Ecology

As we survey the negative effects of modernism—environmental destruction, the net consumption of irreplaceable natural resources, the ever-widening gulf between first and third worlds—we are forced to grapple with the consequences of the domination of nature by human beings. Clearly, for the earth and its peoples to survive, new ways of thinking about the human relationship to nature are needed.

The readings gathered in this popular reader join these issues with critical theory to examine the ongoing struggle to rediscover the nature within human beings and to reconnect it with external nature. A critical theory of the environment offers both an analysis of current problems of the domination of people and nature and ways of attaining sustainability in the future.

Distinguished environmental scholar Carolyn Merchant has brought together some of the foremost environmental thinkers of the twenty-first century. They present new philosophies, theories of justice, spiritual relations, and scientific thought. This second edition contains new material on globalization, natural capitalism, the ecofeminist and environmental justice movements, feminist green socialism, conservation and third world peoples, and the ecology of order and chaos, while retaining many of the most provocative selections from the first edition. The conclusion presents the "Principles of Environmental Justice," adopted by the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit.

Scholars, teachers, and anyone concerned about the future of the planet will find in this excellent collection an array of new directions, ideas, and possibilities for healing the wounds of the past.

Carolyn Merchant is professor of Environmental history, philosophy, and ethics in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution; Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England; and Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. She is also the editor of Major Problems in American Environmental History.