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Issue 3.1 Abstracts

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Enhancing Natural Value?

By Ned Hettinger

There is widespread skepticism among those with deep commitments to the natural world about the idea that humans can improve upon nature. While it seems obvious that humans can alter nature to better serve human uses, it is far from clear that humans can improve nature in non-utilitarian ways. Can human beings enhance intrinsic natural value? Perhaps the strongest reason for skepticism about this possibility is the value that many see in the "wildness" of nature, understood as the extent to which a natural system has not been humanized. Alleged human improvements of nature humanize nature and thus degrade it in terns of wildness value. This idea of valuing and preserving relatively pristine nature for its wildness value has been severely criticized for instituting a false and harmful human/nature apartheid that provides no positive role for humans in the natural world. Critics suggest that we must move beyond preservationism and learn to integrate humans into nature, celebrating humanity's creative potential with respect to nature. This paper explores if and how human participation and involvement in nature might be seen as enhancing, rather than degrading, intrinsically-valuable natural systems.

Keywords: Wild, wilderness, preservation, natural, nature, value

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Personal Environmental Histories: Expressions of Self and Place

By Vicki Daitch, Byoung-Suk Kweon, Larissa Larsen, Elizabeth Tyler and Joanne Vining

Through the use of in-depth interview and content analysis techniques, this study aimed to explore how a variety of people experience environments over a lifetime, and how their perceptions of these environments developed over time. We examined physical environments, social milieu, and emotional and spiritual elements to better understand the personal environmental histories from a broad perspective. This study focused on a relatively small group of ten individuals, representing a broad cross-section of b ackgrounds and orientations. We analyzed the narratives generated for their thematic content, as well as for patterns of difference among the participants in their experiences of environments. Common themes in the personal environmental histories were revealed to us, even though those participating had vastly different life experiences. Our analysis of individual differences found distinctions between active and passive orientations to the environment, and a distinct array of nature experiences.

Keywords: Environmental autobiography, life history, in-depth interviews, content analysis

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Sociology of the Environment: A German-American Comparison

By Bernhard Glaeser

Although environmental sociology has made some important gains, it does not exist "officially" in Germany (until 1995) - it is neither recognized as an accredited field of study at German universities nor does it constitute a section within the German Society of Sociology (DGS), prior to 1996. In light of this amazing fact, this article will first sketch some of the most important elements and trends of environmental sociology in the United States, and then compare these to recent German approaches. The conclusion is that environmental sociology was not able-even in the US and in spite of promising recent theoretical endeavors in Germany-to change mainstream sociology. At the same time, new perspectives for future research are identified.

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Human Self-determination as a Basis for Sustainable Living

By Dieter Steiner

We have conquered the Earth, but now face the threat of global disaster. This seems to suggest that there is a fundamental contradiction between human freedom and environmental sustainability. This notion is mistaken, however, derived from an erroneous understanding of freedom or self-determination. Real freedom is not equal to arbitrary free will, but means the realization of maximum human potential within bounds. To avoid destruction of this planet and thus of ourselves, we have to observe the existence of necessities. We can do this by establishing a respectful living relationship to the natural environment, to other human beings, and to ourselves. The basic obstacle to overcome for a move in this direction is the largely anonymous economic system with its tremendous self-dynamics. This system forces us to live unecologically in the broadest sense of the term and, consequently, contrary to what the economists keep telling us, does not increase our personal freedom. We have to break up its force, but how? It is suggested that we need a strong basis of comprehensible and tangible structures within which necessities can be personally experienced. It is suggested that such structures, which relate to environmental, social and psychological aspects of self-determination, can be found in the currently discussed ideas about bioregionalism, libertarianism and self-realization.

Keywords: Self-determination, sustainable living, societal systems, ecoregions, libertarian communities, self-realization

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The Problem of Denial

By William R. Catton, Jr.

Abundant evidence suggests industrial civilization must be "downsized" to curb damage to the ecosphere by the "technosphere." Trends behind this prospect include prodigious population growth, urbanization, cultural dependence upon ravenous use of fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources, consequent air pollution, and global climate change. Despite prolonged Cold War distraction and entrenched faith that technology could always enlarge carrying capacity, these trends were well publicized. But there remain eminent writers who persist in denying that human carrying capacity (Earth's maximum sustainable human load) has now been or ever will be exceeded. Denials of ecological limits resemble anosognosia (inability of stroke patients to recognize their paralysis). Some denial literature resembles their confabulations (elaborately unreal stories concocted as rationalizations). Denial by opponents of human ecology seems to be a way of coping with an insufferable contradiction between past convictions and present circumstances, a defense against intolerable anomalous information.

