Praise

"This is a well-researched and comprehensive text that offers an alternative and refreshing perspective to environmental issues." - Lynton J. Bussell, University of Teesside

"This is a logically organised, well written text. Its distinguishing element is its explicit consideration of ecology, ecological economics, and sustainable development." - Douglas E. Booth, Marquette University

"A useful textbook that provides comprehensive coverage of environmental and natural resource issues and policy considerations in a clear and concise manner." - Aslib Book Guide

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Author's Comment:

 I wrote this textbook for two compelling reasons.  First, I wanted to write an introductory textbook in environmental and resource economics that truly attempts to integrate economics and ecology.  Second, I wanted this textbook to be student friendlyóeasily accessible to undergraduate students.   I have taught environmental and resource economics to undergraduate students for the past two decades.   I have yet to see a textbook that makes a concerted effort to integrate economics and ecology in a comprehensive and meaningful way.  In most standard textbooks, ecological concepts, to the extent they are included, are addressed on an ad hoc basis. It is this neglect to the disciplinary ties between economics and ecology on the existing textbooks available in the market that eventually prompted me to write my own book.

 Having said this, I claim that the distinguishing features of my textbook are the following:

1. The book is accessible to students with a course in microeconomics at an introductory level.   The book devotes two "optional" chapters that are basically intended for reviewing basic microeconomics concepts and introducing students to economic concepts that are specially relevant to environmental and resources economics.

2. The textbook does not require a prior knowledge in ecology.  A chapter is devoted to this specific subject.  This chapter is written with one modest objective in mindóto offer non-science students a good understanding of the basic principles of the biological and physical sciences that govern the natural world.
 

3. To catch studentsí imagination and attention, as well as to reinforce understandings of basic theoretical principles, case studies and "exhibits" are incorporated into most of the chapters.

4. The textbook offers an in depth and systematic analysis of the "preanalytic"
conceptions of the "anthropocentric" versus the "biocentric" views of environmental and natural resourcesóan important subject matter for any effort to reconcile the differences between these two "worldviews" of natural resources.

5. The textbook is quite original in its effort to explicitly incorporate the recent contributions of ecological economics.  It contains four chapters that exclusively deal with biophysical limits and the necessity for sustainable development.  In so doing, this textbook is, I believe, the first to explicitly confront the issue of "scale" as an integral part (not to be treated in an appendix or as a caveat to a chapter) of a textbook in environmental and resource economics.   Scale refers here to the relative size between human economy and the natural world.

6. The textbook offers rigorous and adequate treatments to all the topics normally included in standard text on "environmental and resource economics" with one important difference.  This difference stems from conscious efforts made to interject ecological perspectives relevant to the main issues addressed in most of the chapters that are the predominantly neoclassical in their approaches.  These efforts are not made casually either.

7. This textbook is clearly interdisciplinary in its focus, and this is done without compromising on the quality and relevance of the economic contents of the book.

8. To sum up, this textbook offers a comprehensive and balanced treatment of environmental and resource issues.  Furthermore, the materials in the text are presented at a level that undergraduate students, from various disciplines and with little background in economics, can understand and appreciate.

*To backup some of the claims that I have made up, here are two comments from reviewers of my book with whom I have no personal acquaintance:

"This is a well researched and comprehensive text that offers an alternative and refreshing perspective to environmental issues."  (Lynton J. Bussell, University of Teesside, UK)

"This is a logically organized, well written text.  Its distinguishing element is its explicit consideration of ecology, ecological economics, and sustainable development."  (Douglas E. Booth, Marquette University, Wisconsin, USA)

*In addition, the following are two representative comments from my students who have used the textbook during the Winter quarter that just ended:

"The book is very good.  I think I will probably keep it for a reference text."

"Text is very good.  Clear, easy to understand, very organized and laid out in a clear and organized fashion."

"Liked the text.  Cheap, easy to read, great graphs and case studies."

"Book is good.  I liked the case studies and real world examples.  Would be more helpful sometimes if the graphs were on the same page as the text that describes them."

"Text was awesome.  Some definitions are hard to locate.  May be the text should include glossary of terms in bold for 2nd edition."

"Book went along well with lectures.  Graphs were helpful and clearly explained.  It would be helpful if they could be in color in the book."

"The book was very good.  It was easy to read.  The style was not complicated, which helped because some of the concepts were.  It was well structured and organized.  Actually, one of the best textbooks I have had to read."