TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/120390/1203330.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.9 KB | 122 lines

                                                                                ENVIRONMENT, Page 104

Literary Guides to Turning Green


To respect nature, people need a whole new way of thinking

By EUGENE LINDEN


    The book business has discovered that green is truly the
color of money: publishers are rushing to cash in on the current
enthusiasm for environmentalism. Books in Print lists roughly
6,000 titles in 50 subject categories related to the
environment, and the number grows by dozens each month. With so
many choices, would-be environmentalists are understandably
bewildered. Which books are worth reading, and which were thrown
together merely to exploit a fad?

    Among the most popular titles are how-to guides like 50
Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth (EarthWorks Press;
$4.95). Such books  are well intentioned and useful, but they
may have the half-life of New Year's resolutions. The defeat of
California's Big Green and other ecological initiatives in the
recent election demonstrated that voters are still confused
about the best way to deal with environmental concerns.

    One reason is that the movement is young, and the meaning of
environmentalism is changing in subtle and profound ways. Not
so long ago, "old thinking" had the environment tucked away in
parks and rural areas, an amenity for the relatively affluent
to appreciate on weekends. Implicit in this attitude was the
idea that ecology was irrelevant to businessmen and policymakers
concerned with the real issues of the day and that mankind could
somehow get along without focusing on the environment.

    In recent years, however, such problems as ozone depletion
and deforestation have shown that mankind is threatening the
systems that support its economic and social well-being.
Americans pay lip service to this reality but tend to revert to
old thinking when environmental reform threatens either jobs or
life-styles. People thus need to undergo a fundamental shift in
perspective, acknowledging their dependence on a healthy
biosphere. Seeing earth as a whole erases the illusion that
humanity is separate from the natural order. For that reason
alone, The Home Planet (Addison-Wesley; $19.95), an elegant
compilation of photos taken during American and Soviet space
missions, might be the first text in a syllabus for
environmental re-education. In quotes accompanying the pictures,
cosmonauts and astronauts from more than a dozen nations
struggle to express the transcendental experience of seeing how
life has invested our planet with a luminous beauty. Writes
Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov: "So touchingly alone, our home
must be defended like a holy relic."

    The view from space also offers support for a scientific
theory that is becoming the paradigm of the new
environmentalism. First proposed by British inventor and chemist
James Lovelock, this theory, called the Gaia hypothesis, argues
that the earth functions as an organism and that life processes
regulate the planet to maintain its habitability. According to
Gaia, no single species, not even humanity, is necessary to the
functioning of the biosphere.

    More than a dozen books explore aspects of the Gaia
hypothesis. Lovelock's most recent thinking is available in The
Ages of Gaia (Bantam Books; $10.95). The scientist has an
attractively wry style, but his discussions of biochemistry and
other abstruse fields can run ahead of general readers, who
might prefer to turn to one of the more popular books about the
theory. Among the most balanced and accessible is Lawrence
Joseph's Gaia, the Growth of an Idea (St. Martin's Press;
$19.95).  Joseph goes to great lengths to characterize the
importance of Gaia, but where necessary he holds Lovelock to
account. Lovelock was the first scientist to propose that
chemical aerosols called CFCs might pose a threat to the ozone
layer, but his faith in the restorative powers of Gaia led him
to downplay the danger.

    For those who would like to explore more deeply the context
for Gaia and the new environmentalism, Bantam Books will soon
publish The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God
($21.95) by Rupert  Sheldrake. The British biochemist and
philosopher delves into classical thought and the Reformation to
describe the events that led to the desecration of nature in
Western science and religion, and then argues that a new animism
is bridging the gap between science and religion.

    Popular writers as well as scientists have helped to shape
new thinking about the natural order. Arctic Dreams, Barry
Lopez's homage to the far North, is an exemplar of the search to
resolve the tensions between human aspirations and natural
harmony. In the cold half-light of the Arctic, the author finds
an altar to bow before, a place where life, though a mere
brushstroke on the frozen plains, still manages to give meaning
and beauty to an otherwise bleak world.

    The literary skills of writers like Lopez notwithstanding,
nature remains its own best salesperson. Nowhere is the
exuberant genius of the biosphere more on display than in the
world's rain forests, and photographs convey the riches of these
regions as well as any text. Chronicle Books is currently
bringing The Rainforests, A Celebration ($35) to the U.S. A
coffee-table book first published in Britain, it combines
stunning photographs with a series of essays written by some of
the leading students of tropical nature. The book takes the
reader through the forests, showcasing the resident creatures,
their different strategies for survival and the mutual
dependencies that tie these competing interests into an almost
self-sustaining system. It is difficult to see the exquisite
artfulness without wondering what other treasures are concealed
in the forests -- and gaining a sense of how much is lost when
earth's habitats are destroyed.