Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-First Century - Softcover

Botkin, Daniel B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195074696 ISBN 13: 9780195074697

Publisher: Oxford University Press USA, 1990

Synopsis

Global warming, acid rain, the depletion of the rainforests, the polluting of our atmosphere and oceans - the threats to our environment are growing at an alarming pace. It's certainly easy to indulge the kinds of desperate, hand-wringing environmentalism that point to problems without suggesting solutions. Thankfully, however, Daniel Botkin is able to pinpoint areas of concern and suggest potential cures. In his groundbreaking study of environmental issues, Discordant Harmonies, Botkin suggests that the real barrier to solving the crisis in the environment is not lack of scientific knowledge but the persistance of mythological and metaphoric ways of perceiving the natural world. A seasoned scientist (and pioneer of the use of computers to predict ecological trends), Botkin draws on some revealing case-studies - of predator/prey relationships; of forests evolving over centuries; of species nearing extinction; of examples of well-intentioned mistakes in conservation - in order to illuminate his argument. Radical, stimulating, and insightful, Discordant Harmonies suggests a manifesto for environmentalism in the coming decade and beyond.

About this title

About the Author:

Daniel B. Botkin is on the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He won the 1991 Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development for his work on the environment.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0195074696
• ISBN 13: 9780195074697
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256