Using insights provided by environmentalism, ecology and thermodynamics, this book begins the construction of a new economic approach to the use of natural resources and particularly to the problem of environmental degradation. The globe is warming up, tropical moist forests are being wiped out and major upper watersheds are being degraded. Barbier reviews and criticizes the long past of environmental and resource economics and then goes on to elaborate on an economics which allows us to develop alternative strategies for dealing with the problems. With examples drawn from Latin America and Indonesia he not only develops a major theoretical advance but shows how it can be applied. The author breaks new ground in the search for an economics of sustainable development. The author also wrote Blueprint for a Green Economy and After the Green Revolution .