Book excerpt: Contains articles first published in journals in the 1980s and 1990s by a leading commentator on the environment, offering lively criticism of existing work on ecological economics and the economics of ecology. A theme of all the essays is that changes in perspective, attitudes, and policies are required to avoid the impoverishment that results when environmental and social costs of growth exceed benefits. Issues addressed include growth economics, misunderstandings of thermodynamics, economic development and population, globalization, money, and humans in the ecosystem. The author is a professor in the school of public affairs at the University of Maryland. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR