LibGuides: FYWB 1123-01: Writing and the Environment (Mehta): Background Information

Environmental Writing

Environmental Journalism by Henrik Bodker (Editor); Irene Neverla (Editor)
ISBN: 0415827493
Publication Date: 2013-04-17
Environmental journalism is an increasingly significant area for study within the broader field of journalism studies. It connects the concerns of politics, science, business, culture and the natural world whilst also exploring the boundaries between the local, regional and global. A central and typical focus for its concerns are the global summits convened to share scientific knowledge about global warming and to formulate policies to mitigate its consequences in particular locales. But reporting environmental change creates difficulties for journalists who are often ill equipped to resolve the uncertainties in the disputed scientific accounts of climate change. This research-based collection focuses on aspects of environmental journalism in Australia, France, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Contributors present case studies of media reporting of the environment, and explore considerations of objectivity and advocacy in journalistic coverage of the environment and climate change. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.
American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau (LOA #182) by Bill McKibben (Editor)
ISBN: 9781598530209
Publication Date: 2008-04-17
As America and the world grapple with the consequences of global environmental change, writer and activist Bill McKibben offers this unprecedented, provocative, and timely anthology, gathering the best and most significant American environmental writing from the last two centuries. Classics of the environmental imagination, the essays of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Burroughs; Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac; Rachel Carson's Silent Spring - are set against the inspiring story of an emerging activist movement, as revealed by newly uncovered reports of pioneering campaigns for conservation, passages from landmark legal opinions and legislation, and searing protest speeches. Here are some of America's greatest and most impassioned writers, taking a turn toward nature and recognizing the fragility of our situation on earth and the urgency of the search for a sustainable way of life. Thought-provoking essays on overpopulation, consumerism, energy policy, and the nature of nature, join ecologists - memoirs and intimate sketches of the habitats of endangered species. The anthology includes a detailed chronology of the environmental movement and American environmental history, as well as an 80-page color portfolio of illustrations.
Ecocriticism by Greg Garrard
ISBN: 9781003174011
Publication Date: 2023-03-09
Ecocriticism explores the ways in which we imagine and portray the relationship between humans and the environment across many areas of cultural production, including Romantic poetry, wildlife documentaries, climate models, the Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, and novels by Margaret Atwood, Kim Scott, Barbara Kingsolver and Octavia Butler. Greg Garrard's animated and accessible volume responds to the diversity of the field today and explores its key concepts, including: * pollution * pastoral * wilderness * apocalypse * animals * Indigeneity * the Earth Thoroughly revised to reflect the breadth and diversity of twenty-first-century environmental writing and criticism, this edition addresses climate change and justice throughout, and features a new chapter on Indigeneity. It also presents a glossary of terms and suggestions for further reading. Concise, clear, and authoritative, Ecocriticism offers the ideal introduction to this crucial subject for students of literary and cultural studies.
Ecological Restoration and the U. S. Nature and Environmental Writing Tradition by Laura Smith
ISBN: 9783030861476
Publication Date: 2022-01-12
This book presents a critical history of the intersections between American environmental literature and ecological restoration policy and practice. Through a storying--restorying--restoring framework, this book explores how entanglements between writers and places have produced literary interventions in restoration politics. The book considers the ways literary landscapes are politicized by writers themselves, and by conservationists, activists, policymakers, and others, in defense of U.S. public lands and the idea of wilderness. The book profiles five environmental writers and examines how their writings on nature, wildness, wilderness, conservation, preservation, and restoration have variously inspired and been translated into ecological restoration programs and campaigns by environmental organizations. The featured authors are Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) at Walden Pond, John Muir (1838-1914) in Yosemite National Park, Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) at his family's Wisconsin sand farm, Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) in the Everglades, and Edward Abbey (1927-1989) in Glen Canyon. This book combines environmental history, literature, biography, philosophy, and politics in a commentary on considering (and developing) environmental literature's place in conversations on restoration ecology, ecological restoration, and rewilding.
