This article reviews the epistemological status of functionalism in ecology and highlights some important implications for ecological economics. One of the most important aspects is that there is no such thing as "functioning" in nature.

While the ecological crisis is usually presented as a confrontation between mankind and nature, there remains a third term that it is imperative to keep in mind: technology. Technology appears as made up of two fronts, which must be considered jointly: mediation with nature, and mediation with man himself.

How could the burden of GHG emission reduction be shared among countries? The article address this arguably basic question by purely statistical methods that do not rely on any normative judgment about the criteria according to which it should be answered.