - ck out ecological economics for details.
Quite true that energy is missing from the standard production function. In fact, all of nature is missing! That is why mainstream economics believes in infinite growth. No, I repeat, No, economic activity can occur without inputs from nature. And we use so much of nature that we are interfering with its basic functions of reproduction and waste assimilation - big time - we are consuming natural sources and sinks at approx twice the rate they can regenerate. It this advanced state of ecological overshoot that makes degrowth (of using natural resources) both necessary and inevitable. More important than climate change alone ( a symptom of overshoot), or capitalism ( humans destroyed natural systems from overuse before Adam Smith - now we just do it on a global scale rather than just locally), reducing material throughput is the central focus of degrowth - on the path to a steady state economy - ck out ecological economics for details.
You beat me to it. Ecological economics is next.