Today, six out of ten Americans describe themselves as “active” environmentalists or as “sympathetic” to the movement's concerns. The movement, in turn, reflects this millions-strong support in its diversity, encompassing a wide spectrum of causes, groups, and sometimes conflicting special
interests. For far-sighted activists and policy makers, the question is how this diversity affects the ability to achieve key goals in the battle against pollution, erosion, and out-of-control growth. This insightful book offers an overview of the movement — its past as well as its present — and
issues the most persuasive call yet for a unified approach to solving environmental problems. Focusing on examples from resource use, pollution control, protection of species and habitats, and land use, the author shows how the dynamics of diversity have actually hindered environmentalists in the
past, but also how a convergence of these interests around forward-looking policies can be effected, despite variance in value systems espoused. The book is thus not only an assessment of today's movement, but a blueprint for action that can help pull together many different concerns under a common
banner. Anyone interested in environmental issues and active approaches to their solution will find the author's observations both astute and creative.
This book presents an argument that the environmental movement is a coalition of many groups working toward common objectives without common values. Norton believes this lack of unity causes unnecessary and divisive controversy and debate within the environmentalist community which impedes the development of effective and timely environmental management policies. The various participants in environmental debates see events so differently, and describe them in such diverse vocabularies, that the environmental movement, unlike other social action movements, lacks common theoretical principles. Norton's goal is to create a common language for discussing environmental issues as a first step towards a unified theory of environmental management. This book will be of a value to general readers with an interest in environmental and ecological issues; environmental planners and policy makers; conservation biologists, wildlife biologists; and ecologists.
Bryan G. Norton
is professor of philosophy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of “Linguistic Frameworks and Ontology,” "Why Preserve Natural Variety?“ and” Toward Unity among Environmentalists,“ and the editor of ”The Preservation of Species,"