There exists a fundamental contradiction between the practical theory of steady economic expansion and the tendency toward equilibrium found in natural ecological processes. It is difficult to imagine a healthy and enduring industrial ecology under prevailing economic practice. There, in fact, appears to be a coupling between planned economic expansion and population growth even in affluent nations. While, through technology, the dire predictions of Malthus are locally and temporarily avoided we simultaneously generate an increasing array of insults to our vital and ever more complex social order. Such insults appear as surprises because we have not given sufficient attention to the constraints arising from man's ancient and effectively unchanging physiological and psychological tolerances.