From Library Journal
This understandable and much-needed anthology attempts to dispel the confusions and misunderstandings about "deep ecology" that have provoked charges of misanthropy from partisans of anthropocentric alternatives and even affected Vice President Al Gore's influential work, Earth in the Balance (LJ 3/1/93). Contributors are recognized theorists, historians, and activists in the deep ecology movement, including editor Sessions, a philosopher; poet Gary Snyder; environmental historian Donald Worster; wilderness advocate Dave Foreman; and the founder of the movement, Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Arne Naess. In Part 1, various theorists define deep ecology and explore the cultural significance of its ecocentric orientation; Part 2 examines the historical roots of this movement in literature, philosophy, and science; Part 3 consists solely of Naess's recent essays, most of them previously unpublished; Part 4 differentiates deep ecology from social ecology, ecofeminism, and New Age positions; Part 5 explains the connection of deep ecology to wilderness preservation; and Part 6 centers on the dubious politics of sustainable development. An important purchase for academic and larger public libraries.
Joan S. Elbers, formerly with Montgomery Coll., Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Joan S. Elbers, formerly with Montgomery Coll., Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
This anthology, although dominated by the writings of Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher who formulated the ecosophy of the deep ecology movement, presents a broad mix of issues by leading deep ecologists. Glendinning argues that psychological distress results from our alienation from nature. Turner profiles Gary Snyder's efforts to practice his vision of "living as part of a larger system of plant and animal communities governed by reciprocity." McLaughlin clarifies Naess' eight-point platform for change, and Snyder proposes specific action on several levels in the areas of population, pollution, consumption, and transformation (of society). Sessions discusses the roots of ecocentrism and anthropocentrism, the ecocentric philosophers (Spinoza, Thoreau, Muir, Santayana), and modern writers with an ecocentric message (Leopold and Carson, among others). Also included are a consideration of ecofeminist charges of androcentrism, and an examination of the ideologies of the New Age movement, generally antipodal to those of deep ecology. Brenda Grazis
