Volume 6, No. 4, Winter 1995

General Announcements

American Philosophical Association: ISEE Sessions on Program
Central Division: Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, 24-27 April 1996.
1st ISEE Session: Thursday, 25 Apr.1996, 7-9:30 pm (tentative). Panel Discussion on "Overconsumption: Business and Environmental Ethics Perspectives." Discussants: Tom Donaldson (Georgetown University), John Hasnam (Georgetown University), Kristin Shrader-Frechette (University of South Florida), Donald Mayer (Oakland University, Rochester, MI). Chair: Laura Westra, (University of Windsor). Co-sponsored by the Society for Business Ethics.
2nd ISEE Session: Friday, 26 Apr. 1996, 7-9:30 pm (tentative). Theme: "New Questions in Environmental Ethics." Chair: Mary Mahowald (University of Chicago, School of Medicine). Papers: Dr. Lainie Freedman Ross and Prof. Mary Mahowald (University of Chicago, School of Medicine), "Environmental Impact of Contagious Illness: Is Coercion Justified?" Commentator: Laura Westra, (University of Windsor). Ernest Partridge (Northland College), "Now Is the Time for All Good Philosophers to Come to the Aid of the Planet." Bart Gruzalski (Center for Sustainable Living, Redway, CA), "Contemporary Affluent Hallucination." Jack Weir (Morehead State University), "Pluralistic Casuistry and Environmental Ethics."

American Philosophical Association: Call for Papers. The annual deadlines for paper submissions for the ISEE sessions regularly held at the three divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association are:
-Eastern Division: March 1st
-Central Division: September 1st
-Pacific Division: September 1st
--Submit Eastern Division proposals to Professor Eric Katz, Department of Humanities, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102 USA.
--Submit Central Division proposals to Professor Laura Westra, Department of Philosophy, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4 CANADA.
--Submit Pacific division proposals to Professor James Heffernan, Department of Philosophy, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, CA 95211 USA.

Society for Conservation Biology will meet 11-15 August 1996 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. SCB will be celebrating its 10th anniversery, and the program is truly outstanding. Also meeting with SCB are:
Ecological Society of America
American Society of Naturalists
Association for Tropical Biology
International Society for Ecological Modeling
Smithsonian Institution/Man and the Biosphere (SI/MAB)
SCB is the largest annual meeting in the world of scientists specializing in environmental science, conservation, wildlife and zoo management, and related professions. These scientists are genuinely interested in and appreciative of participation by environmental ethicists and philosophers. The 1996 meeting is being hosted by Brown University and the Manomet Observatory for Conservation Science.
Phil Pister and Jack Weir were invited by SCB President Dee Boersma (University of Washington) to organize and co-chair a symposium on Environmental Ethics. In addition, ISEE will co-sponsor a session of contributed papers. The Symposium panelists are: J. Baird Callicott (University of North Texas), Patti Clayton (North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina), Bryan Norton (Georgia Tech), and Ronnie Zoe Hawkins (University of Central Florida). Contributed papers will be presented by: Ned Hettinger (College of Charleston), Bill Throop (St. Andrews College), Jack Weir (Morehead State University), and Laura Westra (University of Windsor). For more information, contact: Jack Weir, UPO 662, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY 40351, PH 606-784-0046, E-mail j.weir@morehead-st.edu; or Phil Pister, Desert Fishes Council, P. O. Box 337, Bishop, CA 93514 USA, PH 619-872-8751.

Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World will hold its 1996 Annual Conference, 9-15 August 1996, at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. This is a conference with time allotted for formal and informal discussion, and exploring the landscape of the Rocky Mountains. It's family friendly, with provisions for children, relatives, and friends. The General Theme is: "Philosophy in Everyday Life." Papers are invited on: environmental philosophy, utopias, ethics and politics, religion, family life, housekeeping, food, parenting, alternative lifestyles, institutional structures, gender and sexuality, race, ethnicity, violence, and other topics. Papers up to 40 minutes reading time are welcome, and poster sessions for works-in-progress are planned. Papers are blind-reviewed, and acceptable papers are published in the Society's journal, Philosophy in the Contemporary World (comments are given to authors and revision of papers for publication is encouraged). For more information or to submit a proposal, contact one of the program chairs: Prof. Erin McKenna, Philosophy Dept., Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447 USA, PH 206-535-7213, E-mail mckenna@plu.edu, or Prof. Sally J. Scholz, Dept. of Philosophy, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085 USA, PH 610-519-4099, E-mail scholz@ucis.vill.edu.

Bill Devall has written a paper entitled "The Enduring Conflict" in which he analyzes the conflict between environment and civilization. Devall writes, "Supporters of the deep, long-range ecology movement need radical confidence. They need to continue to explore their True Self, their broader identification and self-realization. As witnesses to terrible destruction caused by humans, supporters of deep, long-range ecology are like the phoenix burning in flames, and like the phoenix, the movement will arise from the flames in renewal, affirming the intrinsic value of all beings." For copies of the paper, you may contact Bill at P. O. Box 613, Trinidad, CA 95570 USA, PH 707-677-3914, FAX 707-677-1617.

An extensive bibliography has been prepared by the Environmental Ministries Project of the United Theological Seminary. Although the emphasis is more on religion than on philosophical ethics, the bibliography is extensive and includes many topics seldom found. In addition to sections on eco-justice, ecological economics, and ethics, the bibliography has sections on: mystical experience and nature, native Americans and nature, nature poetry, nature fiction, nature photography, new consciousness, audio-visuals, periodicals, worship materials, church educational materials, interesting projects and people, sources for energy-saving and enviro-sensitive products, music, and more. The bibliography is entitled "References on Ecology, Eco-justice, and Theology" and is 59 pages in length. The Director of the Project, Molly Longstreth, PhD, has expressed hope that members of ISEE might find the bibliography useful. In her letter to ISEE News, Dr. Longstreth did not specify the cost for a hard copy or its availability on a computer disk. To obtain a copy or for more information, you should contact Dr. Molly Longstreth, Director of the Environmental Ministries Project, United Theological Seminary, 1810 Harvard Blvd., Dayton, OH 45406-4599, PH 513-278-5817, FAX 513-278-1218.

Graduate Studies in Environmental Ethics. Considerable information is now available on World Wide Web. Go to the site http://www.cep.unt.edu, which is maintained at the University of North Texas. After the University of North Texas information, take OTHER GRADUATE PROGRAMS. There are "pages" for Colorado State University, Lancaster University (U.K.), Bowling Green State University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Under "Graduate Programs Elsewhere" there is detailed information about how environmental ethics and philosophy have been done at other schools, with titles and summaries of recent theses completed. Also there is information on related programs in religion and environmental ethics. Tell prospective students about this; it is quite informative. (Also from this page you can reach the ISEE Bibliography, see below.)

Prof. Stephen R. L. Clark announces the following publications:
How to Think About the Earth: Models of Environmental Theology, Scott-Holland Lectures at Liverpool, 1992 (Mowbrays, 1993).
"Natural Goods and Moral Beauty," in Virtue and Taste: Essays on Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics in Memory of Flint Schier, edited by D.Knowles and J.Skorupski (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 83-97.
"Apes and the Idea of Kindred," in The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity, edited by P.Singer and P.Cavalieri (London: Fourth Estate, 1993), pp.113-25.
"Modern, Postmodern and Archaic Animals: Zoology: on (Post)Modern Animals," Antwerpen, edited by B.Verschaffel and Mark Vermink, vol.4, no. 93 (Dublin: Liliput Press, 1993), pp. 55-72.
"Modern Errors, Ancient Virtues," in Ethics and Biotechnology, edited by A.Dyson and J.Harris (Routledge, 1994), pp.13-32.
"Global Religion," in Philosophy and the Environment, edited by R.Attfield and A.Belsey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 113-28.
"Environmental Ethics," in Encyclopedia of Theology, edited by P.Byrne and L.Houlden.
"Tools, Machines and Marvels," in Philosophy and Technology, edited by Roger Fellows (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995).
"Enlarging the Moral Community," in Introducing Applied Ethics, edited Brenda Almond (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995).
"Natural Integrity and Biotechnology," in Human Lives, edited by David Oderberg and J.Laing (London: Macmillan).
Prof. Clark's E-mail addresses are srlclark@liverpool.ac.uk and http://www.liv.ac.uk/~srlclark/philos.html.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Environmental Aesthetics. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism announces a call for papers for a special issue on "Environmental Aesthetics. "It will be devoted to the discussion of theoretical issues raised by examining aesthetic values in environment. We invite papers that will help illuminate our understanding of the aesthetic dimensions of environment, broadly conceived. Papers may focus on specific environmental types, such as urban, rural, suburban, forest, or wilderness environments, or they may raise considerations that apply to environments in general. Submissions should be in triplicate and accompanied by a brief abstract. Deadline: 1 September 1996. Inquiries and submsissions to the Guest Editors: Arnold Berleant, 18 Stonebridge Lane, Goshen, CT 06756-1107, PH and FAX 203- 491-4265, E-mail berleant@uconnvm.uconn.edu, and Allen Carlson, Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2E5, PH 403-492-3307, FAX: (403) 492-9160, E-mail: acarlson@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca.

A new book, site and E-mail course (distance learning) via Internet is available at http://www.pacificrim.net/~nature/. Entitled "Romancing Planet Earth: Let's Reverse Personal, Social and Environmental Disorders," the materials were prepared by F. Richard Schneider, PhD, formerly Director of Social Work in Alaska and presently the Chancellor of the University of Global Education, a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization.

Recently, upon completing Michael J. Cohen's new book Reconnecting With Nature: A Restoration of the Missing Link in Western Thinking, Daniel Levine, Superintendent of Schools of the Lopez Island School District in Washington State, phoned Cohen with several questions. Then, for use of faculty in the school district, Levine transcribed Cohen's responses. For more information or a copy of the transcription, contact Michael J. Cohen at P.O.B. 1605, Friday Harbor, WA 98250; PH 360- 378-6413; E-mail mjcohen@aol.com; Internet http://www.pacificrim.net/~nature/.

Ian F. Voges received in March 1995 a Masters degree in Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. His thesis, Corporate Management, Systems Paradigm, Ethics, (357 pages) was supervised by Johan P. Hattingh, Head of the Unit for Environmental Ethics, and co-examined by Wouter Achterberg (Philosophy, University of Amsterdam) and W. P. Esterhuyse (Business Ethics and Philosophy, University of Stellenbosch). Voges is Hattingh's research assistant and a freelance consultant.
The thesis asks: What are the ethical implications of the systems paradigm for the management of corporate development projects in developing countries? A paradigmatic framework for understanding the environmental crisis and the role of corporations can be fruitfully used to reconceptualize the role of corporations in development and to transform malign corporate management procedures. In the Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm individual entities are constructed as having no real ontological or ethical relations with other entities and their environment. A practical consequence is the legitimation of uncontrolled human activity which resulted in the environmental crisis. In the alternative, systems paradigm all entities are constructed as part of an interrelated ontological web and have real ontological relations with other entities. The new paradigm endorses the ethical values of justice and the inherent value of nature. In the social environment all people should be treated as inherently valuable and not as instruments. Similarly, in the natural environment, the systems paradigm advocates that we should treat nature as inherently valuable to the same extent that we view ourselves as inherently valuable. The basic point highlighted by the systems paradigm's conceptualization of the economy and development is interconnectedness. Economic activity and development have consequences in other spheres and this confers a responsibility on economic actors and developers to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions in social and environmental systems.

Deep Ecology Listserv. This mailing list is sponsored by The Institute For Deep Ecology and The Institute For Global Communication, EcoNet. To subscribe, send E-mail to Majordomo@igc.apc.org with the following command in the body of the message: subscribe deep-ecology. To unsubscribe, send to Majordomo@igc.apc.org the command: unsubscribe deep-ecology. List owner: Renee Lertzman rlertzman@igc.apc.org. Another contact is Tara Strand-Brown tarasb@igc.apc.org.

Antioch University announces a Master of Arts in Environment and Community. The program is especially designed for professionals working or wanting to work on environmental issues but who are not in a position to leave their jobs to relocate in order to further their studies. The 2 year program is based at the McGregor School of Antioch University, located in southwestern Ohio in the village of Yellow Springs, not far from Dayton. Students attend three two-week sessions on campus, and complete the other studies in their home communities. Contact: Clyde Murley, Chair, Program on Environment and Community, The McGregor School of Antioch University, 800 Livermore St., Yellow Springs, OH 45387-1609. 513/767-6321.

The National Research Council Committee on the Valuation of Biodiversity met 10-13 January 1996 in Irvine, CA. ISEE President Mark Sagoff is a member of the Committee and prepared for discussion at the meeting a paper on the instrumental and intrinsic value of species.

In April and May, Holmes Rolston will be lecturing at various universities in Europe on aspects of environmental ethics. Events are scheduled at Uppsala University, Sweden; Odense University and Aarhus University, Denmark; Mansfield College, Oxford; and the Bucharest University, Romania. He returns to Finland in June for the Second International Conference on Landscape Aesthetics, with the theme "Aesthetics in Forests."

World Wide Web Current Information on U.S. Environmental Legislation. The National Wildlife Federation maintains a site at: http://www.nwf.org/nwf. At the home page, take menu choices to get into "What's Hot?" and the NWF Action Page. Access will differ, depending on your access program; you may need to take the text-only menu. The text can be E-mailed to your local address (take the print option). Sample topics include: The Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Legislation, Takings, The Farm Bill, Foreign Assistance, Public Lands. The information is updated weekly, and is a good way to find out what bill is where in the committees and what the votes have been. ISEE welcomes information on similar information available in other nations. Let the Newsletter editors know.

On-Line Network for Rio Grande Area. The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), which has its offices in the Woodlands, will become part of a communications network for the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Sustainable Development Coalition, which was formed in 1992 and includes HARC, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, La Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, the University of New Mexico, the University of Texas at El Paso, the San Luis Valley Water Valley Authority in Colorado, and an ecological educational organization in Saltillo, Mexico. The 332,000 square-mile basin surrounds the 1,900-mile Rio Grande River and has long-standing problems with water allocations, diminishing ground water supply, industrial pollution, poverty, and economic growth. According to a report from the Nature Conservancy, the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin has more endangered species than any other area in the U.S. HARC received a grant of $20,000 from Compaq Computer Corporation to set up the computer network. HARC plans to have a home page on the Internet and thereby make information about the basin widely available. (Story in Conroe [TX] Courier, 26 December 1995, p. 1.)

Internet List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. Address: R9IRMLIB@mail.fws.gov. On the SUBJECT line, enter Send T&E list, for an ASCI file; or Send T&E List WP, for the WordPerfect version.

PLEASE PAY YOUR ISEE DUES. Annual membership dues for ISEE are U.S. $15 per year in the United States, and CND $20 in Canada. Students are $10 U.S. or CND. Dues overseas are the equivalent of U.S. funds. If you've not done so, please send in your dues now (address and form below).

The National Biological Service and the Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange are developing a directory of state biodiversity databases and information sources. The address is http://www.nbs.gov/nbii/.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will meet in Baltimore, MD, 8-13 February 1996. The general theme is "Science and Society." ISEE will co-sponsor a session with the International Society for Environmental Epidemiologists (another ISEE), organized by Dr. Colin Sookoine (Epidemiology, University of Alberta) and Laura Westra (University of Windsor), on the topic "Intersection of Environmental Health, Professional Ethics and Law." Speakers will include Dale Jamieson, Clarice Gaylord, Don Brown, Colin Soskolne, and Laura Westra.

Call for Papers: An international meeting on Geoethics is projected for October 1996 in Pribram, Czech Republic, with special emphasis on ethics in relation to geology, mining, engineering, and energy. Languages will include English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Czech. To submit papers for 1996 or for more information, contact: Dr. Vaclav Nemec and Dr. Lidmila Nemeova (conveners), Krybnickum 17, 100 00 Praha 10-Strasnice, Czech Republic; PH +422-7811801. Information is available from Laura Westra, address below.

Call for Papers: International Congress of Scientists and Engineers. Theme: "Towards a Sustainable World." Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 22-25 August 1996. Participants will include the Club of Rome, UNEP and many NGO groups. Workshop topics include: "Ethical Foundations and Basic Attitudes," "Challenges to Economy: Concepts and Strategies for Sustainable Economics," "Sustainable Development on a Local, Regional, and Global Scale," "Elements of a Safe and Secure World." One ISEE Session is being organized by Eric Hol, 438 North C Street, Springfield, OR 97477 USA. For more information, contact: Dr. Philip B. Smith, Steenhouwerskade 22, 9718 DB - Groningent, The Netherlands, FAX 31-50-3129186.

Call for Applications for Life Sciences Bioethics Institute: The Iowa State University Model Program in Environmental and Agricultural Ethics at Michigan State University, May 5-10, 1996, in East Lansing, MI. The ISU institute teaches basic methods and principles in ethics to life science faculty members, focusing on those who deal with the environment, food, nutrition, animals, and agriculture. The institute equips faculty to introduce discussions of ethical issues into existing science courses. Two philosophers, professors Fred Gifford (Michigan State) and Gary Comstock (Iowa State), are joined by internationally recognized experts in ethics to lecture on moral theory and to lead discussion sessions of pedagogy. The institute provides case studies, classroom exercises, bibliographies, and other practical strategies used successfully by life scientists to introduce ethics into their classes. Possible issues to be covered: Honesty and integrity in scientific research; Environmental ethics and intrinsic value of ecosystems; Labeling of genetically-engineered foods; Animal welfare and rights; Justice between developed and developing economies; Risk assessment and the politics of uncertainty; Feminist moral theory; The place of human beings in nature. All participants will receive a $250 stipend. Applicants must be tenured or tenure-track life science faculty members. The institution of out-of-town applicants must commit funds to cover applicant's travel, lodging, and meals. Applicants promise to introduce the equivalent of at least one hour-long discussion of ethics into each semester-length class they teach. Deadline for applications is March 1, 1996. Contact Professor Gary Comstock, Coordinator, Bioethics Program, 413 Ross Hall, Ames, IA 50011-2063,USA; PH 515-294-0054; FAX 515-294-1003; E-mail: comstock@iastate.edu.

Call for Papers: The Society for Philosophy and Geography and Rowman & Littlefield Publishers announce the publication of a new peer-reviewed yearly annual: Philosophy and Geography, edited by Jonathan Smith (Geography, Texas A&M University) and Andrew Light (Philosophy, University of Alberta). Each volume will focus on a specific theme. Volume 1: Environmental Ethics. Papers are invited on any aspect of environmental ethics that may be of interest to philosophers or geographers. Authors need not address their topic through a conjunction of philosophy and geography but are encouraged to do so. Send all papers to Andrew Light, Department of Philosophy, 4-108 Humanities Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada T6G 2E5. andrew.light@ualberta.ca

Call for Papers: Responsibilities to Future Generations: The Sequel. Ernest Partridge has been asked by a major publisher to collect another anthology on the topic of the Duty to Posterity. (His first anthology, Responsibilities to Future Generations, published by Prometheus Books, is now out of print). Published or (preferably) original papers are invited on the topics of 1) the rights of and duties to future generations, 2) motivation problems regarding provision for the remote future, 3) general and particular policy issues affecting future generations, or other philosophically-oriented issues. "Future Generations" is understood to mean future persons with lives that are non-concurrent with those of the present generation. Partridge can be contacted at Northland College, Ashland, WI 54806, USA; E-mail gadfly@igc.apc.org.

The Aldo Leopold Foundation (formerly named the Aldo Leopold Shack Foundation) is undertaking the production of one or several original scholarly publications of works of Aldo Leopold to commemorate the 50-year publication of Sand County Almanac and Leopold's death. Although the announced deadline for proposals has passed (it was 30 November 1995), ISEE News did not receive the announcement until recently. The Foundation will likely seek external funding for approved projects, and the University of Wisconsin Press has expressed a strong desire to publish such projects. The goal is to have one or several books or other types of projects available to the public in 1998 or 1999. For more information, contact Charles S. Luthin, Director, Aldo Leopold Foundation, E12919 Levee Road, Baraboo, WI 53913 USA, PH 608-355-0279 or 608-356-8956, FAX 608-356-7309.

Volunteers Needed
The Trumpeter remains the main journal of environmental philosophy of which the back issues are not indexed in the ISEE Master Bibliography. ISEE would be delighted to have a volunteer undertake this task. If interested, contact Holmes Rolston, address above.
Videotapes and films in environmental ethics. ISEE could also include a list and description of these at the World Wide Web site, as well as on disk, which could be searched by title and key words. Another volunteer is needed to assemble such a list. Holmes Rolston already has a good start, a couple hundred titles, on disk, but it needs updating and to be brought into shape and watched over. Is anybody an environmental ethicist with an eye on the media? Such a person could also contribute the Videotapes and Media section of the Newsletter.

Environmental Ethics in Poland
The Sixth Polish Philosophical Meeting was held at Mikolaj Kopernik University in Torun, September, 1995. An environmental ethics section included the following papers (in Polish):
--Józef M. Ddega, "Towards an ecophilosophy"
--Zbigniew Hull, "Philosophy of ecology as a new domain of philosophical investigations"
--Ewa Klimowicz, "The philosophical premises, main trends, and principles of ecological ethics"
--Jan Wawrzyniak, "Evolutionary epistemology as the basis of neonaturalistic environmental ethics" (a paper also to be given at the International Society for Value Inquiry, Buffalo, New York, April 1996)
--Wieslaw Sztumski, "Ecological mode of thinking and its consequences"
--Wlodzimierz Tyburski, "Environmental ethics and the paradigm of anthropocentrism"
--Andrzej Mirski, "Psychocentrism--an alternative for ecological ethics"
--Andrzej Papuzinski, "The metaphysical legacy of science as a problem of ecophilosophy"
--Zdzislawa Piatek, "The dilemmas of environmental ethics."
Hippotherapy, using horses for therapy, for blind as well as physically and mentally handicapped people (mainly children) has become a regular form of therapy in Poland. Dr Leslaw Pilc, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, is a specialist in this field.
Service Office for Environmental Movements (Biuro Obslugi Ruchu Ekologicznego [BORE]) from Warsaw is an active NGO led by Jaroslaw Dubiel, coordinating environmental social actions in Poland, especially mobilizing opinion against malfunctioning state agencies. BORE has a computer data base on environmental affairs in Poland and all over the world.
The Gaya Club (Klub Gaja) from the City of Bielsko-Biala has recently been engaged protecting in the River Vistula, which is the last wild (unregulated) but extremely polluted river in Europe. Address: Klub Gaja, P.O. Box 261, 43-301 Bielsko-Biala, Poland.
Workshop for All Beings (Pracownia na Rzecz Wszystkich Istot) has been recently fighting against state authorities' participation in the catasrophic destruction of Puszcza Bialowieska (Bialowieza Forest), covering a large teritory between Poland and Belorussia, a surviving relic of the primeval Central-European forests. The Forest is connected, through Belorussian and Russian forested areas, with the Siberian taiga. The Bialowieza National Park, placed within the Forest, is jeopardized. The Park is famous for the restitution there of aurochs (Bison bonasus) after World War II. There are some lynx, which come from the Belorussian side, but 75% of them are poached. Address: Modrzewskiego 29/3, 43-300 Bielsko-Biala, Poland.
A problem has recently appeared involving animal experiments commissioned to Polish laboratories by foreign institutions from countries where such practices are already illegal. A Polish NGO, Liga Ochrony Przyrody (League for the Prevention of Nature), has recently appealed to all Polish scientific centers for immediate stopping of such research. The president (rector) of Jagiellonian University, Aleksander Koj, has appointed a special Commission for the Bioethics of Animal Experimentation that will examine all scientific applications for animal experiments. Marek M. Bonenberg (an ISEE member) is a member of this Commission.
The building of a nuclear power plant Mochovce (close to the Hungarian and Austrian boders) in Slovakia has been severely criticized. Started earlier, Slovakia is bent on finishing it for lack of energy in that country. The plant was planned with now outmoded Soviet technology. The Slovak government has applied to the European Bank for Restoration and Development for a credit of 1.5 billion DM to modernize the building. The European Parliament has locked up any grants until the question of safety is resolved. Hungary and Austria have protested the plant.
Extreme environmental pollution continues within the so-called Black Triangle, a territory where Polish, Czech, and German borders meet. This industrialized area, with an unfavourable set of wind-directions, results in Poland's catching the worst transboundary air pollution in the region.
Ija Lazari-Pawlowska, the head of the Department of Ethics at the University of Lódz, an ISEE member, has died. She was a promoter of Albert Schweitzer's ethic of reverence for life and a member of many Schweitzer societies all over the world.
Jacek Grzebula, a veterinarian at Lublin University of Agricultural Sciences, is writing a doctor's dissertation on ritual slaughter in Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism. He is looking for contact with persons interested in the question. Address: 20-601 Lublin, Skierki 1/225, Poland.
Environmental Publications in Poland:
--Pawlica, Jan, ed., Suffering as Human Experience. Proceedings from the VI Jagiellonian Symposium on Ethics, Jagiellonian University--Institute of Philosophy, Cracow, 6-8 June 1994. Contains (in Polish):
--Marek Bonenberg and Ewa Klimontowicz, "'Thou art the Man'; Remarks on the Source of Suffering."
--Leszek Pyra, "Suffering and the Right of Animals."
--Jan Wawrzyniak, "Suffering as a Transcendental Value."
All three concern nonhuman suffering.
--Piatek, Zdzislawa, "Wartosci i ewolucja (Values and Evolution)"; "Filozoficzne korzenie kryzysu srodowiskowego (Philosophical Roots of Environmental Crisis)"; "Przyroda i wartosci (Nature and Values)"; and "O dylematach swiadomosci ekologicznej (On Dilemmas of Ecological Consciousness)." All articles are in Polish journals. Contact: Instytut Filozofii, Jagiellonian University, Grodzka 52, 31-044 Kraków, Poland; FAX 48-12-224916. Piatek is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
--Domka, Lubomira, ed., Gry dydaktyczne w edukacji ekologicznej - Didactic Games in Environmental Education (a bilingual Polish-English edition), Poznan, 1995. Contact: Pracownia Edukacji Ekologicznej, Adam Mickiewicz University, Slowackiego 20, 60-822 Poznan, Poland.
--Devall, Bill, and George Sessions, Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. Recently translated into Polish by Elzbieta Margielewicz. Published by Pusty Oblok Publishing Office.

