The study of the interactions between society and environment has constituted the core
of environmental sociology (Redclift and Woodgate 1997; Dunlap and Michelson
2002), which assumes that it is not possible to define the social system without taking
into account its relation to the environment. Human societies are not disconnected from
their physico-biological fundaments. Thus, human beings have been altering the
environment since their appearance on Earth. In the same way, changes in environment and the availability of natural resources have limited or potentiated the development and shape of their societies. Sometimes the term «socio-natural metabolism» is used to refer, in general terms, to these relational processes which are established between humans and their environment. It is a term that is helpful to clarify the dependence of human societies on the environment. All signs point to it having been Marx that started to use the concept «metabolism» in social science, applying it to society (Foster 2004),
but in recent years it has gained ground due to its increasing importance as a theoretical
and methodological tool (Fischer-Kowalski 1997). It is called «socio-natural
metabolism», the set of material and energetic exchanges between human societies and the environment.
