COMPANION TO ENVIRONMENTAL THOUGHT

“A Companion to Environmental Thought” sets out to introduce the many strands of thought within the western environment movement.

— What inspires a sympathy for green ‘imperatives’?

— How has an emerging set of ecological values interacted with more established systems of thought and values in philosophy, religion, science, economics and politics?

— What is the significance of such concepts as ‘nature’, ‘wilderness’, ‘place’, ‘authenticity’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘democracy’, among many others, in a rapidly evolving world?

These are just a few of the many questions explored in this book – a text unique in its cross-disciplinary sweep. It provides a comprehensive overview of the development of environmental thinking, charting the rise and fall of ideas through the turbulant intellectual times between 1970 and the late 1990s. This will be an indispensable companion for anyone wanting to understand the changing trajectory of this most dynamic and important of contemporary activist and discursive movements. And with its broad-ranging coverage, it is likely to become a core textbook on all environment-related courses.

Peter Hay is a Reader in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania. A well-known Australian environmental thinker, he was the foundation convenor of the Ecopolitics Association of Australasia.