Victor Scheffer writes of a social revolution. Environmentalism began as a revelation that the resources supporting life are limited and that men and women can--if they act wisely and soon--reduce their material demands and their numbers before limits are reached and the richness of human existence is diminished forever. The revelation grew into a revolution driven by a morality of life or death for the human race. Environmentalism is not a word deeply rooted in the American vernacular. It was seldom used before the appearance of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962, although warnings about the environment had been sounded earlier. It has roots in conservation--the preservation and careful use of natural resources--and in ecology--the study of the relastionships between these roots. It describes areas of major concern to environmentalists in the sixties and seventies, ranging from wasted croplands and forests through endangered species to birth control. It reports progress on three fronts: educational, legal, and political. Richly anecdotal, the book is an informal history of a generation of aroused citizens who began to see their outdoor surroundings--and indeed all of Planet Earth--in a new light. The formative years of the movement-1960 to 1980-are central to the narrative. By 1980 environmentalism as a social science, a field of political management, a philosophy, and to many a religion, was firmly in place. The movement met with notable setbacks during the Reagan years, however, and Scheffer concludes his narrative with an epilogue highlighting environmental events from 1981 to 1989. Although veterans of the movement will find much in the book familiar territory, they will welcome the broad coverage of crises, decisions, and laws that set the stage for environmental victories. As a new generation joins the environmental movement, the book will help them understand the moral impetus that gave birth to environmentalism and the public awareness and concern for change that grew with the movement.

Protecting the natural environment and promoting sustainability have become important objectives, but achieving such goals presents myriad challenges for even the most committed environmentalist. American Environmentalism: Philosophy, History, and Public Policy examines whether competing interests can be reconciled while developing consistent, coherent, effective public policy to regulate uses and protection of the natural environment without destroying the national economy. It then reviews a range of possible solutions. The book delves into key normative concepts that undergird American perspectives on nature by providing an overview of philosophical concepts found in the western intellectual tradition, the presuppositions inherent in neoclassical economics, and anthropocentric (human-centered) and biocentric (earth-centered) positions on sustainability. It traces the evolution of attitudes about nature from the time of the Ancient Greeks through Europeans in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the American Founders, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and up to the present. Building on this foundation, the author examines the political landscape as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industry leaders, and government officials struggle to balance industrial development with environmental concerns. Outrageous claims, silly misrepresentations, bogus arguments, absurd contentions, and overblown prophesies of impending calamities are bandied about by many parties on all sides of the debate—industry spokespeople, elected representatives, unelected regulators, concerned citizens, and environmental NGOs alike. In lieu of descending into this morass, the author circumvents the silliness to explore the crucial issues through a more focused, disciplined approach. Rather than engage in acrimonious debate over minutiae, as so often occurs in the context of "green" claims, he recasts the issue in a way that provides a cohesive look at all sides. This effort may be quixotic, but how else to cut the Gordian knot?

Drawing on an extensive range of political, legal and sociological materials, the author presents and evaluates environmental policy-making in France at a time when environmental problems are growing in complexity and gravity. He highlights the range of inputs to the policy process - including popular movements, green parties, interest group representation, EU legislation and international treaties - and evaluates the diverse nature of the outcomes which lead him to conclude that because new developments involve not only changes in policy content but also adaptation of policy style, environmental demands are progressively changing the shape of politics itself.

"Environmentalism and the Technologies of Tomorrow is a collection of essays by leading scientists, technologists, and environmentalists that examines the nature of these changes, their environmental implications, and possible strategies for the transition to a sustainable future." --Book Jacket.

Devoted to Nature explores the religious underpinnings of American environmentalism, tracing the theological character of American environmental thought from its Romantic foundations to contemporary nature spirituality. During the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, religious sources were central to the formation of the American environmental imagination, shaping ideas about the natural world, establishing practices of engagement with environments and landscapes, and generating new modes of social and political interaction. Building on the work of seminal environmental historians who acknowledge the environmental movement’s religious roots, Evan Berry offers a potent theoretical corrective to the narrative that explained the presence of religious elements in the movement well into the twentieth century. In particular, Berry argues that an explicitly Christian understanding of salvation underlies the movement’s orientation toward the natural world. Theologically derived concepts of salvation, redemption, and spiritual progress have not only provided the basic context for Americans’ passion for nature but have also established the horizons of possibility within the national environmental imagination.

The essential, cornerstone book of modern environmentalism is now offered in a handsome 40th anniversary edition which features a new Introduction by activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new Afterword by Carson biographer Linda Lear.

An attempt to capture the people, places, and events which have contributed to the development of environmentalism around the world, attempting to place each term used in the context of a developing movement. Although the focus of this volume is the history of North American environmentalism, entries that are not purely North American in scope have been included because they somehow helped to shape environmentalism on this continent.