As we survey the negative effects of modernism - environmental destruction, the net consumption of irreplaceable natural resources, the ever-widening gulf between first and third worlds - we are forced to grapple with the consequences of the domination of nature by human beings. Clearly, for the earth and its peoples to survive, new ways of thinking about the human relationship to nature are needed. The readings gathered in this popular reader join these issues with critical theory to examine the ongoing struggle to rediscover the nature within human beings and to reconnect it with external nature. A critical theory of the environment offers both an analysis of current problems of the domination of people and nature and ways of attaining sustainability in the future. Distinguished environmental scholar Carolyn Merchant has brought together some of the foremost environmental thinkers of the twenty-first century. They present new philosophies, theories of justice, spiritual...
