Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century: Readings on the Philosophy and Practice of the New Environmentalism - Softcover

Sessions, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1570620490 ISBN 13: 9781570620492

Publisher: Shambhala, 1995

Synopsis

Every day, in newspapers and on television, we read and hear about the ongoing destruction of the environment: the greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, deforestation, and air and water pollution. Deep Ecology offers a solution to the environmental crisis through a radical shift in human consciousness—a fundamental change in the way people relate with the environment. Instead of thinking of nature as a resource to be used for human needs, Deep Ecology argues that the true value of nature is intrinsic and independent of its utility. Emerging in the 1980s as an influential philosophical, social, and political movement, Deep Ecology has shaped the environmental debate among leading activists and policymakers—from former Vice-President Al Gore to Dave Forman, cofounder of Earth First!

Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century contains thirty-nine articles by the leading writers and thinkers in the filed, offering a comprehensive array of perspectives on this new approach to environmentalism, exploring:

   ·  The basic philosophy of Deep Ecology.
   ·  Its roots in the writings of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Rachel Carson.
   ·  The relationship of Deep Ecology to social ecology, ecofeminism, the Greens, and New Age futurism.
   ·  How Deep Ecology as a way of life is exemplified by two important environmentalists: poet Gary Snyder and Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess.
   ·  The philosophical dimensions of this environmental movement by its leading theorist.
   ·  The politics of ecological sustainability and the social and political implications of Deep Ecology for the next century.

About this title

About the Author

George Sessions is chairman of the philosophy department at Sierra College in Rocklin, California. He is the coauthor of Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered and coeditor of Environmental Philosophy.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1570620490
• ISBN 13: 9781570620492
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 520