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Two Concepts of Justice

By Finn Arler

All environmental problems involve dimensions of justice, not only among existing people belonging to the same community or nation, but also between nations and between generations. The purpose of the article is to give a short presentation of two different main approaches to questions of justice, their respective merits and demerits, and to discuss to what extent they are incompatible. In the first section an Aristotelean approach is presented, in the second section it is contrasted with a Humean approach, whereas the last section discusses a possible area of convergence, political justice. Each section includes a brief sketch of what an application of the different conceptions of justice might look like in relation to international and intergenerational justice.

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A Synthesis of Contemporary Sociobiology and Feminist Theory

By Heidi D. Fain

Women can be reproductively parasitized by men. This is especially true when a male maximizes his own individual reproductive fitness at a huge cost to the female. A woman abandoned after becoming pregnant, can either abandon the off-spring, or invest her resources in her offspring (related to her by one half). If the culture does not allow her to abandon the offspring, she is then forced to rear an expensive offspring with little or no resources from the father- classic, but relatively neglected, case of parasitism. Seldom is the male parasitized in reproduction on the scale that the female is. This potential for exploitation of the female's time, energy, and resources highlights the need for a perspective outside normal social theories such as: Marxism, functionalism, exchange theories, and symbolic interaction. For example, in capitalism, the use of labor cheaper than its real worth represents exploitation (parasitism) of the worker. A woman, unlike a laborer, does not have the option of quitting her mothering job for better pay and benefits. This suggests the need for a feminist-evolutionary ecology theory which is distinct from models addressing struggles in class, race, or wages. Additionally, while differing sex roles can be adaptive. Similar roles can also be selected for, depending on environment. Thus, the consistent separation of tasks by gender throughout different cultures may be a reflection of avoiding competitive exclusion between the sexes. The type and pressure of selection can focus more on reproductive pairs than on the individual, and this may mitigate for or against parasitism, depending on the environment. Thus, true love may have an objective scientific merit in facilitating reproductive strategies for the pair rather than the individual, after all.

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Reaching Hard-to-Reach and Hard-Core Smokers: A Template for Intervention from a Human Ecology

By Maryanne Doherty-Poirier, Brenda Munro, Gordon Munro, and Lana Ohler-Madsen

Hard-to-reach and hard-core smokers represent a group of individuals within the Canadian population who require specialized interventions to encourage smoking cessation. In this paper; the characteristics of four groups of hard-to-reach and hard-core smokers are reviewed, and a template for intervention is proposed. The intervention integrates concepts from a Human Ecology Model of Smoking Behaviour with the Transtheoretical Stages of Change Model (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1992). Concepts from a resiliency perspective are also incorporated resulting in a holistic framework for intervention for this special population. Recommendations for application of the Integrated Human Ecology and Transtheoretical Model of Smoking Behaviour and Cessation are presented in the final section of the paper; and implications for future research and program development are outlined.

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The Impact of the American Lawn Ideal on Environmental Liveability

By Lois C. Shern and Ann C. Slocum

Many ordinary, everyday activities have the potential to impact the natural environment in multiple negative ways. The United States suburban lawn provides an excellent example of this phenomena. Boyden's Biohistory model is used as an investigative framework to explore the relationship of the American lawn ideal and the natural environment. Strong historical precedents support the continuation of the American lawn as a cultural artifact. Interviews with Georgia and Michigan suburban, home owning couples reveal that the ideal lawn is viewed as an integral part of home ownership and the use of grass as groundcover is not questioned. The lawn provides strong aesthetic, psychological, social, and economic benefits. Any proposed change related to its care and maintenance must rake into consideration the contemporary cultural and environmental forces that work to maintain the suburban lawn ideal.

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From Control Strategies to Entropy Considerations: Toward a Human Ecology of Thermal Environment

By Ardeshir Mahdavi and Satish Kumar

This paper critically examines the underlying premises of indoor climate control technologies and the HVAC industry (heating, ventilating, air-conditioning). It questions whether "total environmental control" is possible, effective, and desirable. The paper also reviews the methods and terminology of thermal comfort science, focusing on the question of predictability of people's environmental preferences. The paper concludes with a review of recent critical observations and ideas that transcend conventional control technologies and corresponding comfort standards toward new vistas in environmental design.

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