Question

what is the methodological issues in environmental economics

Answer 1

Positive versus normative economics :

Policy makers look to economics to guide policy, and it seems inevitable that even the most esoteric issues in theoretical economics may bear on some people's material interests. The extent to which economics bears on and may be influenced by normative concerns raises methodological questions about the relationships between a positive science concerning “facts” and a normative inquiry into what ought to be.

Reasons versus causes :

Orthodox theoretical microeconomics is as much a theory of rational choices as it a theory that explains and predicts economic outcomes.

Social scientific naturalism :

Of all the social sciences, economics most closely resembles the natural sciences. Economic theories have been axiomatized, and articles and books of economics are full of theorems.