This new textbook fills an important niche by offering a lively overview of the principles of ecology for a broad audience including college level science and biology students as well as readers interested in the fundamentals of ecological science. Filled with many vivid examples of topic issues and current events, "The Ecological World View" develops a basic understanding of how the natural world works and of how humans interact with the planet's natural ecosystems. It briefly and lucidly covers the history of ecology and describes the general approaches of the scientific method, then takes a wide-ranging look at basic principles of population dynamics and applies them to everyday practical problems. Each chapter is devoted to an important environmental story that has been covered in the media in order to illustrate how the science works in real situations.