Ecological economics starts from the fact that human and natural systems are interdependent. The environment is the material base for economic activity.

Chapter 2 will explain those aspects of the functioning of environmental systems that are particularly relevant to an understanding of economy–environment interdependence. The nature of that interdependence has changed a great deal in the course of human history, as is explained in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 develops a conceptual framework, a model, for the study of the way a modern economy interacts with its environment.