Main currents in western environmental thought /

This tour de force review and critique of Western environmental thought is not for bedtime reading. Hay (Univ. of Tasmania) has waded deeply into the stirred and still stirring waters of ecological philosophy, analyzing in sometimes excruciating detail the pros and cons of differing ideas, values, and positions. The book is divided into ten sections starting with "Romanticism as the First Broadcast Expression of an 'Ecological Impulse.'" Remaining chapters trace the development of ecological thought more or less chronologically, beginning with the 1970s movement in ecophilosophy (including "deep ecology"), on to ecofeminism, religion, and the green movement, green critiques of science and knowledge, the search for an authentic ground for being, authoritarian and conservative green political thought, environmental liberalism, socialist traditions, and ecology, democracy, and postmodernism. The concluding section identifies the tenacity and resilience of environmentalism as resting in the plurality of the many discordant voices within its own ranks. Extensive bibliography. Readability would have been enhanced by a more accommodating font and more competent editing. Graduate students through professionals. E. J. Kormondy emeritus, University of Hawaii at Hilo