Principles of Environmental Economics: Economics, Ecology and Public Policy

The experience of being the sole author of a textbook on a subject which requires an interdisciplinary focus has indeed been daunting. Undoubtedly, the completion of this project would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of many professional associates, students and family members. In this sense, I cannot truly claim to be the sole author of this text.

I am deeply indebted to Fumie, my wife, and Christine R. Fahndrich, my student, who read and edited the first draft. Nothing written in this text passed to other readers without first being read by my wife.

I would like to thank several individuals for their specific and significant contributions to this text. These people include the following: Marvin Soroos for authoring Chapter 13 (the chapter on global environmental pollution); Paul Olexia for his close reading and for his concrete and insightful suggestions on how to improve the material covered in Chapter 4 (the chapter on ecology); Mike Travis for his very careful reading of Chapter 16 (the chapter on renewable resources); Glen Britton for his contribution to Case Study 9.1 and for suggesting alternative approaches and valuable literature bearing on the subject; and Mike Bernasek for reading and commenting on Part Five (Chapters 6-9), and, most importantly, for his encouragement.

I would like also to express my deeply felt gratitude to my colleagues from the Economics Department, Kenneth Reinert, Charles Stull, James Stansell and Phil Thomas, for reading parts of the text and for their helpful comments and suggestions.

This book uses numerous quoted remarks, exhibits and case studies. These works are not included for mere appearance or style; they significantly contribute to the effectiveness of the book in conveying certain important ideas. Obviously, my debt to those whose work I have quoted and summarized is immeasurable. However, I have the sole responsibility for the interpretation placed on these works.

I actually started writing this book three years ago. However, the idea of writing a textbook on environmental and resource economics had been on my mind for much of the eighteen years that I have been actively engaged in teaching courses in this subject. This enduring desire to write a text would not have been possible without the positive stimulus and, in

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