Eco-Watch
3/24/96
One path toward understanding Ecosystem Management
Dave Iverson
3/14/94: Introduction from earlier Eco-Watch booklist
Some years after I finished my graduate studies I read a small book on
economics that helped me begin my education anew. The book is a 1932 classic
titled An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. In 1969,
in the preface to the second edition, Lionel Robbins framed one of the great
dilemmas of our time: too-narrow-thinking. "By itself Economics affords no
solution to any of the important problems of life," said Robbins, adding that
"An education which consists of Economics alone is a very imperfect education."
Recently my focus has broadened further--toward sustainability and
ecosystem management--including readings from disciplines as diverse as
ecological economics, environmental ethics, conservation biology, landscape
ecology, political science, cultural anthropology, and more. Many of you are
traversing this same path, even though the ports of entry to the path are
varied. I find it interesting that a steadily increasing number of economists
(along with other professionals) are discovering this path and entering into
the cross-disciplinary discussion called 'the ecological economics of
sustainability.'
A couple of weeks ago I got a letter from a colleague who is spending a
sabbatical rethinking economics, his chosen profession. Having had the time to
stop and think, and to read quite a bit, changed his thinking remarkably. His
recent and very much changed conclusion is that "the discipline of economics is
strongly implicated in leading Western civilizations to a lifestyle that is not
generally attainable to most of the world's people, is not sustainable by most
modern societies, and is taking them to the brink of ecological disaster." He
and I still believe that economics can be useful in helping us to avoid the
'disaster' that we economists helped to create. But we also agree that no
change is possible unless and until we change some of the most cherished basic
assumptions of economics and many other sciences. I won't bore you with the
details of those assumptions, you've seen them for several years on Eco-Watch
anyway. Instead, I simply want to help you understand the background materials
I studied while working my way toward this path of discovery.
3/24/96: Thoughts added for this update
From among the many books I have used to help reframe my own thinking I put
together a list of my 90+ personal favorites, in several categories. This list
is just a beginning, and only one path toward discovery. People are very busy
--too busy-- and I don't expect that many of you can make time to read but a
handful of these books. To help with this "overload," I have chosen two books
to help begin to understand what is most wrong with our system and how we might
begin to change. The first is David Orr's Earth in Mind: On Education,
Environment, and the Human Prospect. This is a book to be read by all, to help
us better understand what we have wrought with our educational system and how
fundamentally important it is to change that system if we are to hope for
sustainability and quality of life in the future. The second book is Thomas
Prugh's Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival.
Both books are short, and
are written so that all can better grasp where we now stand, and where we might
go if only we can muster the will to do so.
3/24/96
My Favorite Books
on Forestry, Ecosystem Management,
Ecological Economics, etc.
Dave Iverson
* indicates books to begin an inquiry with.
** indicates two books I recommend as a starting point onto a path of
discovery similar to my own.
Forestry
*Sustainable Forestry: Philosophy, Science, and Economics. Chris Maser.
St. Lucie Press, 1994
*A Conspiracy of Optimism: Management of the National Forests since World War
Two. Paul W. Hirt. University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
*Timber and the Forest Service. David A. Clary. University Press of Kansas,
1986.
*The U.S. Forest Service: A History. Harold K. Steen. University of Washington
Press, 1991 (First Edition 1977)
*The Wisdom of the Spotted Owl: Policy Lessons for the Next Century. Steven
Lewis Yaffee. Island Press, 1994
*Crossing the Next Merridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West. Charles
F. Wilkinson. Island Press, 1992.
Land and Resource Planning in the National Forests. Charles F. Wilkinson
and H. Michael Anderson. Oregon Law Review 64(1,2), 1985.
Americans and their Forests: A Historical Geography. Michael Williams.
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest.
William Dietrich. Simon and Schuster, 1992.
A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in Development of Civilization. John Perlin.
W.W. Norton and Co., 1989.
The Forest and the Trees: A Guide to Excellent Forestry. Gorden Robinson.
Island Press, 1988.
Reforming the Forest Service. Randal O'Toole. Island Press, 1988.
Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. Bill DeVall, Ed. Sierra Club Books
and Foundation for Deep Ecology, 1994.
Wild Forests: Conservation Biology and Public Policy. William S. Alverson,
Donald M. Waller, and Walter Kuhlamann. Island Press, 1994.