ISSUES

Deep Sea Diversity of Life Challenges Ecological Theories. Once considered a biological desert, the deep sea may rival tropical rain forests in species diversity. Recent estimates range up to 10 or even 100 million species (earlier projections were in the 200,000 range). Ecological theories based on terrestrial models are being challenged by this new found diversity. Specifically, the idea that barriers (such as mountains or deserts) that prevent interbreeding of populations were key to diversity is called into question because water is a medium that aids migration and much of the ocean has been thought to lack isolating barriers. Some scientists are suggesting that the extra billion years of evolution in the sea (when compared with land) may be a factor in its biological richness. This latter conjecture may support Holmes Rolston's idea that the earth's ecological processes tend toward increasing diversity of life. See William Broad, "The World's Deep, Cold Sea Floors Harbor a Riotous Diversity of Life," New York Times, 10/17/95, B5. (Thanks to Ned Hettinger for this.)

Eco-tourism, Development, and the Platte River in Nebraska. For millions of years, the sandhill cranes during their spring migration have stopped-over on the Platte River in Nebraska. They engage in courtship rituals, rest, and eat their fill in order to make the remainder of the migration. For a six-week period between mid-February and early April, some 500,000 cranes crowd a forty-five mile stretch of the river between Kearney and Grand Island, NE. As many as 80,000 people are expected to come to Nebraska this year to see the spectacle. To see the birds come in or leave the river is the experience of a lifetime, says Paul Tebbel, manager of the Audubon Society's Lillian Annette Rowe Sanctuary, which is along the Platte. Richard Gershon, a retired pathologist who has travelled widely, claims the spectacle equals anything in Africa. Between seven and nine million ducks and few whooping cranes are also annual stop-overs at this time. Some 200 to 300 bald eagles winter on the same stretch of river. The Grand Island/Hall County Convention and Visitors Bureau (800-658-3178) hosts its annual "Wings Over the Platte" celebration on 21-24 March 1996. The shallow sand bars in the Platte are threatened by water control measures, city water allocations, and irrigation. Although gleanings and trash grain from nearby grain fields supply ample food for the birds, development is threatening to radically alter the river habitat and food sources. (Story by Alison Young in Spirit [January 1996], pp. 44-52, 57.)

Predicting Anthropogenic Extinction. Suggestions of massive extinction rates--such as the claim by E.O. Wilson of Harvard that 1/4 of species will go extinct by the middle of the 21st Century--have been based on what is called the "species-area curve." The rule of thumb is that when 90% of a habitat is destroyed, 1/2 of the species present will eventually become extinct. This piece of ecological theory, although criticized for a number years, has recently been given some support when it is applied only to endemic species (those species found only in a relatively localized habitat). Fossil evidence suggests that species have typically persisted for about a million years before becoming extinct. In a number of endemic-rich areas, the recent extinction rate was found to be 100 to 1,000 times as high as this prehuman background extinction rate. One of the study's authors, Stuart Pimm of the University of Tennessee, says "I don't know anyone who has expertise and has studied the literature and has the background to assess it who doesn't feel that extinction rates are greatly elevated over prehuman times and that they are likely to be elevated more in the future." See William Stevens, "How Many Species Are Being Lost? Scientists Try New Yardstick," New York Times, 7/25/95, B6 and also "Predicting Bird Extinctions From Deforestation," New York Times, 9/26/95, B7.

Review of the U.S. Congress' 1995 Environmental Record. Despite a slew of anti-environmental bills put forward in the U.S. Congress last year, only one made it's way through both Houses and was signed by the President: The Salvage Logging Bill that greatly increased the timbering in national forests and suspended environmental laws (such as the Endangered Species Act and laws protecting wetlands) to facilitate this logging. Three environmentally-harmful bills were passed by the House, but so far haven't gotten through the Senate: The Regulatory Reform Bill (which would tie up federal regulatory processes in endless cost/benefit analysis and court challenges); a Takings Bill (which would compensate private property owners when they can't do what they want with their property because doing so would violate environmental laws); and a Clean Water Bill that would weaken the Clean Water Act. Other environmentally-harmful bills remain at the committee level, including proposals to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Pro-environmental grazing and mining reform have gone nowhere in this Congress. Most recently, the appropriation and budget processes are being used to cut the budgets of environmental agencies and programs, including a 1/4 cut in the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. So far, President Clinton has vetoed these appropriation and budget bills and has criticized these budgets for including controversial issues like drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Anti-Environmental Extremism in the U.S. Congress. Even as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations Group of 2,500 scientists, concludes that global climate change is indeed in progress and that at least some of the warming is due to human activity (W. K. Stevens, "Scientists Say Earth's Warming Could Set off Wide Disruptions," New York Times, 9/18/95, A1), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, Chairman of a House subcommittee that deals with environmental issues, claims that global warming is "liberal claptrap." He says, "Far too many people in the Government and media are far too willing to listen to and amplify any claim of doom by someone who's wearing a white coat" (W. K. Stevens, "With Energy Tug of War, U.S. Is Missing Its Goals," New York Times,11/28/95, A1). Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who is leading the charge to weaken the Endangered Species Act, has said that he "doesn't see why the Federal Government should own any land." Rep. James Hansen of Utah, the Chairman of a House Parks and Public Lands subcommittee, left the room when Terry Tempest Williams (author of the acclaimed Refuge) spoke in favor of wilderness protection in Utah (Tim Egan, "In Utah, A Pitched Battle Over Public Lands," New York Times,11/13/95, p. A1). Hansen is sponsoring a bill that would transfer to the states all lands managed by the Federal Bureau of Land Management, a total of 270 million acres ("The Congressional Land Grab," New York Times,11/15/95, editorial page). Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana is proposing a commission to identify national forests and other public lands that could be sold or transferred to the states or private interests. Finally, Rep. Tom Delay of Texas, who is the Majority Whip in the House, is sponsoring legislation that lifts the U.S. ban on ozone-depleting substances. (Thanks to Ned Hettinger for this report.)

Are Oil Fields Naturally Refilling? A recent study suggests that some oil fields may be refilling themselves at nearly the same rate they are being drained. Much older oil (from the Jurassic) from far deeper in the earth is being found in shallow oil fields after more recent oil (from the Pleistocene) is pumped out. Some geologists think it may be useful to go back to old abandoned oil fields and see if fresh oil has seeped in. The U.S. Geological Survey's estimates of oil in the 48 states and state waters offshore has doubled since its last estimate in 1989. "Petroleum experts agree that no one has more than a vague notion of how much gas and oil remain in the world, or how long it will last." See Malcolm Browne, "Geochemist Says Oil Fields May Be Refilled Naturally," New York Times,11/26/95, B5.

Debt-For-Nature Swap in the U.S. Two legislators from California are calling for a debt-for- nature swap between the U.S. Government and the owner of Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County, CA. This forest, which includes an ancient redwood grove, made national news when Charles Hurwitz orchestrated a takeover of the company that owned the forest using junk bonds and then, after the savings and loan he owned failed, tripled the rate of redwood logging in Headwaters. Much of the forest has been clear-cut and about 10,000 acres of old growth remains. The Federal Government is suing Mr. Hurwitz for $250 million because of his role in the failed savings and loan. The suggestion is that this debt be forgiven if Mr. Hurwitz gives ownership of the forest to the Government. See George Brown and Pete Stark, "The Last Stand," New York Times,12/1/95, editorial page.

Northeastern Forest Preservation Debate. There are 26 million acres of forests in Northern New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. 15 percent or 4 million acres are currently protected as public parks. The remaining 22 million acres are privately owned, about half of that by timber and paper companies. Much of this land is being clear-cut (over 1 million acres--the size of Delaware--has been clear-cut since 1980 in Maine alone) or developed for vacation homes for urban refugees, 70 million of whom live within a day's drive. A proposal to establish a 3.2 million acre national park is being met with resistance from the timber and paper industries, loggers, mill workers, hunters and others. See Susan Seager, "The Other Logging Dispute Rages in the Forest Primeval in New England," New York Times,11/21/95, A9.

Primitive Horses Found in Tibet. A French expedition has found a band of primitive horses in an isolated valley in Tibet. The horses are about four feet high, about the size of a pony, and have some features that are found on horses in European stone-age drawings, also in zebras. Przewalski's horse, a wild Mongolian breed, was first found about a century ago. Story in Denver Post, 12 November 1995.

Natural Systems Agriculture Research. President Clinton signed the Agriculture Appropriations Bill, with authorizing language for research into natural systems agriculture. The Senate Agriculture Committee states: "This Committee recognizes that there have been exciting and promising advances made in Natural Systems Agriculture. This includes perennial grain polyculture ecosystems and (1) high seed yield; (2) management of insects injurious to plants, plant pathogens and weeds; (3) nitrogen fertility provided by legumes; (4) minimizing of soil erosion, use of fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals; (5) enhancement of soil quality." The appropriations subcommittee requests the Secretary of Agriculture to "make an analysis of the feasibility, productive potential, and economic and environmental benefits of long-term natural systems agriculture and to identity associated near-term research needs." (Thanks to Wes Jackson, The Land Institute, Salina, Kansas.)

Berlin Summit on Climate Change. The signatory nations to the Climate Change Convention adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio met, for the first time since then, in Berlin March 8-April 7, 1995. Officially called the Conference of the Parties 1 (COP1), the informal name was the Berlin Climate Summit. Despite a certain sense of urgency resulting from the latest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which indicated that the proposed plans did not reduce emissions enough, the most that conferring nations could do was to agree to begin a two-year period of negotiations for a protocol that addresses the need to limit the emission of greenhouse gases after the year 2000. The oil-producing states, led by Saudi Arabia, do not want any talk of reducing emissions from fossil fuels, and did what they could to delay decisions. Large developing nations, China and India, fear that curbing emissions will retard economic growth, particularly without technology transfer from the industrialized nations. They claim it is the industrialized world that has caused the problem, not them. These are the so-called "luxury emissions" of the North, contrasted with the "survival emissions" of the South. The industrialized countries, led by the United States and Australia, do not want to talk about reduced emissions either. The only the way the U.S. wishes to stabilize emissions is to receive credit for offsets, such as reforestation projects they fund in other countries. The technical name for this is "joint implementation" or "JI." Others pushed nuclear power as a solution. One interesting, and hopeful sign, was from large insurance companies, concerned about the increased potential for floods, storms, and other environmental damages for which they might be liable. One group pushing further than any of these institutions wished to go was the churches.

VIDEOTAPES AND MULTIMEDIA

Bullfrog Films is perhaps the best single source of environmental videos and films. Get their catalog with several hundred listings. Or visit them online in several ways. They are linked with EcoNet's Environmental Education home page on WWW. http://www.econet.apc.org/igc/www.enved.html. They can be reached on gopher. gopher.igc.apc.org Then go through these menus: EcoNet - Environment/Environmental Education/Bullfrog Films/. They are also liked to various university libraries, for example UC Berkeley: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/ Bullfrog is under the menu item Media Collections outside of UCB.

The Private Life of Plants, David Attenborough's new series of six programs, contains numerous episodes that can be used to introduce discussion on values carried by plants, including the question whether plants have a good of their own and intrinsic as well as instrumental value. There is frequent use of time lapse photography to speed up plant growth and motion, spectacular photography, also much attention to the intricacies of plant strategies for survival, seed dispersal, plant defenses, energy efficiency, as well as interactions between plants and animals. Plants from all over the world. Insectivorous plants, also fungi and lichens. The six programs are: 1. Branching out. 2. Putting down Roots. 3. Birds and bees (pollination). 4. Plant politics (strategies, competition) 5. Living together (plant animal mutualisms) 6. It's a jungle out there (survival strategies in harsh environments). Attenborough anthropomorphizes often for listener interest, and this can be provocative. He claims that plants do a great many of the things that animals do, only on a different time scale. Your attitude toward plants will be different after watching the series. The series was shown several times fall 1995 on Turner Broadcasting System and is available for purchase from PBS, $ 79.98. Catalog Fulfillment Center, P. O. Box 4030, Santa Monica, CA 90411. 1-800-645-4PBS. FAX 310/581-3707.

