Introduction: README -- All the Malthusian millennia -- Power over the earth : the industrial era -- Industrial errors -- Earth Day and its debates -- The dematerialization surprise -- Crib notes -- What causes dematerialization : markets and marvels -- Adam Smith said that : a few words about...

The relationship between economic growth and the environment is, and will always remain, controversial. Some see the emergence of new pollution problems, the lack of success in dealing with global warming and the still rising population in the Third World as proof positive that humans are a...