This book should be required reading for all ecologists as an example of how they have failed to send any coherent message to politicians, economists, and the general public relative to ecosystem concept.
R. L. Smith
CHOICE
Fitzsimmons argues persuasively that nature in this sense, above the level of the organism, possesses neither organizing principles nor emergent qualities that biologists can study. Fitzsimmons makes a compelling case that this emperor has no clothes; that the popular notion of ecosystem management merely encloses a puzzle within an enigma within a mystery. This well-argued and meticulously footnoted critique makes the case against ecosystem management without proposing a different science as a basis for policy. Fitzsimmons persuasively reveals the intellectual dishonesty that uses fictions about nature to lend scientific credibility to what are essentially cultural, religious, or moral norms.
Mark Sagoff, Institute of Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland
Journal Of The National Academy Of Sciences
The author examines the science, philosophy, and law of ecosystems management. Defending Illusions is an eye-opener about the basis for many commonly held views regarding ecosystems. It is thoroughly footnoted . . . even for those with a different viewpoint, it is a book worth reading on this topic.
Natural Resources and Environment