Earth First: The Struggle to Save Australia's Rainforest. Gaia Films, 1991, produced by Jeni Kendell and Paul Tait. 1987, produced by Jeni Kendell and John Seed. The 1990 version updates the last 10 minutes of the 1987 version with recent developments. $ 39.95. Available in U. S. from The Video Project, 5332 College Ave., Suite 101, Oakland, CA 94618. Phone 510/655-9050. 800/475-2638 FAX 510/655-9115. Also vailable in Australia.
Fifteen minutes interpretation of the value of the rainforests, both as a natural wonderland and their benefits for humans. Statements from Paul Ehrlich, Norman Myers, Heinz Ellenberg (Gottingen University), Mustafa Tolba (UNEP), then three episodes of "greenies versus bulldozers," celebrated cases of protest, confrontation, and civil disobedience.
Episode I. Terania Creek. Terania Creek is in the area of Nightcap National Forest, a little east of the village of Nimbin, north of Lismore, in the north coast hinterland of NSW, some 100 km s.w. of Brisbane. Scenes involving 300 protesters in 1979, 150 police removing protesters so loggers could work. Statements from Neville Wran, Premier, NSW, and Senator Norm Sanders, standing at a barricade and guard: "This land belongs to Australia and I'm going to walk up that road." The protesters campaign was a major factor in the creation of the Nightcap National Park, and Protesters Falls is named for the 1979 event.
Episode II. Franklin River, S.W. Tasmania. In a 1982 proposed hydroelectric plant threatened the river, in the vicinity of Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. Tasmania's dams have been controversial, Lake Pedder, a natural lake nearby, was flooded in 1972. There were 3,000 protesters, 1,000 arrested. Statement by Bob Hawke, prime minister: "The dam is an obscenity." Police guarding bulldozer on barge on river. The Franklin River was saved, after seven years of protesting. This is now a World Heritage site.
Episode III. Cape Tribulation National Park area, north of Cairns, northern Queensland. In 1983, the local Douglas Shire Council proposed to bulldoze a gravel road 22 km. through the forest from just north of Cape Tribulation to the Bloomfield River, the Bloomfield track. The project was generally backed by the Queensland government. Martin Tenni, Queensland Minister for Environment: "No greenie can stop us; they can go to hell; they won't win." The protestors dug in, chained to concrete blocks, and are dug out by police. Media coverage is so moving that there is a police blackout of media. A radio reporter slips through police cordon, and participates in a candlelight protest on the beach. Police use Alsatian dogs on protesters. Heavy handed police tactics, large fines, media blackout and the blockade fails. The road is completed.
Although the greenies lost, the national exposure was an important factor in the Federal government's moves in 1987 to nominate Queensland's wet tropical rainforests for World Heritage listing. Despite strenuous opposition by the timber industry and the Queensland state government, the area was listed in 1988, with a total ban on commercial logging in the area. This later outcome is not shown in the 1987 video. A recent survey finds that 80% of north Queenslanders support the World Heritage site.

In Defense of Animals: A Portrait of Peter Singer. 28 minutes. Produced by Julie Akeret. According to Singer, the heart of the argument is that we should not discount the pian and suffering of another just because the being that is suffering is not human. Available through Bullfrog Films, see above.

For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower. 58 minutes. Produced by John de Graaf. Brower headed the Sierra Club, then established and directed Friends of the Earth, and is now with Earth Island Institute. The fight to keep dams out of the Grand Canyon, the campaign to save Washington's North Cascades Wilderness, saving the redwoods, fights against nuclear power and the Alaska pipeline, and more. Broadcast on PBS. Available through Bullfrog Films, see above.

RECENT ARTICLES AND BOOKS

--Agriculture and Spirituality: Inter(agri)cultural Dialogue. Essays from the Crossroads Conference at Wageningen Agricultural University. Utrecht: International Books, 1995. 141 pp. ISBN 90-6224-980-9. Chapters (papers), including author and title, are: Gerrit Huizer, Indigenous Knowledge and Popular Spirituality, A Challenge to Developmentalists; Vandana Shiva, Nature, Creativity and the Arrogance of Patenting Life-forms; Henk Verhoog, The Oppressed Tradition of Caring Objectivity in Western Culture; Rob Witte, Spirituality and Agriculture, What Difference Would it Make?; Frans Verkleij. Spirituality and Ecological Agriculture; Wim Zweers, Ecological Spirituality as Point of Departure for an Intercultural Dialogue; Appendix 1: Petran Kockelkoren, Ethical Aspects of Plant Biotechnology (Report for the Dutch Government Commission on Ethical Aspects of Biotechnology in Plants); Appendix 2: Wim Zweers, Literature on Environmental Philosophy and Some Related Subjects.

--Zweers, Wim, Participating in Nature: Outline for an Ecologization of Our World-View [in Dutch]. Utrecht: Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel, 1995. 528 pp. ISBN 90-6224-342-8. Part I: Basic Attitudes Towards Nature (pp. 7-79): 1. The Relevance of Basic Attitudes (Basic Attitudes and Paradigms; Basic Attitudes and Social Structure), 2. A Closer Look at Six Basic Attitudes (Man as Despot; as Enlightened Ruler; as Steward; as Partner of Nature; as Participant in Nature; 'Unio Mystica'), 3. Evaluation and Definition of Standpoints (Anthropocentrism; Reformism; Radicalism; The Role of Government in the Discussion on Basic Attitudes: Towards a Translation in Policy Terms? (with a digression on the concept of nature in Dutch nature conservation). Part II: Participation and Intrinsic Value (pp. 79-177): 1. The Environmental Crisis and the Opposition Between Man and Nature (From 'Nature' to 'Environment'; The Opposition Between Nature and Culture), 2. 'Ecologism' as the Essential Alternative (Ecological Ethics; Values of Nature: From Instrumental to Intrinsic), 3. The Intrinsic Value of Nature (Basis and Scope of the Concept; Recognition Versus Attribution; Non-differentiality; The Importance of 'Human-ness'), 4. Participating in Nature (Biological; Social-cultural (with a digression on Participating Technology); Psychological). Part III: The Ecological View of Reality (pp. 177-299): 1. 'Deep Ecology' as a Starting Point, 2. Ecological Metaphysics (Totality: Solidarity or Unity?; Dynamics; Meaning and 'Sense'), 3. Epistemology from an Ecological Perspective (Nondualism; Personal Experience; Corporality and Emotionality (with a personal digression on the integration of experiences in piano playing), 4. Experience of Nature and the Concept of Culture (Karl Mannheim's View on Culture; Hermeneutics of Nature), 5. Historical Framework. Appendix: On Ecologism and Feminism (Women 'Closer to Nature'?; Oppression of Women and Exploitation of Nature; The Image of Man (sc.: masc.) from the Perspective of Oppression. Part IV: Varieties of Ecologism (pp. 299-457): 1. The Varieties and the Connections Between Them; 2. The Scientific Variety (Quantum Physics: David Bohm; Biology: Rupert Sheldrake), 3. The Aesthetic Variety (The Aesthetic Attitude: Sensuousness and Contemplativity; Nature as an Aesthetic Object: Art as a Sign of Nature, Nature as a Sign of Art, Towards a Contextual Theory of Natural Beauty), 4. The Spiritual Variety (Introduction: On Spiritual Traditions (with a personal digression on the experience of the starry sky as an amateur astronomer); Ecological Spirituality (Motives, Conceptual Research, Solidarity versus Identification, Self-realization through Solidarity, Solidarity with 'Gaia' (with a personal digression on the experience of mountain climbing and 'trekking'), Christianity and Ecological Spirituality). Part V: Conclusion--Towards a New Alliance: Ecologism as Postmodernism (pp. 457-92): 1. Looking Back, 2. On the Integration of Reflection and Experience, 3. On the Two Cultures, 4. Constructive Postmodernism. Literature, Name Index, Subject Index (pp. 492-528).
Wim Zweers is one of the foremost environmental philosophers in the Netherlands, and has published and edited numerous articles and books in the field. With Wouter Achterberg, during the last decade Zweers has developed this discipline in the Low Countries until it has reached its actual status of being fully recognized by both the academic community and policy-makers alike. This book is his (temporary?) definitive statement on this subject, recapitulating, systematizing, and expanding all he has written before. His position is mostly 'radical' (but not necessarily 'radical ecocentrist') since he stresses the need for a fundamental cultural transformation. In many parts congenial with deep ecological views, Zweers neverthele ss has some serious reservations about some aspects of deep ecology. Although influenced by Anglo-American writers like Rolston and Callicott, he maintains a distinctly European-continental approach.

--Cothern, C. Richard, ed.,Handbook for Environmental Risk Decisionmaking. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers (CRC Press), 1995. 416 pp. $69.95 The publisher's address is: 2000 Corporate Blvd., NW, Boca Raton, FL, 33431 USA; PH 800-272-7737; FAX 800-374-3401.
Among the contributors to the volume are ethicists, decision makers, risk assessors, ecnonmists, scientists, philosophers, journalists, attorneys, theologians, policy makers, environmentalists, and regulators. Some contributors are: Richard Andrews, Scott Baker, Donald Brown, Thomas Burke, Bayard Catron, Victor Cohn, William Cooper, Douglas Crawford-Brown, William Freudenburg, Douglas MacLean, Hon. Mike McCormack, James Nash, Bryan Norton, Van Rensellear Potter, David Schnare, Virginia Sharpe, and Kristin Shrader-Frechette. The volume resulted from a one-day symposium held at the August 1994 annual meeting of the Environmental Division of the American Chemical Society. The symposium consisted of two keynote speakers and fourteen presentations, although the book has eight more papers to flesh out the topics.
The volume is organized as a supplemental textbook. Sections are: introduction, issues in environmental risk decision making, values and value judgements, commentary and summary.
The editor summarizes the argument of the book as follows: Values and ethics should be included in the environmental decision making process for three reasons; they are already a major component, although unacknowledged; ignoring them causes almost insurmountable difficulties in risk communication; and because it is the right thing to do. The existing models for environmental risk assessment do not contain any explicit mention of values, value judgements, ethics, or perceptions. However, these are often the main bases used in making such decisions. For example:
-alar was banned to protect children
-the linear, no-threshold dose-response curve and use of combined upper 95% confidence limits are based on safety, not science
-the idea of zero discharge is based on the sanctity of the individual
-forests and wetlands are preserved because of stewardship
-sustainable development is based on protecting future generations
-nuclear power is avoided because of fear of a catastrophe.
For more information, contact the editor, Rick Cothern: PH 202-208-6234 , FAX 202-208-4867, E-mail rcothern@nova.umuc.edu.

--Bakken, Peter W., Joan Gibb Engel, and J. Ronald Engel. Ecology, Justice, and Christian Faith: A Critical Guide to the Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. ISBN 0-313-29073-3. 256 pp. $55.

--Taylor, Bron, ed. Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. Albany: State University of New York Press,1995. $19.95 pb. ISBN 0-7914-2646-7. To order, contact: CUP Services, POB 6525, Ithaca, NY 14851; 800-666-2211.
Ecological resistance movements are proliferating around the world. Some are explicitly radical in their tactics while others have emerged from a variety of social movements that, in response to environmental deterioration, have taken up ecological sustainability as a central objective. This book brings together a team of international scholars to examine contemporary movements of ecological resistance. The first four sections focus on the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and Europe, and the book concludes with a selection of articles that address the philosophical and moral issues these movements pose, assess the trends found among them, and evaluate their impacts and prospects.
Contents: Introduction: "The global emergence of popular Ecological Resistance," Bron Taylor; "Earth First! and global narratives of popular ecological resistance," Bron Taylor; "With liberty and environmental justice for all: the emergence and challenge of grassroots environmentalism," Bob Edwards: "Bread and soil of our dreams: women, the environment and sustainable development--case studies from Central America," Lois Lorentzen; "Profits, parrots, peons: ethical perplexities in the Amazon," Heidi Hadsell; "International native resistance to the new resource wars," Al Gedicks; "Visitors to the commons: approaching Thailand's "environmental struggles from a Western starting point," Larry Lohmann; "Grassroots environmental resistance in India," Vikram K. Akula; "Popular environmentalists in the Philippines: people's claims to natural resources," Emma Porio and Bron Taylor; Grassroots resistance to dominant land-use patterns in Southern Africa," Yash Tandon; "Luta, livelihood and lifeworld in contemporary Africa," Ben Wisner); "Have a friend for lunch: Norwegian radical ecology versus tradition," David Rothenberg; "Between moderation and marginalization: environmental radicalism in Britain," Wolfgang Rudig; "Popular resistance and the emergence of radical environmentalism in Scotland," Brendan Hill, Rachel Freeman, Steve Blamires, andAlistair McIntosh; "Postmodern environmentalism: a critique of deep ecology," Jerry A. Stark; "In search of Gaian politics: earth religion's challenge to modern western civilization," Daniel Deudney; "In defense of banner hangers: the dark green politics of Greenpeace," Paul Wapner; "The effectiveness of radical environmentalists," Sheldon Kamieniecki, S. Dulaine Coleman, Robert O. Vos; "Popular ecological resistance and radical environmentalism," Bron Taylor.
Bron Taylor is Director of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Adress: c/o Dept. of Religious Studies and Anthropology, Oshkosh, WI 54901. PH/FAX 414-235-7478, 414-424-7183 Office, Office FAX 414-424-0882; E mail: taylor@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu.

