Infinite Nature - Hardcover

Hull, R Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226359441 ISBN 13: 9780226359441

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2006

Synopsis

You would be hard-pressed to find someone who categorically opposes protecting the environment, yet most people would agree that the environmentalist movement has been ineffectual and even misguided. Some argue that its agenda is misplaced, oppressive, and misanthropic - a precursor to intrusive government, regulatory bungles, and economic stagnation. Others point out that its alarmist rhetoric and preservationist solutions are outdated and insufficient to the task of galvanizing support for true reform. In this impassioned and judicious work, R. Bruce Hull argues that environmentalism will never achieve its goals unless it sheds its fundamentalist logic. The movement is too bound up in polarizing ideologies that pit humans against nature, conservation against development, and government regulation against economic growth. Only when we acknowledge the infinite perspectives on how people should relate to nature will we forge solutions that are respectful to both humanity and the environment. "Infinite Nature" explores some of these myriad perspectives, from the scientific understandings proffered by anthropology, evolution, and ecology, to the promise of environmental responsibility offered by technology and economics, to the designs of nature envisioned in philosophy, law, and religion. Along the way, Hull maintains that the idea of nature is social: in order to reach the common ground where sustainable and thriving communities are possible, we must accept that many natures can and do exist. Incisive, heartfelt, and brimming with practical solutions, "Infinite Nature" brings a much-needed and refreshing voice to the table of environmental reform.

About this title

About the Author

R. Bruce Hull is professor of natural resources at Virginia Tech. He is coeditor of Restoring Nature: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INFINITE NATURE

By R. BRUCE HULL

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2006 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-35944-1

Contents

Preface.....................................xi1 Introduction.............................12 Anthropogenic Nature.....................103 Evolving Nature..........................204 Ecological Nature........................375 (In)finite Nature........................576 Economic Nature..........................747 Healthy Nature...........................978 Fair Nature..............................1119 Spiritual Nature.........................12410 Human Nature............................14111 Rightful Nature.........................15812 Aesthetic Nature........................17813 Moral Nature............................192Conclusion..................................209Notes.......................................217References..................................235Index.......................................253

Chapter One

Introduction

Environmental Fundamentalism Unifying Visions of Thoreau and Leopold Pluralizing Nature

Critics say environmentalism is dying; or if it is not dying, then it needs to. Traditional critics repeat well-worn complaints that environmentalism's agenda is misplaced, oppressive, and misanthropic because it produces regulatory bungles, slows economic growth, and delays technological advances that save lives. A newer line of criticism, coming from inside the movement, argues that environmentalism's alarmist rhetoric, polarizing ideology, and preservationist solutions are outdated and insufficient to the tasks of sustaining thriving communities in a humanized biosphere. All these critics are wrong in one important regard: there is not one environmentalism, one environmentalist position, or one environment. Critics know this to be true but still struggle to escape the trap of environmental fundamentalism.

The trap of environmental fundamentalism gets sprung early and often. Environmental issues tend to get framed as either-or, win-lose debates: economy or environment, humans or nature, government regulation or market economy, preservation or development, growth or steady state. Serious public dialogue about desirable future conditions quickly polarizes and degenerates into name-calling, as it did in a recent planning effort for the lands within the Adirondacks' famous Blue Line. Environmentalists were stereotyped as "forest faggots," "nature Nazis," and "watermelons": green on the outside, red (socialist) on the inside. Non-environmentalists were typecast as rapists, destroyers, and greedy exploiters with warped priorities that value the almighty dollar above the Almighty's creation.

Alternative framing of society's social-environmental problems is possible. Biocultural visionaries advocate appropriate technology and social ecology that blend rather than separate environmental and social concerns. They try to advance solutions that benefit both the environment and jobs, human equity and biodiversity, urbanization and ecology, utility and beauty, and thriving and sustainable communities. These attractive visions of the future appeal to people of most political persuasions, broadening and deepening the political will to act. To identify and realize these visions, we need to overcome the polarization caused by environmental fundamentalism. The purpose of this book is to assist in this effort by pluralizing our conception of nature.

UNIFIERS: THOREAU AND LEOPOLD

Early and foundational environmental thinkers such as Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold were unifiers, not polarizers. They were highly critical of economics as the sole criterion for justifying land-use decisions and social policies. However, they were not anti-economic. Thoreau, for example, went to the woods to live deliberately, and his experiment at pond's edge was, in part, economic. The first and longest chapter of Walden is titled "Economy," in which he carefully records expenses and profits down to the half cent. He describes building a house, planting and hoeing a bean field, selling excess beans, and purchasing supplies with the profits. He rejoices in the fulfillment earned through the labor of living frugally, simply, deliberately, and economically.

