Authors Gretchen Daily and Katherine Ellison have written an entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying book of case studies that are united around a common theme: namely, real-life projects in which for-profit capitalism and environmentalism may have found common ground. Daily and Ellison acknolwedge the contradiction that such a task entails, but they seem all too eager to discover opportunities where nature can be exploited in new ways to suit capital's ever-changing needs (as if this insight was somehow novel!). In fact the individual case studies represent a mixed bag in that a few appear to offer some hope for the environment while others appear to offer more hope for capital's expansion than for the earth.

But even among what I count as the more hopeful stories, precious little of the projects' success could be attributable to capital. Probably the best among them concerned the organic farming movement, which includes related efforts to preserve biodiveristy and substitute natural predatory insects for pesticides. As everyone knows, this is a movement that has been defined by its explicit rejection of standard corporate practices, yet the authors sheepishly do little to point this out. Another excellent chapter focused on the efforts of a dedicated scientist to preserve rainforest in Costa Rica. But while the scientist helped broker a deal from an orange juice manufacturer to dump its waste in the rainforest to promote regrowth in damaged areas, it seemed clear that the Costa Rican government played a much larger role in the cause of preservation that the manufacturer ever did. And of course the watershed protection project for the New York City area was spearheaded by sometimes belligerent public interest groups and the local government over significant opposition from private-property forces.

Among the less dubious stories: an Australian who is building Jurassic Park-style nature enclaves in hopes of attracting tourist dollars; an ex-Internet entrepreneur who hopes to cash in big by creating an overnight market for the buying and selling of the carbon-storing capacity of forests; and a political "deal maker" skilled in both obtaining and extracting concessions from developers in the hopes of merely slowing development. The market solutions highlighted in these and other stories point to the self-evident fragility of these projects to sustain themselves in the long run.

In an unitentionally humorous part of the book, the authors recount a think-tank exercise in which EVERYONE participating in the pretend game of land stewardship clear-cut their forest assets in the final round of play in order to maximize their returns. My criticism is not that there isn't some merit in what the protagonists of these stories are doing -- they appear to be remarkable individuals who may simply be making the best of their bad situations -- but if the world's future is dependent on the success of these individuals in coming up with market solutions to the world's environmental problems, then may God help us all.

In the end, this book fails to make a persuasive argument that capitalism can save the environment. There is some value to the case studies presented by the authors, especially where victories were achieved through democratic actions -- but this latter point was unfortunately down-played through much of the book in favor of the capitalist theme. But I think that contrary to the author's opinion, it seems obvious that the environment will continue to be exploited as long as for-profit capitalism rules the day. Therefore, I think that readers who want real answers to today's burgeoning environmental crisis will not find them in this book.

I go thru phases where certain topics are of special interest, so when I saw the title of this book it peaked my interest as well as my skepticism. Since Gordon E Moore co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intell had done a positive comment on the book, and it had areas of the world that were of interest I bought it and am glad I did.

I liked the piece on Napa California west of us which has for decades suffered when the massive winter rains come thru and I wanted to read of there move toward restricting building on what is known as a flood plain, without hurting the economy.

Likewise in Chapter six, page 125 King County Washington and how people from distinctly different business backgrounds, blue colour to white collar corporate (Weyerhaeuser) worked together to protect the Snoqualmie Falls area, which having been there in person, is a majestic place that would have been ruined had big business been allowed to build there.

But it is the way the authors have made such an effort to think outside the American box, and have shown success stories from all over the world, where businesses have or are becoming enlightened and are discovering that being environmentally sound means money and success.

But as they note on page 232 "There is no single answer to the worlds environmental dilemmas, and the progress to date toward capturing the economic value of environmental services has been so limited as to be almost symbolic. Still, what has happened so far illustrates an approach with great scope for improving the world."

This book is great. I love its title, a yang to Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce yin. One of the book's other online reviewers prompted me to write, because I suspect the authors' predominant theme somehow got past that reviewer.

The idea is not simply that capitalism can save the world, but that well-directed, well-informed market forces will finally come to understand that beneath the bottom line of capitalism as currently practiced, there's a much more critical bottom line -- a primordial capitalism -- the living sytems of the planet. The economy of nature provides real wealth and natural wisdom without dysfunctional spinoffs like pollution, cancer, habitat destruction... If we take care of that living economy, it will take care of us.

This is an important book, because it gives us real-world examples of how nature underlies the market economy. We need this book to be used in college and high school classrooms, discussion groups,corporate retreats, and solitary late-night soul searches. Its message is critical to the continued prosperity of life as we know it.