--Brennan, Andrew, ed., The Ethics of the Environment. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K.: Dartmouth Publishing Co., 1995. 583 pages. U. S. Distributor: Ashgate Publishing Co., Old Post Road, Brookfield, VT 05036. 802/276-3162. Hardcover, $ 149.95. Unlike most other anthologies, this collection is aimed at the research level rather than the introductory one. Brennan has written an introduction which summarizes the intellectual and philosophical problems facing environmental philosophy and supplies a select bibliography. The collection, which looks like a hefty legal volume, is designed mainly for library purchase, and is part of a larger series: The International Research Library of Philosophy. Though expensive, it provides a complete introduction to the original academic literature. Academics may wish to request their librarians to get it. In keeping with the policy of the series, papers are included only if they originally appeared in academic journals. One useful feature of the volume is that the papers are not re-typeset but reprinted as photocopied in their original form, unabridged and including the original journal pagination. Another feature is that essays are grouped together so that subsequent ones comment directly on earlier ones. As a result readers can follow an emerging dialogue. The volume contains 33 papers organized in the following sections: Intrinsic Value and Moral Standing, with papers by P. Taylor, G. H. Paske, A. Brennan, J. O'Neill. Species, Ecosystems and Interests, with papers by H. Rolston, G. Varner and H. Cahen. Deep Ecology and Radical Environmentalism, with papers by A. Naess, F. Mathews, P. Reed, T. Birch, R. Guha and D. M. Johns. Ecology and Feminism, with papers by V. Plumwood, J. Cheney, K. Warren and A. K. Salleh. Are Humans Part of Nature or Separate From It?, with papers by H. Rolston, M. Smith, A. Gunn, J. B. Callicott. Policy Dilemmas and Pluralism, with papers by M. Sagoff, K. Shrader-Frechette, B. Norton, C. D. Stone, J. B. Callicott and A. Brennan. Brennan teaches philosophy at the University of Western Australia.

--Collett, Jonathan, and Stephen Karakashian, eds., Greening the College Curriculum: A Guide to Environmental Teaching in the Liberal Arts. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1995. 320 pages. $ 22.00. Integrating environmental concerns in undergraduate teaching in the various humanistic disciplines. Chapters on anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, literature, journalism, philosophy, political science, and religion. Each chapter has a rationale for including material on the environment, guidelines for constructing a course or a section of a course, sample course plans, a compendium of annotated resources. Holmes Rolston wrote the chapter on philosophy. Collett teaches humanities at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. Karakashian is with the Rainforest Alliance in New York City.

--Achterberg, Wouter, Samenleving, Natuur en Duurzaamheid: Een Inleiding in de Milieufilosofie (Society, Nature and Sustainability: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy). Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1994. Achterberg provides a philosophical analysis of the environmental problematique from a social philosophical and ethical perspective. The book is primarily intended for use by students in environmental philosophy at universities and colleges, but can be of help to anyone interested in the environmental issues. Leading questions are 1) why our society seems to be inherently unable to utilize the environment in a sustainable way and 2) what structural changes can and should be made to change the current unsustainable utilization of the environment. Chapters include: 1) What is environmental philosophy? 2) Sustainability. History and analysis of the idea; 3) Whose environment? Tragedies and dilemmas? 4) Market economy, capitalism and the pressure to grow; 5) State and environmental crisis; 6) Environmental crisis and technology; 7) Attitudes towards nature, 8) Environmental Ethics: Respect for nature and intrinsic worth; 9) Environmental Ethics: Future generations. The book is comprehensive, provides an in-depth analysis of central concepts, positions and theoretical perspectives and offers valuable suggestions for structural change. It is recommended for anyone with a good command of the Dutch language. Achterberg teaches philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and is the ISEE contact for Europe. (Thanks to Johan Hattingh.)

--Serres, Michel, The Natural Contract. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. Originally published as: Le Contrat Naturel. Paris: Editions Françoia Bourin, 1992. Serres wants to insert ethics into the human relation to nature, and vice versa. Hitherto, human relations with other humans have been in the discourse of ethics and politics; human relations with nature in the discourse of science and technology. In an environmental crisis, humans are now racing toward a violent demise, on a course set by Cartesian philosophy, one that is "blind to nature," where nature has been "forgotten" and "lost." "At stake is the Earth in its totality, and humanity, collectively. Global history enters nature; global nature enters humanity; this is something utterly new in philosophy" (p. 4). This is "a time when the old social contract ought to be joined by a natural contract" (p. 20). "Back to nature, then! This means we must add to the exclusively social contract a natural contract of symbiosis and reciprocity in which our relationship to things would set aside mastery and possession in favor of admiring attention, reciprocity, contemplation, and respect; where knowledge would no longer imply property, nor action mastery" (p. 38). "In fact, the Earth speaks to us in terms of forces, bonds, and interactions, and that's enough to make a contract. Each of the partners in symbiosis thus owes, by rights, life to the other, on pain of death" (p. 39). Serres is especially impressed with ther globalization of the environmental threat. "Now we must learn and and teach around us the love of the world, of our Earth, which we can henceforth contemplate as a whole" (p. 49). "Today the global power of our new tools is giving us the Earth as a partner, one whom we ceaselessly inform with our movements and energies, and who, in turn, informs us of its global change by the same means. ... We've been living contractually with the Earth for only a little while. .... A new revolution, in the Copernican sense, for our grandeur and our responsibilities. ... Curiously, it is only in this century that nature has been born, really, before our eyes, at the same time as a humanity bound in real solidarity" (pp. 109-111). "Cast off far enough from Earth, we can finally look at her whole. ... Here is a hazy ball surrounded by turbulence. Planet Earth as satellites photograph her. Whole. ... For the first time, philosophy can say man is transcendent: before his eyes, the whole world is objectifying itself, thrown before him, object, bond, gear, or craft ... the most beautiful sphere" (pp. 120-121). Often cryptic and difficult to read, but frequently insightful and always passionate. This book puts an end to the lament that there is no French environmental philosophy. Serres teaches philosophy at the Sorbonne, and at Stanford University.

--International Journal of Wilderness has appeared, volume 1, no. 1, September 1995. John C. Hendee, Director of the University of Idaho Wilderness Research Center, Moscow, Idaho is the managing editor and there are five executive editors and a host of associate editors, and some eighteen sponsoring institutions, government agencies, and environmental organizations. Representative articles from the first issue: Ian Player, "Soul of the Wilderness"; G. John Roush, "The Biggest Threat to Wilderness"; Mark W. Brunson, "The Changing Role of Wilderness in Ecosystem Management"; Tom McDonald, "Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness Area of the Flathead Indian Reservation"; Norman L. Christensen, "Fire and Wilderness." There is a feature section on the wilderness of Finland. Finland has become, in 1991, the most recent nation to adopt legislation that recognizes and protects wilderness areas. Also: Victor V. Nikiforov, "Strict Nature Reserves in the Russian Arctic," which are closed to hunting, fishing, agriculture, geological expeditions, agriculture, and tourism. There are five such reserves (18.5 million acres), and these, together with other nature reserves, protect about 10% of the tundra zone.

--Gare, Arran, Postmodernism and the Environmental Crisis. New York: Routledge, 1995. 192 pages. $ 16.95, softcover. The first book to combine advanced cultural theory and environmental philosophy in a radically new vision--a postmodern "grand narrative." Marxist and postmodern approaches alike have failed to theorize the links between the ecological crisis, the globalization of capitalism, and the fragmentation and the disintegration of modernist culture. A successful ecological politics needs to forge a new worldview out of the postmodernist critique of Western civilization and a global ecological perspective. Gare is in philosophy at Swinburne University, Australia.

--Norton, Bryan G., Michael Hutchins, Elizabeth F. Stevens, and Terry Maple, eds., Ethics on the Ark: Zoos, Animal Welfare, and Wildlife Conservation. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. 432 pages. $ 32.50 cloth. Values underlying the conservation of nature in captivity. Zoos are not, or should not be, institutions for gawking at caged animals. They have been undergoing a metamorphosis from a menagerie symbolizing human mastery over the beasts to vital sites of ex situ species conservation. But does this self-redefinition morally justify their continued existence? The zoo question pits individualistic animal welfare ethics against holistic environmental ethics, a concern for specimens against a concern for species. Part I. The Future of Zoos. Part II. The Targets of Protection: Genes or Individuals or Populations or Species or Ecosystems. Part III. Captive Breeding and Wild Populations. Part IV. Good Stewardship.

--Norton, Bryan G., "Should Environmentalists Be Organicists?" Topoi (Netherlands) 12(1993):21-30. "Should environmentalists be minimal holists or should they follow their `spiritual' leader, Muir, in adopting strong, teleological and spiritualistic organicism? First, note that one might consistently say, `both,' provided the differing interpretations are reconciled as fulfilling different functions. Environmentalists might, in discussing whether to accept a new, less mechanistic worldview let their rhetoric soar with Muir, for example; but they might also, with Leopold, the practitioner who must forge a new management philosophy that will have broad appeal, recognize that such rhetorical flourishes raise issues that lie beyond easy resolution and content themselves with less difficult intellectual entanglements. My concern here is not with rhetoric, but with forging a vocabulary and set of principles of management that are scientifically respectable and adequate to recognize the dynamic and creative processes that maintain and shape natural systems. Given this goal, a minimal holism points a more promising direction for the future of environmental ethics and environmental policy" (pp. 27-28). A minimal holism will recognize nature as a self-organizing system. Norton teaches philosophy and policy at Georgia Tech.

--Sustainability Issues, a special section in Daphne Gail Fautin, et al. ed., Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 26 (1995). Includes Robert Goodland, "The Concept of Environmental Sustainability," Christopher Humphries et al., "Measuring Biodiversity Value for Conservation," Robert Nelson, "Sustainability, Efficiency and God: Economic Values and The Sustainability Debate," John Vandermeer, "The Ecological Basis of Alternative Agriculture," John Clark, "Economic Development vs. Sustainable Societies: Reflections on the Players in a Crucial Contest."

--Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, vol. 50, no. 1 (January 1996), is a thematic issue on Theology and Ecology. Among the contributors are:
James A. Nash, "Toward the Ecological Reformation of Christianity" (pp. 5-15). Christian theology and ethics are largely inadequate to confront the ecological crisis of today. They are in need of reformation. At the center of Christian faith, we shall not find a mandate to pollute, plunder, and prey on the rest of nature. Instead, we shall discover that the core affirmations endow all life with a moral significance that entails human responsibility toward the whole of nature.
Holmes Rolston, III, "The Bible and Ecology" (pp. 16-26). The Bible is not a book of science, and therefore not of ecology. It does, however, sketch a vision of human ecology, and contemporary readers encounter claims about how to value nature. The Bible's vision is simultaneously biocentric, anthropocentric, and theocentric. The Hebrews discovered who they were as they discovered where they were, and their scriptures can be a catalyst in our ecological crisis.
W. Sibley Towner, "The Future of Nature" (pp. 27-35). Bible and biology agree: Human beings cast the biggest shadow over the future of nature. At the end of the millennium we face a choice: We can continue to overuse and exploit our ecosphere or we can exercise tender "dominion" in the world, as God's agents here.
Theodore Hiebert, "Re-Imaging Nature: Shifts in Biblical Interpretation" (pp. 36-46). Nature, and the place of humans within it, has again become a topic of much discussion. The tendency of biblical scholars has been to describe the human being in terms that set it apart from nature. More recently, ecological concerns have impelled biblical scholars to rethink their position. This has caused them reevaluate the nature of humanity and to construe the human being not as standing above or at the center of nature, but as being part of nature.

--Cullen, James, A Systems Approach to Environmental Values: Systems Process and the Bifurcation of Nature. Master's thesis, Lancaster University, U.K. 1994. "Our current environmental predicament, it is claimed, is the consequence of what Whitehead called `the bifurcation of nature'. This crisis is said to have stemmed from Descartes' cogito and to still prevail today. In order to overcome this dualistic worldview, the idea of life as a process is introduced. From this dynamic appraisal, systems thinking is put forward as a fundamentally more organic alternative to mechanistic presuppositions about the world. Non-hierarchical structure is then discussed via an appraisal of the significant relationships that all things have. In conclusion, 'systemic' value is offered as an holistic alternative to the fallacy of simplistic value division and imposition."

