Eco-Elders

This is new page, thus a work in progress, see Eco-Heroes page as well. Suggestions welcome.

Edward Abbey earned his place in the Ecology Hall of Fame with two books and one extra-literary creation, himself. The first book, Desert Solitaire, is a classic of environmental literature, combining nature writing, the philosophy of life and death, and political observations regarding freedom, democracy, and the management of National Parks. The other book, The Monkey Wrench Gang, created a whole new branch of the environmental movement. All those who espouse non-violent social protest in the tradition of Ghandi’s satyagraha must consider Abbey’s heroes as their prototypes. Edward Abbey Excerpt from Desert Solitaire.

Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays.

David Brower President of the Sierra Club who led the fight to save the Grand Canyon. Founder of several other organizations.

Rachel Carson

Alan Chadwick helped establish organic farming at UCSC and propagate the ideas widely. Film on him at McHenry VT8996 called Garden Song

Buckminster Fuller (by E.J. Applewhite) Buckminster Fuller had one of the most fascinating and original minds of his century. Born in 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts, he was the latest--if not the last--of the New England Transcendentalists. Like the transcendentalists, Fuller rejected the established religious and political notions of the past and adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on the essential unity of the natural world and the use of experiment and intuition as a means of understanding it. But, departing from the pattern of his New England predecessors, he proposed that only an understanding of technology in the deepest sense would afford humans a proper guide to individual conduct and the eventual salvation of society. New anthology also a new collection of scholarly essays New Views on R. Buckminster Fuller including one by Fred Turner, who spoke on the continuing significance of the counterculture at College 8. Excellent animated intro to his most important idea.

Alice Hamilton pioneered industrial toxicology. Her autobiography (full text online).

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is considered the father of wildlife ecology and a true Wisconsin hero. He was a renowned scientist and scholar, exceptional teacher, philosopher, and gifted writer. It is for his book, A Sand County Almanac, that Leopold is best known by millions of people around the globe. The Almanac, often acclaimed as the century's literary landmark in conservation, melds exceptional poetic prose with keen observations of the natural world.

John Muir new biography: A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir McHenry QH 31 M9 W68 2008 by Worster, Donald. Muir's big fight was to save Hetchy-Hetchy Valley in Yosemite. His writings are on thisextensive site. You can follow his life on Google Earth. Lee Stetson does a one-man show channelling Muir at Yosemite, also in a PBS documentary.

Gaylord Nelson Senator and governor, co-founder of Earth Day with Republican Pete McCloskey, who at age 78 ran against Pombo, who was going to gut the Endangered Species Act and sell public land to coal companies. Video on McCloskey.

John Wesley Powell a forerunner on bio-regionalism (see below). Stegner book. NPR radio story (audio). Cadillac Desert includes Powell.

Two of his short stories read out loud on NPR's Selected Shorts.

Thoreau

Teddy Roosevelt

Theoretical Foundations

Peter Berg coined the term "bioregionalism" in the early 70s to define an environmental perspective that emphasizes action over protest, lifestyle over legislation. A bioregion is an area that shares similar topography, plant and animal life, and human culture. Bioregions are often organized around watersheds, and they can be nested within each other. Bioregional boundaries are usually not rigid, and often differ from political borders around counties, states, provinces and nations. Ideally, bioregions are places that could be largely self-sufficient in terms of food, products and services, and would have a sustainable impact on the environment. See also Kirkpatrick Sale, an independent scholar and self-proclaimed neo-Luddite from Vermont who writes and agitates for a scaling-down of American society. In his book, Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1985), he charts of vision of decentralism, participation, liberation, mutualism and community. UCSC Library Call number: QH540.5.S25 1985.

Planet Drum is an activist organization that embraces Bio-regionalism.

A Bioregional Reader, Van Andrus (1990) UCSC Library: GF51.H6 1990

Bio-Regionalism by Michael Vincent McGinnis - 1999 (Google preview).

Wendell Berry. “The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Agriculture.” (hard copy) When the environmental movement divides land between pristine and degraded, what place does that leave humans who must make a livelihood? A real chance of impacting the environmental crisis can occur only when environmentalists turns their attention to "kindly use" of the land.Unsettling of America HD1761.B47 1986 Audio version. 2009 interview (audio) : Author, poet and farmer Wendell Berry was writing about the virtues of slow food and sustainable agriculture decades before it became fashionable. He joins us to discuss "Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food," his new book of essays. Berry is also the author of a new book of poetry, titled "Leavings."

E.F. Schumacher. Small is Beautiful Importance of the principle of smallness as being a good thing.

Lynn White, "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis," Science 155 (1967): 1203-7. What does Christianity tell people about their relationship to the environment? White's seminal article spawned great concern in the 1970s about the Western world's unique, and destructive ethos towards nature.

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