Charles Southwick is among the most distinguished and best-known human ecologists, and he sees this book as more substantive than standard environmental texts. He examines the way in which humans interact with their environment, both altering it and being altered by it. His argument is based on a scientific rather than political context, drawing on his 45 years of work in both industrialized and developing nations. The text covers ecological principles relevant to global concerns, the meaning of global change, human impact on the environment, population growth and regulation, world health, interactions of economics and ecology, and prospects of human future.