A Conservationist Manifesto
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Eloquent . . . a must-read for anyone committed to taking care of the natural world and passing it along to future generations” (ForeWord).
As an antidote to the destructive culture of consumption dominating American life today, Scott Russell Sanders calls for a culture of conservation that allows us to savor and preserve the world, instead of devouring it. How might we shift to a more durable and responsible way of life? What changes in values and behavior will be required? Ranging from southern Indiana to the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and from billboards to the Bible, Sanders’s 40-point blueprint for ecological health extends the visions of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Rachel Carson to our own day.
A Conservationist Manifesto shows the crucial relevance of a conservation ethic at a time of mounting concern about global climate change, depletion of natural resources, extinction of species, and the economic inequities between rich and poor nations. The important message of these “original and intriguing” essays is that conservation is not simply a personal virtue but a public one (Publishers Weekly).
“A book to be savored—for its language, its stories, its sense of place, and for how it reminds us of the profound relationships with nature and each other that can inspire us to change how we live on this planet.” —Will Rogers, President, The Trust for Public Land
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In these predictable but frequently insightful essays, Sanders (Writing from the Center) muses on how to care for the Earth, local communities and future generations. He condemns the mainstream "American way of life" as an "infantile dream of endless consumption, endless novelty, and endless play" and, calling for a "dream worthy of grownups," explores ways to realize this dream, such as his own decision to stay put in one place and discover that his ambition was not to "make a good career but to make a good life" and remain attentive to nature and the present moment. Sanders offers a 40-point "Conservationist Manifesto," which, in its thoroughness, thoughtfulness and inclusion of environmental justice issues would serve the environmentalist community well. But the most original and intriguing ideas in this book are Sanders's thoughts about words and their meanings, as when he suggests that for a season we make explicit the meaning of "consumers" by replacing it with "devourers," or that wilderness is a Sabbath of space rather than time, and we need both kinds of Sabbath "because Earth could use a respite from our demands."
