And with that early comment a reader may expect a long, dull, treatise on misanthropic environmentalism and the evils of industrialism. But by posing this provocative question, Jacobs argues that economics and ecology have much in common. Brains, like brawn, are created by nature.
Prairies manage to replenish themselves year after year.
Although sympathetic to the green movement, Jacobs will have none of the cranky assumptions held by some environmentalists. There is not much gloominess here. Global warming is hardly mentioned. The world is not going to end in part because of man's tinkering nature. Both economics and ecology thrive on an unpredictable, unplanned, evolutionary process.