Ecological Journeys


Book Description

The Essays In This Book Deal With Many Facets Of The Natural World And The World Of Humans, And How The Two Impinge On Each Other. The Author`S Detailed Studies Of Hunting And Gathering Communities Led Him To Controversially Champion Traditional Methods Of Conserving Nature. The Merits Of State-Sponsored Conservation Initiatives Are Weighed Up In His Work, As Is Planned `Development`. He Argues Passionately Against Directing Energy, Water And Raw Materials Towards Intensive Agriculture And Urban Development At At The Cost Of The Rural Poor. He Calls For Radical Changes In The Indian Polity So That People Are Not Denied Basic Information And Therefore Prevented From Participating In Development Issues. These Essays Stimulate And Provoke Us To Think For Ourselves About The Natural World And Our Relationship With It, Urging Us To Take A Hand In Shaping It.




Spatializing the History of Ecology


Book Description

This book advances a spatial perspective on the history of ecology. Intrigued by broader debates in the humanities on the "spatial turn," the authors contribute to a more explicit and systematic development of spatial thinking in the history of ecology, exploring to which extent a spatial perspective can shed new light on the history of ecological science, and using ecology as a critical site to gain broader insights into the history of the environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.




Christ in a Grain of Sand


Book Description

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are perhaps the greatest retreat guide ever written. Neil Vaney's innovative approach to the Exercises is an invitation to a journey of discovery, a challenge to look for Christ in all things and to find him everywhere, even in a grain of sand. Exploring for the first time the unique connection between ecology and the Exercises, Vaney reveals their relevance in our contemporary age. He leads us on an adventure, helping us make the Exercises with our new awareness of the intimate bond between spirituality and the natural world.




Eco-Justice--The Unfinished Journey


Book Description

"Eco-Justice--The Unfinished Journey links ecological sustainability and social justice from an ethical and often theological perspective. Eco-justice, defined as the well-being of all humankind on a thriving earth, began as a movement during the 1970s, responding to massive, sobering evidence that nature imposes limits-limits to production and consumption, with profound implications for distributive justice, and limits to the human numbers sustainable by habitat earth. This collection includes contributions from the leading interpreters of the eco-justice movement as it recounts the evolution of the Eco-JusticeProject, initiated by campus ministries in Rochester and Ithaca, New York. Most of these essays were originally published in the organization's journal, and they address many themes, including environmental justice, hunger, economics, and lifestyle.










Ecological Footprints in Literature: An Excursion into Selected Nature Writings and Nature Novels


Book Description

The book provides a comprehensive view of the environmental discourses that are found in the literary representations of the natural world. The book presents an in-depth analysis of the symbolic manifestations of the outer world in various genres of literature such as nature novels and nature or ecological writings. It deeply captures the mutual interactions that occur between the human and the non-human world that tend to influence each other’s actions and processes. By exploring the ecocritical leanings and tracing all the phases of Anthropocene, the book takes its readers for a deep excursion into the beauteous, dynamic, natural, and overtly spiritual world of Nature as exhibited in the writings such as Thoreau’s Walden, Khushwant Singh’s Nature Watch, and Starhawk’s The Earth Path which is contrasted against the eco-catastrophic world of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. An insightful and analytical journey into the world of more unique portrayals of the ecological world that tend to strike a balance between two distinct worlds: the real and the imaginative, the spiritual and the material as well as the natural and the man-made (as reflected in the nature novels: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, Khushwant Singh’s I Shall not Hear the Nightingale, Starhawk’s Fifth Sacred Thing, and Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia: A Novel. The book, thus, with its underpinning wisdom will be an interesting and more enlightening read for the critics, academicians, and researchers.




The Intellectual Journey of Thomas Berry


Book Description

Thomas Berry had a gentle yet mesmerizing and luminescent presence that was evident to anyone who spent time with him. His intellectual scope and erudite manner were compelling, and the breadth, depth, clarity, and elegance of his vision was breathtaking. Berry was an intellectual giant and cultural visionary of extraordinary stature. Thomas Berry’s vast knowledge of history, religions, and cultural histories is a unique blend revealing a genuine, original thinker. The ecological crisis, in all its manifestations, came to dominate Berry’s concerns. He perceived that the greatest need was to offer the possibility of a viable future for an Earth community. Many know of his proposal for a functional cosmology, the need for a new story, and a vital Earth sensitive spirituality. Few know of his rich and varied intellectual journey. The Intellectual Journey of Thomas Berry: Imagining the Earth Community is about the roots and insights hidden within his ecological, spiritual proposal. These essays, written by experts on Thomas Berry’s work, probe into, and reveal distinct themes that permeate his work, in gratitude for his contribution to the Earth.




Forests and Ecological History of Assam, 1826–2000


Book Description

This book presents a comprehensive account of the transformation of Assam's forests and ecology from early nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It locates present-day ecological conflicts in the colonial era when contest over forest, land, and resource began to take new shape. Arupjyoti Saikia delineates how forest resources in Assam were mapped and intergrated with mechant capitalism since the early nineteenth century. He shows how imperial forestry practices led to changes in traditional resource utilization patterns. The book also examines the political economy of conservation practices. It explores the question of law and conservation, role of institutions and organizations, and the changing role of the forests in imperial economy. The book argues how the making of forest policy in the postcolonial period was defind by the complexities of the political matrix. It discusses plantation, silvicultural practices, protection and regeneration of forests, and livlihood practices. The author also analyses public debates surrounding ecology and environmental changes in conservation practices after the 1980 Act.




Living Deep Ecology


Book Description

Living Deep Ecology: A Bioregional Journey is an exploration of our evolving relationship with a specific bioregion. It is set in Humboldt County in northwestern California, in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. By focusing on a specific bioregion and reflecting on anthropogenic changes in this bioregion over three decades, Bill Devall engages the reader in asking deeper questions about the meaning we find in Nature. He addresses questions such as how do we relate the facts and theories presented by science with our feelings, our intimacy, and our sense of Place as we dwell in a specific bioregion. This book engages the reader to consider our place in Nature. Devall approaches the bioregion not from the perspective of agencies and government, but from the perspective of the landscape itself.