--Arler, Finn, "Justice in the Air: Energy Policy, Greenhouse Effect, and the Question of Global Justice," Human Ecology Review 2 (no. 1, winter/spring 1995):40- . The central ethical issues in reacting to the problem of an increasing greenhouse effect. Energy policy, dilemmas of justice, impartiality versus mutual advantage, ideal versus conditional justice, monological (ideal observer) versus procedural (participant parties) justice, membership and the concentric circle theory (increased obligations toward those nearest us), global partnership, criteria of justice (need, desert, entitlement, luck, means, abilities), principles versus judgment. The principles of equality, precaution, prevention, cost-effectiveness, responsibility, care, solidarity, self-determination, sovereignty, justice between generations. Cost-benefit analyses, the relevance of previous actions, justice across borders. Arler is with the Man and Nature, Humanities Research Center, Odense University, and was until recently in philosophy and human ecology, Aarhus University, Denmark.

--Aiken, William and Hugh LaFollette, World Hunger and Morality. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996. The first edition was twenty years ago in 1976. Sixteen essays, many new in this edition: lifeboat ethics, responsibility to aid, rights to aid, solidarity among strangers, global justice, development issues. The essay bearing most directly on environmental issues is Holmes Rolston, III, "Feeding People versus Saving Nature?" Another relevant essay is William Aiken, "The `Carrying Capacity" Equivocation'." Aiken teaches philosophy at Chatham College, LaFollette at East Tennessee State University.

--Rolston, Holmes, III, "Feeding People versus Saving Nature?" Pages 248-67 in William Aiken and Hugh LaFollette, World Hunger and Morality. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996. One ought to feed people rather than save nature? Hungry loggers eat spotted owls! But the seemingly simple question is configured in a complex gestalt. People widely value many worthwhile things over feeding the hungry; they post national boundaries across which the poor may not pass; there is unjust distribution of wealth; escalating birthrates offset any gains in alleviating poverty; there is low productivity on already domesticated lands; sacrificed wildlands are often low in productivity; and significant natural values may be at stake. In some circumstances, one ought to save nature rather than feed people. Rolston teaches philosophy at Colorado State University.

--Cronon, William, ed., Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York: Norton, 1995. Environmental historians worrying about the cultural construction of nature. Contains Cronon, "The Trouble With Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." Cronon starts out by claiming that our concept of wilderness has to be reinvented in that it is a social construction. Sometimes he seems to adopt the postmodernist claim that there is no reality accessible beyond human words. But by the end of the article he returns to the conservation of wild nature: "I hope it is clear that my criticism in this essay is not directed at wild nature per se, or even at efforts to set aside large tracts of wild land, but rather at the specific habits of thinking that flow from this complex cultural construction called wilderness. It is not the things we label as wilderness that are the problem--for nonhuman nature and large tracts of the natural world do deserve protection--but rather what we ourselves mean when we use that label" (p. 81). "I also think it no less crucial for us to recognize and honor nonhuman nature as a world we did not create, a world with its own independent, nonhuman reasons for being as it is" (p. 87). Sounds like Cronon has gotten right back to wilderness after all.
Other essays: Carolyn Merchant, "Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative"; "James D. Proctor, "Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests"; Giovanna Di Chiro, "Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice." Also a bibliography. Cronon is professor of environmental history at the University of Wisconsin.

--Sessions, George, "Reinventing Nature: The End of Wilderness? A Response to William Cronon's Uncommon Ground," Wild Duck Review vol. 2, no. 1, November 1995, pp. 13-14.

--Short, John Rennie, Imagined Country: Environment, Culture, and Society. London: Routledge, 1991. 253 pages. What do we really mean when we use the term "environment"? What social values are embedded in environmental attitudes? How are environmental ideas expressed in literature, film, and painting? Societies invest the physical environment with cultural values. As cultural perception shifts, altered by location and time, its representations of the physical environment change. The social meanings of wilderness, countryside, and city. How and why they are used in the construction of national identity. The environmental myths used in American westerns, English novels, and Australian landscape painting. "My aim is simple, to identify and decode the major sets of ideas about the wilderness, country and city in the belief that there is nothing so social as our ideas about the physical environment" (p. xviii ). Short teaches geography at Syracuse University.

--Gorlin, Rena, ed., Codes of Professional Responsibility, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: BNA Books, 1994. $75, hardcover. Contains 51 official codes of ethics issued by 45 associations in business, health, and law--most in full text. Each code is fully indexed, facilitating comparative analysis of codes and professions. Data on each association (address, phone, etc.) and a brief discussion of its code's development and implementation are also provided. The resources section lists hundreds of U.S. and worldwide organizations, educational programs, periodicals, and bibliographies, on all areas of ethics, as well as on professionalism in general and public policy. Ordering address: BNA Books, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., 300 Raritan Center Pkwy., P.O. Box 7814, Edison, NJ 08818- 7814.

--Collar, N. J., M. J. Crosby, and A. J. Stattersfield, Birds to Watch 2. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. 320 pages. $ 25.00 paper. 1,200 birds that are globally threatened. Revised from a 1988 edition.

--Wege, D. C. and A. J. Long, Priority Areas for Threatened Birds in the Neotropics. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. 370 pages. $ 32.00. From Mexico south, including the Caribbean Islands, the most important areas for bird conservation. Maps for each country. The last documented sightings of threatened birds in these areas.

--Tucker, G., M. Heath, L. Tomialojc, and R. Grimmett, Birds in Europe: Their Conservation Status. Washington, DC: The Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. 625 pages, with 344 maps. $ 40.00. Includes Turkey and Greenland.

--Evans, M. I., Important Bird Areas in the Middle East. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. 335 pages, with 398 maps. $ 32. Over 300 sites for bird conservation in the region.

--Irland, Lloyd C., ed., Ethics in Forestry. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 1994. ISBN 0-88192-281-1. $ 39.95.

--Lemons, John, ed., Readings from the Environmental Professional. Three volumes: I. National Environmental Policy Act. II. Natural Resources. III. Risk Assessment. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Science, 1995. $ 24.95 each. Each volume is a collection of the most interesting, lively, and topical articles that have appeared in the journal The Environmental Professional. Typically about three dozen papers. The Natural Resources volume, for example, contains the exchange between J. Baird Callicott, "The Wilderness Idea Revisited: The Sustainable Development Alternative," and Holmes Rolston, "The Wilderness Idea Reaffirmed," and also Kristin S. Shrader-Frechette and Earl D. McCoy, "Ecology and Environmental Problem-Solving," also David Orr, "What Is Education For?" Lemons has been editor of The Environmental Professional, and teaches biology at the University of New England.

--Hinman, Lawrence M., Contemporary Moral Issues: Diversity and Consensus. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996. 568 pages. A division on "Expanding the Circle," contains a section on "World Hunger and Poverty," and on "Living Together with Animals." The closing section is "Environmental Ethics" and includes: N. Scott Momaday, "Native American Attitudes toward the Environment"; Carolyn Merchant, "Environmental Ethics and Political Conflict: A View from California"; Lynn Scarlett, "Clear Thinking about the Earth": and Thomas E. Hill, Jr., "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving the Natural Environment." Hinman is at San Diego State University.

--Baden, John A., ed, Environmental Gore: A Constructive Response to Earth in the Balance. San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1994. Articles on the environmental policy of Vice-President Al Gore.

--Melosi, Marvin V., "Equity, Eco-racism and Environmental History," Environmental History Review 19 (1995): 1-16. If the emergence of the Environmental Justice Movement shows us anything, it clearly demonstrates that the foundations of environmentalism laid twenty-five years ago are not unshakable; that the connection between environmental rights and civil rights has to be taken seriously. Melosi is at the University of Houston.

--Altherr, Thomas L., and John F. Reiger, "Academic Historians and Hunting: A Call for More and Better Scholarship," Environmental History Review 19(1995):39-56. A call to academic historians to explore the potential hunting history holds for the field, to leave ideological baggage behind, and to study hunters in their own words and in the context of their own time. Areas for research in hunting history are abundant. Altherr is at Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN. Reiger is at Ohio University, Chillicothe.

--OLeary (O'Leary), Rosemary, Environmental Change: Federal Counts and the EPA. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993, 1995. $ 19.95 paper. Surveys over 2,000 federal court cases on water quality, pesticides, toxic substances, air quality, and hazardous waste. Because the EPA is often caught between White House and congressional agendas, the competing interests of industry and environmental groups, and turf battles with other agencies, O'Leary argues for the importance of judicial decision in the public policy process. O'Leary teaches public and environmental affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington.

--United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights and the Environment. Document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/9. July 6, 1994. 92 pages. This is the final report from a four-year study on human rights and the environment to the U.N. Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a subcommission of the UN Commission on Human Rights, to which subcommission this assignment was delegated. The report was prepared by special rapporteur Fatma Zohra Ksentini and discusses the many ways in which environmental degradation interferes with the enjoyment of recognized human rights and confirms widespread legal recognition of this linkage. The report asks the Commission to appoint authorized persons to monitor situations that involve human rights and the environment, though the Commission has stopped short of doing so, asking for further comment by governments and NGO's. The document is also available in French and Spanish. Of some interest is Annex III, which summarizes constitutional provisions relative to environmental protection in over sixty nations. A U.S. contact monitoring these developments is the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, 180 Montgomery St., Suite 1400, San Francisco, CA 94104-4209.

--Sierra, vol. 81, no. 1, January/February 1996, contains four useful articles on endangered species legislation now pending in the U.S. Paul Rauber, "An End to Evolution: A Killer Asteroid Called Congress"; Ted Williams, "Defense of the Realm: The Thin Green Line Protecting Endangered Species"; Susan Middleton and David Littschwater, "Parting Shots? Formal Portraits of Species on the Brink"; Douglas Chadwick, "Strength in Humility: Something Has to Give, and This Time It Has to Be Us." Effective counters to many popular press objections: Sample: The poor Taiwanese immigrant farmer (Tang Lin) harassed by U. S. Fish and Wildlife when his tractor ran over a kangaroo rat, and whose treatment provoked a mass rally and much press coverage, had been warned repeatedly, was plowing his fields provocatively to make a point, shows bank deposits of $ 2,670,400 in 1991, though he filed no tax return, and fled Taiwan after a 1989 scam in which he is accused of beguiling investors of some $ 18 million.

--Williams, Terry Tempest, An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994. $ 20.00. A collection of nature essays. "We call out--and the land calls back. It is our interaction with the ecosystem; the Echo system."

--Watson, Paul, Ocean Warrior: My Battle to End the Illegal Slaughter on the High Seas. St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 1994. 264 pages. Watson's account of his efforts through the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which include many episodes of civil disobedience in defense of whales, seals, dolphins, and other creatures of the sea. The Canadian goverment once brought charges that might have sent Watson to prison for life, spending some $ 4 million to press the charges. The charges were dismissed, except that he was fined $ 35 for a misdemeanor. Watson was at once time with Greenpeace, but left to pursue more aggressive civil disobedience, and he has sunk quite a number of (illegal) whaling ships, though claims never to have physically harmed a person.

--Johnson, Lawrence E., "Species: On their Nature and Moral Standing," Journal of Natural History 29(1995):843-849. If we exterminate a species, we adversely affect the well-being of individual organisms, human or otherwise, present and future, members and non-members of that species. But is that all there is to it? The extinction of a species is an enormity that goes beyond the fate of individual organisms, even as multiplied by big numbers. The species itself is of moral significance. But how can that be? That species are only aggregates of individuals may seem obvious, but only on the basis of a worldview that is fundamentally mistaken. Species are better thought of as living entities, which have moral standing in proportion to their nature and interests. Johnson teaches philosophy at Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia.

--Wilkes, Garrison, "Germplasm Conservation and Agriculture," in Ke Chung Kim and Robert D. Weaver, Biodiversity and Landscapes (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pages. 151-170. With escalating populations, we will need to produce as much food in a single year as we once did in a century, as much in the two decades 2000-2020 as has been produced since the beginning of agriculture 10-12 thousand years ago. Present food production uses a quite limited number of crop plants. To produce increasing amounts of food, germplasm conservation is critical. We are at or near the limits. Wilkes also has articles on "Germplasm Conservation" and "Gene Banks" in the Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology. He is in biology, Harbor Campus, University of Massachusetts at Boston.

--Wilkes, Garrison, "Germplasm Collections: Their Use, Potential, Social Responsibility, and Genetic Vulnerability," International Crop Science I (Madison: WI: Crop Science Society of America, 1993), pages 445-450. This volume contains 109 chapters on sustainability, global climate change, breeding crops for increased production, research imperatives, and other issues in crop production over the next decades. There is also a section on "Plant Intellectual Property Rights."

