Democratic Forest Trusts (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.Democratic trusts with leadership elected by citizen-members promise to solve many of the problems afflicting both traditional government and corporate ownership of forestlands. This article explores these issues in some depth.Complexity and the Dream of Human Control of Eco-Systems (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.The title captures it. I then explore the kinds of institutions compatible with both nature and the modern world that are implied from this analysis.Rethinking the Obvious: Modernity and Living Respectfully With Nature (PDF)The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Winter, 1997.Modernity is usually considered a wrong turn in terms of respect for and sustaining the environment. I argue the reality is more complex, for modernity has freed us from personal dependence on agriculture, ended the economic value of children, radically reduced the likelihood of large scale wat, and shifted much production to intellectual rather than material capital. This partially decouples society from nature, which gives us important opportunities as well as problems.Towards an Ecocentric Political Economy (PDF)The Trumpeter, Fall, 1996.This paper begins my effort at showing how liberal modernity can be harmonized with an ecocentric perspective on our relationship with the natural world. It is a corrective to much “free market environmental” literature that sacrifices Nature to money as well as to anti-liberal attacks by well-meaning but economically naïve environmentalists.Unexpected Harmonies: Self-Organization in Liberal Modernity and Ecology (PDF)The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy, 10:1, Winter 1993This is my initial paper exploring how what I term ‘evolutionary liberal’ thought can be an important means by which society and nature can be brought into greater harmony. The other Trumpeter papers build on it.Deep Ecology and Liberalism: The Greener Implications of Evolutionary Liberalism (PDF)Review of Politics, Fall, 1996.Liberal thought and deep ecology are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. But the “evolutionary” tradition offers a way to integrate the two through commonalties in the work of David Hume, Michael Polanyi, Arne Naess, and Aldo Leopold, providing a stronger foundation for liberalism while strengthening the case for an ecocentric ethic.(Related subjects: Ecology)Saving Western Towns: A Jeffersonian Green Proposal (PDF)in Writers on the Range, Karl Hess and John Baden, eds., University Press of Colorado, 1998.Developmental pressures in the rural and small town West involve three groups: long term residents, new arrivals, and environmentalists. Today their interests often conflict. This conflict is in part the outcome of institutions which prevent harmonizing competing interests. The concept of developmental trusts, both for rural regions and for small communities offers a means whereby these interests can be harmonized for the benefit of all concerned.(Related subjects: Politics)Social Ecology, Deep Ecology, and Liberalism (PDF)Critical Review, 6: 2-3, 1992.Murray Bookchin is considered a leading radical environmental theorist. However, his analysis is incapable of leading humankind towards a more respectful and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Criticisms of Bookchin from both the deep ecology and evolutionary liberal perspective complement one another, pointing the way towards a better understanding of how modernity relates to the environment.The paper as a whole offers an early discussion of issues that are more clearly addressed in later papers, particularly Deep Ecology and Liberalism (1996) and the three Trumpeter articles in 1997, 1996, and 1993. However, there are other ideas in the article which have not been developed more thoroughly elsewhere.
From an Iranian student on her blog. Look for 3:09 PM.
“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will
turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get
killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to
a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I
will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie
scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s
worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family
pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to
say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who
should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors
degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these
random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just
emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything
we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our
ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to
despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…”
May the Sacred bless her life and her soul, and others like her, in whatever way is best for them.
posted June 19, 2009 at 11:48 pm
I am praying for that young lady and all those people like her who may be going out on the streets tomorrow in defiance of the veiled threats from their ‘Supreme Leader’. It could easily be a far worse situation for them than it was for us back in the early 70′s when we protested Vietnam on my college campus. We only faced tear gas – they face truncheons and, possibly, bullets.
May the Gods shield them from injustice and open the eyes of their oppressors.
posted June 20, 2009 at 4:33 am
I add my desire to Kirk’s. May Lady Justice prevail.
posted June 20, 2009 at 9:59 am
Goddess guard her. That is what a patriot looks like
posted June 20, 2009 at 10:30 am
I will speak for her and for all of Iran at tonight’s ritual, and ask that others do so as well.
posted June 20, 2009 at 11:03 am
I will pray for you and those with you as I celebrate the summer solstice. You are my heroes tonight.
posted June 20, 2009 at 9:42 pm
She shames me with her courage and her virtue. The Goddess stand with her in the days to come.
posted June 22, 2009 at 3:26 am
An architect of the Islamic revolution in Iran who fell out of favour with Khomeini in 1989 may be the face of the way forward: http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/1231.html
(Note: I have cross-posted, which is normally a faux pas, but this probably warrants it given the circumstances.)