“This second edition of Energy and the Wealth of Nation succeeds in covering both an enormously heterogenous selection of material while remaining utterly accessible. … this textbook would be very useful for first- and second-year undergraduates, and also an excellent reference for upper years and indeed any person wishing to get an accessible introduction to the main concepts and analysis of biophysical economics.” (Martin Sers, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Vol. 10, 2020)
“This textbook has constructed an excellent approach on how to better understand economies and natural systems, and their interactions. … this book functions as a valuable academic discussion, as well as a starting point for the economic uninitiated. It has the potential to be an effective textbook for institutions looking to advance their economic teaching past the mainstream model and to seriously incorporate sustainable thinking into their teaching of economics.” (Aaron Grinter, Economic Record, Vol. 95 (308), March, 2019)
About the Author
Charles A.S. Hall is a Systems Ecologist who received his PhD under Howard T. Odum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Hall is the author or editor of seven books and more than 250 scholarly articles. He is best known for his development of the concept of EROI, or energy return on investment, which is an examination of how organisms, including humans, invest energy into obtaining additional energy to improve biotic or social fitness. He has applied these approaches to fish migrations, carbon balance, tropical land use change and the extraction of petroleum and other fuels in both natural and human-dominated ecosystems. Presently he is developing a new field, biophysical economics, as a supplement or alternative to conventional neoclassical economics, while applying systems and EROI thinking to a broad series of resource and economic issues.
Kent A. Klitgaard is Professor of Economics and the Patti McGill Peterson Professor of Social Sciences at Wells Collegein Aurora, New York, where he has taught since 1991. Kent received his Bachelor’s degree at San Diego State University and his Master’s and PhD at the University of New Hampshire. At Wells, he teaches a diverse array of courses including the History of Economic Thought, Political Economy, Ecological Economics, The Economics of Energy, Technology and the Labor Process, and Microeconomic Theory, and is a co-founder of the Environmental Studies Program. Kent is active in the International Society for Ecological Economics, and is a founding member of the International Society for Biophysical Economics. Recently, his interests have turned towards the degrowth movement, and he has published multiple papers on the subject for Research and Degrowth.