Land Stewardship in the Next Era of Conservation. V.A. Sample. Grey Towers
Press, Milford, Penn., 1991.
Sustaining Long-Term Forest Health and Productivity. Society of American
Foresters Task Force Report, 1992.
------------------------------------------------
Forestry Books I haven't yet read (But should!):
------------------------------------------------
Beyond the Beauty Strip: Saving What's Left of our Forests. Mitch Lansky.
Tilbury House, 1992.
Last Stand: Logging, Journalism, and the Case for Humility. Richard Manning.
Penguin paperbacks.
The Fragmented Forest: Island Biogeography Theory and the Preservation of
Biotic Diversity. Larry D. Harris. University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Biodiversity
*Saving Nature's Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity. Reed F. Noss
and Allen Y. Cooperrider. Island Press, 1994.
Ghost Bears: Exploring the Biodiversity Crisis. R. Edward Grumbine.
Island Press, 1992.
Environmental Policy and Biodiversity. Edited by R. Edward Grumbine.
Island Press, 1994.
Biodiversity, edited by E.O. Wilson. National Academy Press, 1988.
Ecosystem Management Generally
*A Sand County Almanac: With Essays on Conservation from Round River. Aldo
Leopold. Oxford University Press, 1966 (first published in 1949).
*Ecosystem Health: New Goals for Environmental Management. Robert Costanza,
Bryan G. Norton, and Benjamin D. Haskell, eds., Island Press, 1992.
Ecological Integrity and the Management of Ecosystems. Stephen Woodley, James
Kay, and George Francis. St. Lucie Press, 1993.
An Environmental Proposal for Ethics: The Principle of Integrity. Laura Westra.
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1994.
Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century. Daniel B.
Botkin. Oxford University Press, 1990.
*Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World.
David W. Orr. State University of New York Press, 1992.
** Earth in Mind: On Education, Envrionment, and the Human Prospect. David W.
Orr. Island Press, 1994.
State of the World
*Beyond the Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable
Future. Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, and Jorgen Randers, Chelsea
Green Publishing Co., Post Mills, VT, 1992.
Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living. The World Conservation
Union, United Nations and Environment Programme, and The World Wide Fund
for Nature, Galand, Switzerland, October 1991.
State of the World 1995: Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a
Sustainable Society. Lester R. Brown (and others). W.W. Norton and Co.,
(updated and published annually).
*Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Senator Al Gore.
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.
The Next One Hundred Years: Shaping the Fate of our Living Earth. Jonathan
Weiner. Bantam Books, 1990.
Ecological Economics
** Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival. Thomas Prugh with Robert
Costanza, John H. Cumberland, Herman Daly, Robert Goodland and Richard
Norgaard. ISEE Press. Solomons, MD, 1995.
*The GAIA Atlas of Green Economics. Paul Ekins, Mayer Hillman and Robert
Hutchison. Anchor Books. Doubleday, 1992.
*For the Common Good--Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the
Environment, and a Sustainable Future. Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr.
Beacon Press, 1989.
Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics, edited by Herman E. Daly and
Kenneth N. Townsend. The MIT Press, 1993.
Investing in Natural Capital: The Ecological Economics Approach to
Sustainability. Edited by AnnMari Jansson, Monica Hammer, Carl Folke, and
Robert Costanza. Island Press, 1994.
The Economy of the Earth. Mark Sagoff. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, E.F. Schumacher. Harper
and Row, 1973.
The Illusion of Choice: How the Market Economy Shapes our Destiny, Andrew Bard
Schmookler. State University of New York Press, 1992.
Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and a Coevolutionary Revisioning of
the Future. Richard B. Norgaard. Routledge, 1994.
Ecological Economics: The Science and Management of Sustainability, Robert
Costanza, ed. Columbia University Press, 1991.
Beyond Interdependence: The Meshing of the World's Economy and the Earth's
Ecology, Jim MacNeill, Pieter Winsemius, and Taizo Yakushiji. Oxford
University Press, 1991.
Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos. Garrett
Hardin. Oxford University Press, 1993.
* Paradigms In Progress: Life Beyond Economics. Hazel Henderson. Knowledge
Systems Incorporated, 1991.
Privitizing Public Lands. Scott Lehmann. Oxford University Press, 1995
(Note: This book sould have been rightly titled: "Privitizing Public Lands:
A Bad Idea")
Philosophy, Ethics, and Such
*Beginning Again: People and Nature in the New Mellennium. David Ehrenfeld.
