National Environmental Accounting: Bridging the Gap Between Ecology and Economy.

• Position: Book Review

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ECOLOGY AND ECONOMY

Joy E. Hecht. 1616 P Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-1400: RFF Press, 2005. (202) 328-5086. http://www.rffpress.org. 240 pp. $60.00 Cloth. $24.95 Softbound.

This book presents national environmental or "green" accounting as it has developed in Europe and other parts of the world. It introduces the most recent methods developed through the United Nations Statistical Department and other international organizations, but bridges the gap between the superficial treatment of environmental accounting in economics textbooks and environmental literature on the one hand, and the highly technical manuals of international organizations on the other.

Joy Hecht begins with a history and introduction to national income accounting. The first part of her book explains how environmental accounts build on the structure of the 1993 System of National Accounts...