Reddit reviews Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy
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Used Book in Good Condition
There's an ok-ish textbook, Energy and the Wealth of Nations by Hall and Klitgard in BioPhysical Economics that's a good starting point.
Robert Ayres also has a thermodynamical based approach that is very consistent with what you probably know from ecology. The Economic Growth Engine is also a pretty good general introduction to economic concepts that are thermodynamically correct.
Steve Keen's Debunking Economics is a good general critique of current neoclassical thinking from a scientific standpoint. It's sometimes good to read an insider's critique of the paradigm so you know what is problematic.
Doyne Farmer does more complexity stuff but he's involved in a similar space.
Elenor Ostrum is also another great place to start. Her work on sustainability and common pool resources is hugely important in the area.
There is also a huge amount of work being done in complexity economics using ecological models that I've only just started scratching the surface of.
There is a huge amount of work being generated in this area. Sadly very little of it is getting through to the economists.
For an alternate explanation outside the usual scope of neoclassical economics is the resource / physical / biophysical economics explanation. This treats an economy at the macro level not as households and firms (or same plus governments), and as labor + capital, but as a set of inputs:
Where energy is a very significant factor in governing the total level of economic activity.
These don't map entirely cleanly onto the K-L model. Materials, technology, and plant capital are components of capital. Labor is, well, labor. Energy is treated as capital in the K-L model but substitutes for labor (in the form of muscle power).
Earlier proponents of this view include Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, and more recently Charles A. S. Hall with his textbook Energy and the Wealth of Nations. I haven't found a review within the economics literature though Michael Jefferson's Energy Policy review is pretty good.
Hall is not an economist, he's an ecologist, though he's studied some economics (and largely found it wanting). I studied both physics and economics (my undergrad degree), as well as growing up in an ecologically-conscious atmosphere and studying environmental and geography in college. I spent a great deal of time beating my head against the wall in college trying to reconcile my views of how the economy seemed to actually work with what was being taught in my econ classes. And though I've come to appreciate some of neoclassical econ, I still see a lot wanting.
The upshot of Hall's view, though, is that energy flows, EROEI (energy returned on energy invested, he's the originator of the term), and price-stability of energy have a vastly greater impact on economies than the neoclassical literature would suggest.
What Hall discounts or omits from his treatment is the interaction between this and fiscal and monetary dynamics, whether as cause or result. I'm increasingly coming to see such interactions (the primary focus of neoclassical macro) as ways of influencing flows of physical resources and labor in the short term, but as ultimately subservient to the greater picture of the physical economy -- they can tweak the environment, but cannot ultimately change it.
It's one of several significant refinements to neoclassical economics which would greatly help in providing a better fit between theory, observations, predictions, and policy.
I'd recommend Energy and the Wealth of Nations. https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Wealth-Nations-Understanding-Biophysical/dp/1441993975
You can also find an understanding of his work on youtube. Basically the claim is that energy is the real basis of the economy - with all the implications you'd imagine for oil, environment and geopolitics.
Also, ourfiniteworld.com is a frequent read for me.