However, Thoreau also soundly criticized his neighbors for overemphasizing economic values. Their narrow-minded, economic-only accounting of life trapped them in a sad, desperate cycle of toiling at jobs in order to secure the funds needed to purchase the products that others toiled to produce. His neighbors seemed so focused on staying atop the economic treadmill that they forgot to smell the roses and taste the fruits of life. Thoreau was not against labor but thought people sacrificed essential spheres of life-such as self-actualization, community, place, and posterity-by too eagerly selling their humanity as labor. He encouraged people to drive life into a corner and find in it deep meaning, spiritual fulfillment, aesthetic pleasure, ecological literacy, and community vitality. His two-year experiment at pond's edge was an effort to document different ways to understand and value living a simple life near nature.

That was 150 years ago. Today Thoreau might conclude that things have gotten worse. He also might conclude that the environmental movement he unknowingly helped found has failed to offer society a viable alternative. But he might see signs for hope that his agenda will be realized. While writing this introduction, I traveled to Walden Pond in search of Henry's muse. Urban sprawl long ago eroded much of the solitude Thoreau found during his long walks around Concord, Massachusetts. The edge of the famous pond is now badly beaten and bruised by the hundreds of thousands of visitors who frolic there each year. The pond regularly fills with boaters, swimmers, dogs, hikers, deer, and pilgrims such as me.

Extensive efforts are under way to restore functioning ecological systems to the pond's trampled watershed. Steel-wire fences and strongly worded signs direct visitors to narrow trails that ring the pond. Vegetation is being planted by volunteers, and soil has been secured by high-tech landscaping fabric. It is ironic that Thoreau's nightmare of a nature completely defined, dominated, and denuded by humanity occurred at the very place where he wrote some of his most powerful prose warning us of the dangers of an unrestrained instrumental worldview. It is perhaps fitting that restoration efforts are under way to balance the needs of a thriving, creative ecological system with the needs of a thriving, creative human civilization. Perhaps neither nature nor humanity will dominate this new arrangement and both will be better off for the partnership.

Aldo Leopold also was a unifier, appreciating both the economic and cultural harvests of nature. He studied, advised, and advocated hunting, agriculture, and other consumptive economic practices, recognizing that they provide the needed material harvests of food, shelter, comfort, and safety. He strove to harmonize economic practices with the integrity of functioning ecological systems and thus was critical of land management driven exclusively for economic gain. The land, he argued, also generated cultural harvests, providing people with a life as well as a livelihood. In addition to wood and food, the land grows families, democracy, passion, biodiversity, wildness, safety, and art. He said we must "cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays. That philosophy is dead in human relations, and its funeral in land-relations is overdue." Leopold's science, poetry, and practice are full of efforts to harmonize the material and cultural harvests with the integrity of ecological systems.

Leopold's emphasis on community is important. Communities unify members: membership creates obligations as well as providing the benefits of protection, opportunity, and identity, and membership requires respecting and protecting qualities that define the community. Members must limit behaviors that damage the community. Membership also requires good-faith participation in negotiations that decide the norms of behavior as well as the privileges and responsibilities of community membership. Members need to explicitly negotiate their visions for a thriving community: What defines a good life? What counts as acceptable environmental quality? What ideals should be passed on to future generations? Which social institutions and behaviors will create and sustain these desired conditions? Who or what deserves membership? What rights, privileges, and responsibilities do members deserve? These negotiations unify community members by shaping shared expectations.

FUNDAMENTALISM IS A PROBLEM

Fundamentalism narrows the decision space where common interests can be found by promoting a politics of blame and shame when what is needed is deliberation and collaboration. Worse, it encourages allegiance rather than understanding. Fundamentalism discourages appreciation and respect for the many natures that evoke hope, wonder, and political action. This book pluralizes nature in hopes of moving us beyond environmental fundamentalism toward the critical tasks of understanding and sustaining the many natures that add immeasurably to the identities and qualities of our lives.

It is common in environmental debates for "nature" to be used in defense of policies and positions. It is rhetorically effective to justify a particular outcome because it is "natural," has "natural causes," or was "naturally selected" or because "nature knows best." But these appeals invoke the naturalistic fallacy: just because something occurs in nature does not mean that it should. Some sociobiologists, for example, argue that evolution predisposes human males to be promiscuous because such behavior supposedly increases the number of descendants and therefore the "success" of a promiscuous man's genes; this contention, if true, does not mean that modern culture should sanction infidelity, adultery, and rape. Some evolutionary psychologists argue that evolution has favored humans who were aggressive in their pursuit of food, shelter, and mates; this contention, if true, does not mean that modern culture should promote murder, warfare, and confrontation as the primary means of dispute resolution. Likewise, some social Darwinists suggest that competition for survival improves society's fitness; this contention, if true, does not mean that modern culture should discourage welfare, public education, and other social practices that increase opportunities for the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Other invocations of nature's moral authority are used in arguments for and against abortion, homosexuality, and the subjugation of women. In most cases, the characterizations of nature are partial and biased; in all cases, they are insufficient. The values and qualities we choose to define and guide our communities must be openly deliberated, not ignorantly justified by trite appeals to nature. Recognizing many natures mitigates against the navet and absolutism that hinder open deliberations.

