Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part One : Introduction -- The nature of nature -- Part Two A social : economic history of resource use and nonuse -- Defining natural resources use and nonuse -- Era I : the age of human survival -- Era II : the age of the market -- Era III : the age of property -- Era IV : the Anthrocene age -- Era V : the age of ecocentrism -- Part Three : A legal history of resource and nonuse -- An introduction to law and natural resources -- First-generation laws : creating use interests in natural resources -- Second-generation laws : protecting human nonuse interests -- Proposed second-generation laws : protecting human nonuse interests by acknowledging the public interest in natural resources -- Part Four : revealing the nonuse component of natural resources -- The biology of resource nonuse -- The science of resource nonuse -- The economics of resource nonuse -- Part Five : Toward a legally acknowledged right of nonuse -- The problem of government regulation : the emerging shift from anthropocentric to ecocentric nonuse laws -- The problem of rights creation : can natural resources have legal rights? -- The problem of standing : may natural resources raise their own right of nonuse?.