I think that Dr. Carpenter's idea is certainly a good one, and also qualify that statement by agreeing with Brian (and others) that a professional society position statement not only carries a lot of weight, but would be more persistent (more timeless in effect).
I see these two efforts as complementary, and in fact, the Carpenter letter was very similar to the proposed position statement. While we should perhaps save the language of Herman Daly for another posting, both efforts converge on viewing the economy as a subset of the ecosystems on which we depend, which is certainly a good thing! I agree that the letter should have some great benefits, and hope that this only drums up support for a more formal society position statement in the very near future.
