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.
I spent all of yesterday crossing the country from California to Maine. I’m taking advantage of a free ticket I got from being “bumped” on a flight months ago in order to be at my godson’s birthday party up mid-coast way.
I got up a lot earlier than I like to get the flight, and got in a lot later than was planned due to the torrential rains that have hit the east. Even so, I made it to be by 11 pm West Coast time, only to be awakened by screaming children in the hallway at 7 East Coast time. That’s 4 am where I come from. My affection for children took a bit of a hit – but most of my grumpy thoughts I saved for their thoughtless parents.
For this Westerner, Maine is as beautiful as any state in the West, and for me,
midcoast and ‘down east’ are the most beautiful parts of Maine. Even with the low and soggy sky my drive to Rockland will be wonderful, if I can just stay awake enough to enjoy it. There is a wonderful coffee house in Wiscasset that should show up abut the time my breakfast coffee wears off, not that it feels like it every really took hold.
Even so, Hail Kaffeina! Lady of Life!
(I couldn’t find any nice Google images of the towns, which are beautiful, but the pics of the country around them are nice.)
More substantive posts will happen after I get some good sleep!
posted November 16, 2009 at 9:22 am
Welcome to Maine,
Its where natives go when they go to the coast.
I’m a recent visitor to your blog. I really appreciate your work. Thank you for it.
I live just up the road a piece, as we might say here, in Augusta.
Safe Travels to you, and again thank you for your thoughts, and kind words for the midcoast region.
-Jason
posted November 16, 2009 at 11:10 pm
I second that, welcome to Maine and hope you enjoyed the place. Look forward to reading some more of your posts