--Wuthnow, Robert, ed., Rethinking Materialism: Perspectives on the Spiritual Dimension of Economic Behavior. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995. Ten essays in commentary on our culture's obsession with material goods and the uneasy relation of materialism to religion. "Materialism has gotten out of hand" (p. 3). "Materialism draws us into its logic not so much by convincing us that material goods are preferable to helping the poor, but by persuading us that we can help them best by buying luxury goods for ourselves (thereby creating jobs)" .. . Materialism becomes so much a way of life that we no longer recognize it as an option, as one value among others that we can decide to choose or to reject" (p. 15). Albert Bergesen, in "Deep Ecology and Moral Community," claims that deep ecology provides the only real paradigm shift; the social ecology schools are all anthropocentric. "The emerging ecological theory will also have to have promises for `all,' except that now the `all' is more than just humans--it is all living things. Marxism versus liberalism, capitalism versus socialism, patriarchy versus feminism, or the developed versus the underdeveloped countries--these are simply debates within the human community. This discourse has its place and is important. But it can no longer have the hegemony--in scientific theory or moral discourse--that it has had over the past six hundred years. The era of human-only discourse is at an end. The era of eco-human discourse is just beginning" (p. 208). Bergesen teaches sociology at the University of Arizona. Wuthnow directs the Center for the Study of American Religion, Princeton University.

--Skolimowski, Henryk, "Ecology and the Sanctity of Life." 1992. Publication no. 7. Available from Eco-Philosophy Centre, 1002 Granger, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

--Dobson, F. Stephen, Jinping Yu, and Andrew T. Smith, "The Importance of Evaluating Rarity," Conservation Biology 9(1995):1648-1651. The first two authors are in zoology and wildlife science at Auburn University, the last in zoology at Arizona State University.

--Dearden, Philip, "Park Literacy and Conservation," Conservation Biology 9(1995):1654-1656. Parks play social roles: museums, art galleries, zoos, playgrounds, theatres, cathedrals, generators of income. Parks play ecological roles: banks, reservoirs, laboratories, schoolrooms. This framework may be too anthropocentric, but people who appreciate the multiple functions of parks are more likely to preserve them. Dearden teaches geography at the University of Victoria.

--Rolston, Holmes, III, "Genes for Sale: Gargantuan Computer System Wanted," Conservation Biology 9 (1995):1659-60. Review of J. H. Vogel, Genes for Sale: Privatization as a Conservation Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

--Vogel, Steven, Against Nature: The Concept of Nature in Critical Theory. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. 288 pages. $ 20.95 paper. The history of the concept of nature in Critical Theory, with chapters on Lukács, Horkheimer and Adorno, Marcuse, and Habermas. The tradition has been marked by serious difficulties with respect to the concept of nature. These problems are relevant to contemporary environmental philosophy as well. A solution to them requires taking seriously--and literally--the idea of nature as socially constructed. Vogel teaches philosophy at Denison University.

--Goudzwaard, Bob, and Harry de Lange, Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Toward an Economy of Care. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1994. Translated from Dutch. 160 pages. $ 14.99. "In 1960, the richest 20% of the world's population had incomes 30 times greater than the poorest 20%. By 1990, the richest 20% were getting 60 times more." In the U.S., "at the start of the 1980's, a Chief Executive Officer made about 29 times as much as the average worker. Today that multiple is close to 100 times." More people are now homeless in the U.S. than at any time since the Great Depression. Between 1979 and 1989, when the GNP increased 25 percent, the rate of child poverty increased 21 percent. The economic view that "restoration of industrial production growth will remedy poverty, environmental degradation, and unemployment" is "thoroughly simplistic," because "like a virus that has developed a resistance or immunity to the cure, or like a pest that has developed a defense against the pesticide, these economic malaises have now become immune to the remedy of increased production growth." We should embrace an economics of enough by adopting "income and employment levels ...[with] the objectives of providing sufficient care for human subsistence needs, the quality of labor, the sustainability of agricultural and urban ecosystems, and improved development opportunities, especially for the poorest countries of the Third World." "Human well-being, both of ourselves and of others, requires first and foremost a lifestyle of restraint, not luxury." A sobering book. The authors are well known Dutch economists, Goudzwaard, a former member of the Dutch parliament, is at Free University of Amsterdam. de Lange is at University of Utrecht.

--Cullen, James, "A Systems Approach to Environmental Values: Systems Process and the Bifurcation of Nature." Master's thesis, Lancaster University, 1994.

--Sunquist, Fiona, "End of the Ark? International Wildlife 25 (no. 6, Nov./Dec. 1995):22-29. Captive breeding is out; conservation in the wild is in. Facing increasing disapproval of keeping animals in the captivity, Michael Hutchins, Director for conservation and science at the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, says: "The zoo profession is at an important crossroads in its history. The world is changing around us, and if we choose to conduct business as usual, we are not sure that zoos will ultimately survive. ... As zoos struggle to define what they are supposed to be and do, they're finding an ever-greater role in saving animals in the wild." William Conway, director of what was once the Bronx Zoo (now a "Conservation Park," says, "I don't believe there is any question but that every accredited North American zoo will have a significant field conservation effort within six years." At present, the budget for one good U.S. zoo can equal the entire budgets of all the national wildlife conservation agencies in countries south of the Sahara in Africa.

--Kaufman, Gordon D., In Face of Mystery. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. 528 pages. $ 39.95. Reconstructing the order of human life within the ecological web. Theology is an imaginative construction, a symbolic world for ordering life. Kaufman suggest that since it has been constructed, so it can be reconstructed, and he proceeds to do so using a "bio-historical" interpretation of human life. His interpretation of human historical existence situates human beings, with their capacity for freedom and creativity, within the ecological web that sustains life. This involves reevaluating the concept of God and the symbol of Christ as a point of reference. Kaufman teaches theology at Harvard Divinity School.

--Maser, Chris, Sustainable Forestry: Philosophy, Science, and Economics. Delray Beach, FL: St. Lucie Press, 1994. 373 pages. $ 39.95. Maser dislikes intensive forestry and proposes policies that would lead to lower, although probably more sustainable, harvest levels. He recognizes the legitimate role humans play in ecosystems and is concerned for the protection of scarce resources such as old growth forestry and biodiversity; he is also concerned about the fallacy of every-increasing human populations and economic activity. Maser is a forest ecologist.

--Cummings, Charles, Eco-Spirituality: Toward a Reverent Life. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1991. 164 pages. $ 9.95 paper. An alternative future, a new creation built on universal reverence, integrating the Jewish and Christian scriptures with Catholic and monastic spiritual tradition.

--Leax, John, Standing Ground. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991. 127 pages. $ 7.99. A personal account of one man's stand against the building of a nuclear dump near his home. The moral conflicts, fears, angers, and questions Leax faced as he came to terms with the responsibilities of being a steward of the earth.

--McDaniel, Jay B., With Roots and Wings. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995. 243 pages. $ 16.95, paper. Insights from the sciences, Christian theology, and interreligious dialogue break new ground in the search for wholistic spirituality. An alternative to consumerism and fundamentalism. Be open to being rooted in the earth; be open to the insights of people of other faiths. Become centered on God.

--Hannah, Lee, David Lohse, Charles Hutchinson, John L. Carr and Ali Lankerani, "A Preliminary Inventory of Human Disturbance of World Ecosystems," Ambio 23(1993):246-50. The authors use three categories and find the proportions of Earth's terrestrial surface as follows: 1. Little disturbed by humans, 51.9%. 2. Partially disturbed, 24.2%. 3. Human dominated, 23.9%. If one removes the ice, rock, and barren land, which supports little human or other life, the percentages become: 1. Little disturbed, 27.0%. 2. Partially disturbed 36.7%. 3. Human dominated 36.3%.

--Adams, Carol J., and Josephine Donovan, eds., Animals and Women. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. $ 16.95 paper. 360 pages.

--Pluhar, Evelyn B., Beyond Prejudice: The Moral Significance of Human and Nonhuman Animals. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. $ 19.95 paper. 392 pages.

--Humphrey, Caroline, and David Sneath, eds., Culture and Environment in Inner Asia. vol. 1: The Pastoral Economy and the Environment. 200 pages. £ 16.95. vol. 2: Society and Culture. 200 pages. £ 14.95. Cambridge, U.K.: White Horse Press, 1996. Vol. 1: Pastoralism has shaped the steppe environment for two thousand years; the effects of Russian, Mongolian, and Chinese governance, by scholars from different sides of the international borders. Vol. 2: The enormous social changes which the region has experienced in recent years due to the advent of democracy in Russia and economic reforms in China. The steppe environment is not pristine nature, but natural processes are intermeshed with the distinctive, often religious, attitudes of the pastoral people. The authors are in social anthropology at Cambridge University.

--Light, Andrew and Ben Shippen, Jr., "Is Environmental Quality a Public Good?" Working Paper, Eco-Research Chair, Environmental Risk Management, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Environmental protection, like police protection, is something which we want to be provided equally as a public good. The legal standards should not be lower in one place than another. But solutions to environmental pollution based on economic incentives that trade pollution rights do not have equal results and allow different regions of the country to be treated unequally. This is like allowing, as a matter of policy, more crimes in one part of a city as long as few are committed in another part. Light is in philosophy at the University of Alberta, Shippen in economics at Florida State University.

--Pyle, Robert Michael, The Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. When people connect with nature, they do so in a specific place; roots in the earth can be as important as roots in a family. For Bob Pyle, that place was the High Line Canal in Colorado. As a boy in the 1950's he discovered it, largely a wasteland, an accidental wilderness on the edge of a growing city. As he grew up, the canal became his sanctuary, his teacher, the place where he developed a passion for the natural world. The title comes from a cottonwood tree that saved his life in a freak hailstorm. By showing how the course of a life can be changed by a piece of land, Pyle argues that if we fail to preserve our opportunities to explore nature, we will diminish human lives and human culture immeasurably. Pyle's Wintergreen won the John Burrough's Medal for the best natural history book of 1987. He is an ecologist in Gray's River, Washington, and an expert on butterflies.

--American Forests. Vol 101, nos. 7 and 8. July/August 1995. Theme issue on wildlife, prescribed fire.
--Denevan, William M., "The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82(no. 3, 1992):369-385. The myth persists that in 1492 the Americans were a sparsely populated wilderness, "a world of barely perceptible human disturbance." There is substantial evidence, however, that the Native American landscape of the early sixteenth century was a humanized landscape almost everywhere. Populations were large. Forest composition had been modified, grasslands had been created, wildlife disrupted, and erosion was severe in places. Earthworks, roads, fields, and settlements were ubiquitous. With Indian depopulation in the wake of Old World disease, the environment recovered in many areas. A good argument can be made that the human presence was less visible in 1750 than it was in 1492. "There are no virgin tropical forests today, nor were there in 1492" (p. 375). Devevan is a geographer at the University of Wisconsin.

--McCormick, William, "Antoine Roquetin and `The Adulterous Woman': Reading Sartre and Camus on Nature." Manuscript paper. Antoine Roquetin is the diarist in Nausea. Sartre thought of it as his goal "to rescue the entire [human] species from animality." He looked in the mirror one day and found out what he "had always known: I was horribly natural." "The Adulterous Woman" is one of Camus' short stories revealing an attitude toward nature. In contrast with Sartre, Camus had great respect for nature; he believed that "the earth is our common homeland," and "the body is our common bond." Copies from the author: P. O. Box 1729, Charlottesville, VA 22902-1729.

--Bahro, Rudolf, Avoiding Social and Ecological Disaster. Bath, U.K.: Gateway Books, 1994. Social and ecological disaster is imminent. Bahro calls for abolition of the existing economic orders, a world transformation, a new collective psyche, a spiritual renaissance, the rise of a new consciousness. There is a need to change the basic psychological structure of Western humanity. We do not wish to ecologize the boat in which we presently live but to build new lifeboats. Bahro teaches philosophy at Humbolt University, Berlin.

--Callicott, J. Baird, "A Critique of and an Alternative to the Wilderness Idea," Wild Earth 4, no. 4 (Winter 1994-95): 54-59. Wildernesses could be better conceived as managed biosphere reserves. The wilderness idea (1) was conceived to meet human aesthetic and spiritual needs, not as biodiversity reserves; (2) is a defensive, losing strategy, because most of nature has already been developed, nature is at an end; (3) is not an international idea universalizable for all countries; (4) is ethnocentric, because there was no real wilderness even prior to Columbus; native Americans actively managed the landscape; (5) is flawed because nature is not static as envisioned in wilderness; and (6) the idea perpetuates a dichotomy between humans and nature. A better policy is active human management of nature reserves, with illustrations of how this could be so in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Immediately following are two replies, the first by Reed Noss, "Wilderness--Now More than Ever," Wild Earth 4, no. 4 (Winter 1994-95):60-63. "Callicott is dead wrong." "Callicott erects a straw man." "No ecologist interprets wilderness in the static, pristine, climax sense that Callicott caricatures it." The second reply is by Dave Foreman, "Wilderness Areas Are Vital," Wild Earth 4(no. 4, Winter 1994-1995):64-69. Callicott's argument "is fraught with mischief, and unschooled in its subject." "Before a respected scholar like Callicott criticizes the Wilderness concept (even from a friendly if disingenuous point of view), he ought to become more familiar with the history of the Wilderness preservation movement." Callicott counter-replies, a "retort," in "Deep Grammar," Wild Earth 5(no. 1, Spring 1995):64-66. Wilderness is a religion and anyone who criticizes it gets jumped on; Callicott argues that we should "abandon the concept of wilderness (with its historicist baggage) for the concept of biodiversity reserves."

