ABSTRACT
Ecology might be the most politically challenging of the sciences, because its discoveries suggest that contemporary modes of human living cannot survive long into the future. The field of ecology has taken great strides in demonstrating its relevance to economics, so much so that economists ignore the conceptual frameworks and warnings of ecologists only at great peril to their profession and to the world. While the commoditization of energy has driven enormous technological changes, there has been little in the way of comparable advance in the technologies of end-user efficiency. The pressures of commoditization make it difficult if not impossible to live by the principles. Because of commoditization economic goals almost always trump ecological ones. There are many excellent treatments of the implications of the first and second laws of thermodynamics for ecological economics. For ecosystem management to be successful, a balance must be struck between commodity production and conservation of noncommodity values.