"Nature" is also used to describe desired environmental conditions and goals of environmental management: "keep it natural," "mimic nature," or "don't exceed the natural range of variability." Scientized synonyms of nature can include "biodiversity," "ecological integrity," and "health." These references to a singular nature are ambiguous and misleading. Pluralizing nature forces us to be more specific about the conditions we desire and why they are desired.

Environmental fundamentalism collides with other worldviews such as religious fundamentalism to produce sparks that fuel the flames of polarization and paralysis. A popular environmental critique of Judeo-Christian traditions argues that teachings of dominionism and dualism embedded in the Bible are responsible for the tendency toward environmental exploitation found in Christian Western civilizations. Alternative interpretations of Judeo-Christian traditions emphasize and mobilize concern about caring for God's creation. The pluralizing of nature that occurs in subsequent chapters reveals enormous overlap between religious and environmental causes. Goals of environmentalism and organized religion likely have more commonalities than differences: they share common concerns about the environment, the economy, culture, and the future. The same can be said for ecologism, primitivism, capitalism, and other absolutisms.

PLURALIZING NATURE

Pluralizing nature facilitates the collaboration and deliberation that resolves environmental conflict and implements solutions. If stakeholders in community-planning efforts believe that their nature is the only possible nature, then they may fail to recognize interests they share with others and instead waste scarce civic energies defending the legitimacy of their nature. The better we understand the many natures that can exist, the better we will be able to comprehend the concerns of others, evaluate their positions, and find common ground. Resolving difficult environmental conflicts requires collaborative, deliberative efforts where participants comprehend and respect one another's perspectives, and when conflict seems intractable, are able to reframe the conflict around issues and interests stakeholders can agree on. Pluralizing nature increases the decision space where acceptable conditions may be found as well as the political support for these conditions by including more community members who care and giving them more reasons why they should care. The increased number, intensity, and overlap of interests might help mobilize the political support needed to create thriving and sustainable communities.

As an example, take General Grant, a sequoia tree located in Kings Canyon National Park, California. The third largest tree in the world, it towers more than thirty-six stories in height and has a diameter exceeding forty feet. Several thousand years old, General Grant is the largest living memorial to Americans who died in war. Its existence likely can be traced back to Native American burning practices because sequoias require fire to release seeds, prepare the soil, and open the forest canopy. General Grant reminds people of their ties to these Native Americans and to the early pioneers who settled the continent. And it has value to the Judeo-Christian God, who created trees and other vegetation on the third day and declared them "good."

It could provide decent jobs to hardworking people who pay local taxes that in turn build schools and hospitals if it were felled and sawed into boards to build houses. It might even host genes or chemicals to cure debilitating diseases. It does retain water, sequester carbon, purify air, and perform a myriad of other ecological services on which the lives of countless insects, bacteria, and other forms of life depend. It evokes awe and humility in most people who see it and is photographed and commemorated in countless coffee-table books and family albums. People stroll beneath its branches and ponder deep thoughts about life, ecology, and their place in the universe. They search for lessons about how to live a worthy life. The tree's magnitude inspires still others to pursue careers as foresters or conservation biologists. Moreover, it is alive. It grows, seeks resources, and resists infections. By these actions, the sequoia demonstrates a will to live. Perhaps this willfulness to survive has value in and of itself, independent of any human value. There are indeed many ways to know and appreciate General Grant. The more we broaden and deepen our interests in this tree, and in nature generally, the more we will be motivated to engage one another in efforts to create and sustain communities where these interests thrive.

Pluralizing natures mitigates the polarization and paralysis of environmental fundamentalism because it asks us to respect and critically examine diverse interests. I am not advocating what has been called a "flabby" pluralism that uncritically accepts all perspectives, paradigms, and vocabularies. Nor am I advocating what has been called a "fortress-like" pluralism where isolated groups work to build and advance their internally consistent methods and theories, unwilling to communicate across paradigm boundaries and unable to agree on universal standards of truth. Rather, I'm suggesting an "engaged" pluralism that accepts multiple perspectives on every issue and replaces the quest for certainty and absolutes with the negotiation of truth and objectivity through agreement.

Engaged pluralism demands respect and responsiveness to the positions and understandings of others. It requires active listening and a critical and self-reflective thinking that acknowledges the uncertainty and limits of knowledge. Applied to environmental negotiations, engaged pluralism seeks ways to understand, value, and illustrate the environmental conditions that describe where we want to live in the future as well as mobilizing the political support needed to get us there. Engaged pluralism is characteristic of a healthy democratic society where we deliberate our ideals and standards of conduct.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from INFINITE NATUREby R. BRUCE HULL Copyright © 2006 by The University of Chicago. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226359441
• ISBN 13: 9780226359441
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232