--Audi, Robert, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 4,000 entries, said to be the most comprehensive and authoritative such dictionary, and yet also on "pure" philosophy, and therefore no entries on environmental philosophy, animal welfare, ecofeminism, and other impure types of philosophy. Hence also perhaps not as comprehensive and authoritative as claimed, not to say provincial or even narrow in its purity. Biographical entries are restricted to dead philosophers.

--Cooper, David E., and Joy A. Palmer, eds., Just Environments. London: Routledge, 1995. 12 essays. Contains I. G. Simmons, "Nature, Culture and History." Cooper is professor of philosophy, Palmer is lecturer in education, University of Durham.

--Schaller, George B., "Gentle Gorillas, Turbulent Times," National Geographic 188 (no. 4, October, 1995):65-68.

--Salopek, Paul E., "Gorillas and Humans: An Uneasy Truce," National Geographic 188 (no. 4, October, 1995):72-83. Conservationists fear that Rwanda's instability could endanger the gorillas' survival. Others ask: How should the plight of the world's rarest ape be measured against more than half a million human dead? But so far only one of an estimated 300 gorillas has been confirmed killed in the fighting; both sides have pledged to save the gorillas.

--Light, Andrew, "Is Wilderness a Natural Kind?" Society for Philosophy and Geography Newsletter 1 (no. 1, Dec. 1994): 2-3. "'Wilderness' is a term whose reference is historically dependent on the social context in which it is used and may be too culturally loaded to represent anything of foundational moral significance." Light amply wishes to conserve the areas we call wilderness, but is uncertain about the term. Light is a philosopher at the University of Alberta. A brief rejoinder follows, "Varieties of Wilderness: A Rejoinder," by Jonathan M. Smith (p. 4).

--Philosophy and Geography is sponsored by the Society for Philosophy and Geography and published by Rowman and Littlefield Press. Editors: Andrew Light, Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E5, Canada, and Jonathan M. Smith, Department of Geography, Texas A and M University, College Station, TX 77843-3147.

--Krishnan, Rajaram, Jonathan M. Harris, and Neva R. Goodwin, eds., A Survey of Ecological Economics. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1995. 384 pages. Several dozen short articles and extracts: historical perspectives; definition, scope, and interdisciplinary issues; theoretical frameworks and techniques; energy and resource flow analysis; accounting and evaluation; international economic relations, development, and the environment; ethical and institutional issues in ecological economics; The authors are with the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University.

--Midgley, Mary, "Visions, Secular and Sacred," The Hastings Center Report (no. 5, September, 1995): 20- . An imaginative vision of life as a whole is a central part of our mental equipment for any serious study; we must be careful what vision we espouse. If science is not furnished with a sensible one, it cannot fail to gather a wild one.

--Freyfogle, Eric T., "The Owning and Taking of Sensitive Lands," UCLA Law Review (University of California at Los Angeles) 43(1995):77-138. The institution of private land ownership is primarily a regime of private power--direct power over the land itself and indirect power over the people and other life forms whose health and fates are linked to the land. In landed property schemes, boundary lines are drawn on the Earth and some owner acquires rights to control the encompassed space. When the law respects private rights in land, it supports and defends this private power, standing ready to sustain it when appropriate by the use of public force.
Private ownership sinks deep roots into the culture of the United States, in part because the nation has long defined itself in contrast with places where private ownership did not thrive. In the late twentieth century, no force has shaken private ownership more profoundly than the environmental movement and its parent science, ecology. What ecology tells us is that all forms of life are linked with, and dependent upon, all other forms of life, and ultimately with the land itself. Nature's order is more than just a jumbled collection of discrete objects, each understandable in isolation. It is a maze of interconnection and interdependence, an organic whole laced together by nutrients and energy flowing through primary producers up to the top carnivores, and then back to the soil to nourish new life.
Inevitably and appropriately the new wisdom of ecology is altering old ways of imagining the land and relating to it. Change, however, has not arrived easily, particularly in the case of private property law, which is one of the more important ways that a culture expresses its ties to the nonhuman natural world. The bumpiest transition has come in the case of ecologically sensitive lands, lands that have special value in sustaining the healthy functioning of larger biotic communities--wetlands, barrier islands, riparian corridors, endangered wildlife habitats, and the like. Before the age of ecology, owners of sensitive lands enjoyed the same rights as other owners, including the right to transform a land parcel extensively, radically altering its ecosystem role. Today, these owners are under siege. Left along, sensitive lands fulfill their ecosystem functions; altered for intensive human use, the disruptive ripples spread widely, if at times slowly and invisibly. Now that we understand the roles of these lands, what should it mean for a private person to own them? Excellent article, a must read for those following the debate in this area. Freyfogle teaches law at the University of Illinois.

--Coward, Harold, ed., Population, Consumption, and the Environment: Religious and Secular Responses. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995. 327 pages. $ 18.95 paper. Different ways in which the world religions view overpopulation and overconsumption, compared with secular approaches. The historical records of the particular religion's teachings about these issues. Aboriginal spirituality, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese religions, secular ethics, North-South relations, market forces, the status of women, and international law. Coward is director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria.

--Athanasiou, Tom, Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1996.

--"Cyber Activism: The Potential and the Price," Environmental Action 27 (no. 3, Fall 1995):11-25. Special section on computers and the environment: ecolinking and networks, promoting environmental causes, watching legislation, databases, rich and poor and computing access, the Third World and computers, toxic chemicals in manufacturing chips and where they end up, telecommuting and reduced automobile emissions, though perhaps added urban and rural sprawl, a big Intel plant near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and its environmental problems, energy efficiency on computers, re-cycling of computers and components, computers and paper use and trees lost or saved. Articles by half a dozen authors. Good introduction to the issues in the field.

--Anzovin, Steven, The Green PC: Making Choices that Make a Difference. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993. Explores advances toward environmentally friendly computing, from paper use to energy efficiency.

--Kahn, Jr., Peter H., and Batya Freidman, "Environmental Views and Values of Children in an Inner-City Black Community," Child Development 66(1995):1403-1417. Overall, children showed sensitivity to nature and awareness of environmental problems, although attenuated by both developmental and cultural factors. Most children believed that polluting a waterway was a violation of a moral obligation. Children's environmental moral reasoning largely focused on homocentric considerations (e.g. that nature ought to be protected in order to protect human welfare). With much less frequency, children focused on biocentric considerations (e.g. that nature has intrinsic value or rights). Findings are discussed in terms of moral-developmental theory, and the place of social-cognitive research in understanding the human relationship to the natural environment. Kahn and Friedman are in human development at Colby College, Maine.

--Kahn, Peter H., Jr., "Developmental Psychology and the Biophilia Hypothesis: Children's Affiliation with Nature." Paper at the April 1995 Society for Research in Child Development. A venturesome hypothesis has been put forth by E. O. Wilson, and is gaining increasing support: biophilia is a fundamental, genetically-based human need and propensity to affiliate with other living organisms and life-like processes. While the biophilia hypothesis can help us to understand the biological underpinnings of how humans come to value nature, the construct itself needs to include substantively ontogenetic considerations. An alternative means, by which to understand biophilia, is grounded in structural-development psychological theory. Data from three recent studies conducted in the United States and the Brazilian Amazon support this reconception. Paper available from the author at: Program in Education and Human Development, Colby College, 4420 Waterville, ME 04901-8844.

--Palmer-Fernandez, Gabriel, ed., Moral Issues: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996. 525 pages. Section 10 is "Religion, Ethics, and the Environment: What is the Moral Status of Nature and How Ought We To Treat It?" Contains: Lynn White, Jr., "The Historic Roots of Our Ecological Crisis"; Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Ecofeminism: Symbolic and Social Connections of the Oppression of Women and the Domination of Nature"; Robert Gordis, "Ecology and the Judaic Tradition"; Kenneth Goodpaster, "On Being Morally Considerable"; Thomas E. Hill, Jr., "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments." Palmer-Fernandez is at Youngstown State University.

--Rittner, Don, Ecolinking: Everyone's Guide to Online Environmental Information. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 1992. The basics of getting online and where to go online for environmental information, listservs, world wide web sites, other networks.

--Western, David, and R. Michael Wright, eds., Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-based Conservation. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994. 581 pages. Case studies in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, forest management in eastern India, coastal management in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia, wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon, Kakadu National Park in Australia, the Zimbabwe Campfire program, wildlife in Papua New Guinea, forests in Costa Rica, forests in Niger, farms on the North Moors National Park, UK, and neotropical forests. Twenty-six articles. Focus on the needs to reconcile human needs and conservation at the local level: local participation, empowerment, tangible benefits, sustainable development. Western is with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Kenya, formerly with the Bronx Zoo; Wright is with the World Wildlife Fund.

--Adriance, Madeline Cousineau, Base Christian Communities and the Struggle for the Amazon. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995. Six case studies in how religious groups (the comunidades de base) are involved in land reform, advocacy for human rights, and conservation. These political movements are motivated by a deep religious commitment. Adriance is in sociology at Mount Ida College.

--Ackerman, Diane, The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds. New York: Random House, 1995. $ 23.00 Rare species such as the Brazilian golden lion tamarin, monk seals in the Pacific, the short-tailed albatross on an island off the coast of Japan, and the migrations of the monarch butterfly.

--McKibben, Bill, Hope, Human and Wild. Little, Brown, 1995. $ 22.95. After The End of Nature, McKibben now finds hope for our beleaguered Earth. Hope begins when he notices the remarkable recovery of forest and wildlife in the Adirondacks around his home, even though the area had been a barren, overlogged wasteland only a hundred years ago. This sent him on a quest for other signs of hope, found as far off as Brazil and India.

--Cobb, John B., Jr., Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1995. 128 pages. $ 12.95. Globalization is destroying our capacity to maintain vital human communities. To avoid catastrophe, we must decentralize by adopting policies that promote relatively self-sufficient local economies. The scale of economic activity in today's world already exceeds that which ought to prevail in a world that limits its uses of resources to sustainable levels. We are robbing future generations in order to improve conditions for ourselves. The self-interested behavior of buyers and sellers in most markets today is an almost insurmountable barrier to the task of building vital human communities. When workers and owners of capital are taught to seek the largest possible return for their efforts, they make possible the specialization and productivity for which laissez-faire capitalism is famous, but at the expense of constant disruption to the fabric of community. Theologically, Cobb faults the existing economic system for focusing primary on human production rather than on creation, putting God's gifts of nature at considerable risk of degradation. The Earth is God's and degrading it is evil, a result of economism as an idolatry. Cobb is a well-known theologian, retired from Claremont Graduate School.

--Wilkins, Thurman, John Muir: Apostle of Nature. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. $ 24.95 cloth. A biography and evaluation of John Muir, and how his influence continues to shape contemporary attitudes toward nature.

--Johnson, Andrew, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Science, Aesthetics and Environmental Assessment," Biodiversity and Conservation 4(no. 7, 1995):758-766. Are there peculiarly scientific values that can be applied in environmental assessment? The use of the expression "scientific interest" is traced from its 19th century origins to modern British statutes. Attempts to replace expert judgments by objective scientific criteria (e.g. indices of biodiversity) can never be completely successful. In particular, "interest" is an aesthetic attribute valued by scientists but incapable of precise measurement. While science provides the best framework for informed judgments on conservation issues, the judgments of scientists are inevitably distinct from their experimental results. Judgments rest on ethical and aesthetic values such as importance and interest, which are essential constituents of the scientific sub-culture, but which are not uniquely "scientific." Johnson is the editor of White Horse Press, publishing environmental books in the United Kingdom.

--Katz, Eric, "Imperialism and Environmentalism," Social Theory and Practice 21 (no. 2, Summer 1995):271-285. Imperialism--power, force, and domination--as a model or metaphor for understanding the human relationship with nature. A metaphor of imperialism is rather different from the benign and optimistic metaphor of "the balance of nature." One purpose of this examination into the power of nature is to open a dialogue about the forms of rhetoric that help to determine environmental policy. Which metaphors of the human/nature relationship are more appropriate? Should we view nature as a complex of aggressive forces, or as a balanced system of cooperation and harmony? Why not use both metaphors? The metaphor we choose will have a fundamental impact on our ideas concerning the appropriate role of human action in the natural world. Four possibilities are examined, especially the first three: (1) Imperialistic humans over other humans, and (2) over nature. (3) Imperialistic nature over humans, and (4) over other things in nature. Nature can be the "other" that is dominated by humanity, or it can be the (nonintentional) dominating and imperialistic force that subdues some aspect of humanity. Katz teaches philosophy and policy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

--Cifric, Ivan, "Development and Environmental Protection in Croatia," Socijalna Ekologija (Journal for Environmental Thought and Sociological Research) (Zegreb, Croatia) 4(nos. 2-3, 1995):149-170. Most of those surveyed see environmental problems as quite serious and are pessimistic about improvements in th