Ecology and utility : the philosophical dilemmas of planetary management /

An essay that mixes philosophical critique and personal perspective on the contemporary environmentalist movement in England. Allison demonstrates the looseness of such thinking, showing that the favored "Green" theme of nature's unity expresses no coherent philosophical orientation but borrows from several. He handily shows that environmentalist holism, contrary to popular rumor, is not imcompatible with orthodox, monistic, scientific world views. Finding Green radicalism impractical, Allison argues that its "Grey" or utilitarian rival is also inadequate; it fails to produce an effective environmental ethic through the narrowness of its categories of rationality and practicality. Rather donnish examples drawn from the author's experiences in Britain and Australia expose the ironies and tensions in city planning and environmentalist nostalgia, firmly clutching the world of A.A. Milne and Beatrix Potter. Working for the tradition of John Stuart Mill, Allion seeks to meld the deep-green totemism of the environmentalist movement with the here-and-now practicality of Rawls's utilitarian summary rule. The result is a moderated menu of productive, aesthetic, and hygienic standards far too rational to appeal to the reds or the greens or the freewheelers in their grey suits. It just might catch on. Undergraduate. M. J. Goodman; University of Hawaii at Manoa