Toward unity among environmentalists

Book

Toward unity among environmentalists / Bryan G. Norton.

Summary:

Today, six out of ten Americans describe themselves as "active" environmentalists or as "sympathetic" to the movement's concerns. The movement, in turn, reflects this millions-strong support in its diversity, encompassing a wide spectrum of causes, groups, and sometimes conflicting special interests. For far-sighted activists and policy makers, the question is how this diversity affects the ability to achieve key goals in the battle against pollution, erosion, and out-of-control growth. This insightful book offers an overview of the movement -- its past as well as its present -- and issues the most persuasive call yet for a unified approach to solving environmental problems. Focusing on examples from resource use, pollution control, protection of species and habitats, and land use, the author shows how the dynamics of diversity have actually hindered environmentalists in the past, but also how a convergence of these interests around forward-looking policies can be effected, despite variance in value systems espoused. The book is thus not only an assessment of today's movement, but a blueprint for action that can help pull together many different concerns under a common banner. Anyone interested in environmental issues and active approaches to their solution will find the author's observations both astute and creative. -- Amazon

Record details

ISBN: 0195061128
ISBN: 9780195061123
Physical Description: xvi, 287 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1991.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-279) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: The environmentalists' dilemma -- Moralists and aggregators : the case of Muir and Pinchot -- Aldo Leopold and the search for an integrated theory of environmental management -- Conservationists and preservationists today -- Worldviews : a whirlwind tour -- The pressures of growth -- Pollution control -- Biological diversity -- Land use policy -- Diverging worldviews, converging policies -- Intertemporal ethics -- Interspecific ethics.