Oxford University Press, 1993.
The Arrogance of Humanism, David Ehrenfeld, Oxford University Press, 1981.
*The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. Riane Eisler.
HarperCollins, 1987.
The Idea of Wilderness. Max Oelschlaeger. Yale University Press, 1991.
*Conserving Natural Value. Holmes Rolston, III. Columbia University Press,
1995.
Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in The Natural World, Holmes
Rolston, III. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1988.
Philosophy Gone Wild, Holmes Rolston, III. Prometheus Books, 1989.
Toward Unity Among Environmentalists. Bryan G. Norton. Oxford University Press,
1991.
Crossing the Postmodern Divide, Albert Borgmann. University of Chicago Press,
1992.
The Social Creation of Nature. Neil Everden. John Hopkins University Press,
1992.
The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. Fritjof Capra
(Author of The Tao of Physics). Bantam Books, 1983 (Simon and Schuster,
1982).
Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and
Spirituality. Fritoj Capra and David Steindel-Rast with Thomas Matus.
HarperSanFrancisco (a division of HarperCollins), 1991.
*Filters Against Folly: How to Survive Despite Economists, Ecologists, and the
Merely Eloquent. Garrett Hardin. Penguin Books, 1986.
Ishmael. Daniel Quinn. Bantum Books, 1993.
Providence: The Story of a Fifty-Year Vision Quest. Daniel Quinn.
Bantum Books, 1995.
Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, by Robert Pirsig (author of Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance). Bantam Books, 1991.
A Guide for the Perplexed. E.F. Schumacher. Harper Colophon Books, 1977.
Ecology: Key Concepts in Critical Theory. Carolyn Merchant. Humanities Press,
1994.
Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach. Andrew Sayer. Routledge, 1992
(First edition 1984).
Complexity Theory, Chaos, "New Science," and more
* Out of Control: The New biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic
World. Kevin Kelly. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1994.
* In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology & the Survival of the
Indian Nations. Jerry Mander. Sierra Club Books, 1991.
* Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, M. Mitchell
Waldrop. Simon and Schuster, 1992.
* Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos. John Briggs. A Touchstone Book by Simon
and Schuster, 1992.
Chaos: Making a New Science. James Gleick. Penguin Books, 1987.
Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature. Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle
Stengers. Bantam Books, 1984.
The Unfinished Universe. Louise B. Young. Oxford University Press, 1986.
Organization, Leadership, Management
* Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self Interest. Peter Block.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1993.
* The End of Bureaucracy & the Rise of the Intelligent Organization. Gifford
and Elizabeth Pinchot. Berrett-Kohler Publishers, 1993.
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. Paul Hawken.
HarperBusiness, 1993.
Leadership and the New Science: Learning About Organization from an Orderly
Universe. Margaret J. Wheatley. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1992.
Leadership Without Easy Answers. Ronald A. Heifetz. Harvard University Press.
1994.
Reinventing Government--How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the
Public Sector. David Osborne and Ted Gaebler. Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Inc. Reading, Mass., 1992.
The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Peter
M. Senge. Doubleday Currency, 1991.
Community, Politics, Place
*Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability. Huey D. Johnson. University of
Nebraska Press, 1995.
*Community and the Politics of Place. Daniel Kemmis. University of Oklahoma
Press, 1990.
* The Good Society. Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan,
Ann Swidler, Steven M. Tipton. Vintage Books, 1991.
Our Limits Transgressed: Environmental Political Thought in America. Bob
Pepperman Taylor. University Press of Kansas, 1992.
War and Anti-War: Making Sense of Today's Global Chaos. Alvin and Heidi
Toffler. Warner Books, Inc., 1995 (Hardcover 1993).
Creating A New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave. Alvin and Heidi
Toffler. Turner Publishing, Inc., 1995.
The Third Wave. Alvin Toffler. Willian Morrow and Co., 1980.
Adaptive Management
* Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions. Lance G.
Gunderson, C.S. Holling, and Stephen S. Light, eds. Columbia Univ. Press, 1995.
* Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics for the Environment.
Kai N. Lee. Island Press, 1993.
Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources, Carl Walters, MacMillan Pub. Co.,
1986.
* indicates books to begin an inquiry with.
** indicates two books I recommend as a starting point onto a path of
discovery similar to my own.
|