Writing a New Environmental Era by Ken Hiltner
ISBN: 9780429633140
Publication Date: 2019-10-16
Writing a New Environmental Era first considers and then rejects back-to-nature thinking and its proponents like Henry David Thoreau, arguing that human beings have never lived at peace with nature. Consequently, we need to stop thinking about going back to what never was and instead work at moving forward to forge a more harmonious relationship with nature in the future. Using the rise of the automobile and climate change denial literature to explore how our current environmental era was written into existence, Ken Hiltner argues that the humanities--and not, as might be expected, the sciences--need to lead us there.　 In one sense, climate change is caused by a rise in atmospheric CO2 and other so-called greenhouse gases. Science can address this cause. However, approached in another way altogether, climate change is caused by a range of troubling human activities that require the release of these gases, such as our obsessions with cars, lavish houses, air travel and endless consumer goods. The natural sciences may be able to tell us how these activities are changing our climate, but not why we are engaging in them. That's a job for the humanities and social sciences. As this book argues, we need to see anthropogenic (i.e. human-caused) climate change for what it is and address it as such: a human problem brought about by human actions. A passionate and personal exploration of why the Environmental Humanities matter and why we should be looking forward, not back to nature, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in the future and sustainability of our planet.
Silent Spring Revolution by Douglas Brinkley
ISBN: 9780063212916
Publication Date: 2022-11-15
New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. With the detonation of the Trinity explosion in the New Mexico desert in 1945, the United States took control of Earth's destiny for the first time. After the Truman administration dropped atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, a grim new epoch had arrived. During the early Cold War years, the federal government routinely detonated nuclear devices in the Nevada desert and the Marshall Islands. Not only was nuclear fallout a public health menace, but entire ecosystems were contaminated with radioactive materials. During the 1950s, an unprecedented postwar economic boom took hold, with America becoming the world's leading hyperindustrial and military giant. But with this historic prosperity came a heavy cost: oceans began to die, wilderness vanished, the insecticide DDT poisoned ecosystems, wildlife perished, and chronic smog blighted major cities. In Silent Spring Revolution, Douglas Brinkley pays tribute to those who combated the mauling of the natural world in the Long Sixties: Rachel Carson (a marine biologist and author), David Brower (director of the Sierra Club), Barry Commoner (an environmental justice advocate), Coretta Scott King (an antinuclear activist), Stewart Udall (the secretary of the interior), William O. Douglas (Supreme Court justice), Cesar Chavez (a labor organizer), and other crusaders are profiled with verve and insight. Carson's book Silent Spring, published in 1962, depicted how detrimental DDT was to living creatures. The exposé launched an ecological revolution that inspired such landmark legislation as the Wilderness Act (1964), the Clean Air Acts (1963 and 1970), and the Endangered Species Acts (1966, 1969, and 1973). In intimate detail, Brinkley extrapolates on such epic events as the Donora (Pennsylvania) smog incident, JFK's Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Great Lakes preservation, the Santa Barbara oil spill, and the first Earth Day. With the United States grappling with climate change and resource exhaustion, Douglas Brinkley's meticulously researched and deftly written Silent Spring Revolution reminds us that a new generation of twenty-first-century environmentalists can save the planet from ruin. Silent Spring Revolution features two 8-page color photo inserts.
Women Writing Nature by Barbara Cook (Editor); Alex Hunt (Contribution by); Susan A. C. Rosen (Contribution by); Barbara J. Cook (Contribution by); Sarah E. McFarland (Contribution by); Mary Kate Azcuy (Contribution by); Heidi Hutner (Contribution by); H. Louise Davis (Contribution by); Allison Steele (Contribution by); Joan E. Maloof (Contribution by); Rosemarie Rowley (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9780739119129
Publication Date: 2007-12-14
Since Silent Spring was published in 1962, the number of texts about the natural world written by women has grown exponentially. The essays in Women Writing Nature: A Feminist View argue that women writing in the 20th century are utilizing the historical connection of women and the natural world in diverse ways. For centuries women have been associated with nature but many feminists have sought to distance themselves from the natural world because of dominant cultural representations which reflect women as controlled by powerful natural forces and confined to domestic spaces. However, in the spirit of Rachel Carson, some writers have begun to invoke nature for feminist purposes or have used nature as an agent of resistance. This collection considers women's writings about the natural world in light of recent and current feminist and ecofeminist theory and finds a variety of approaches and perspectives, both by the scholars and by the authors discussed, culminating with the voices of two women, activist and scientist Joan Maloof and Irish poet Rosemarie Rowley, who both write about the natural world from a feminist perspective.
Writing about Nature by John A. Murray
Call Number: QH14 .M87 2003
ISBN: 0826330851
Publication Date: 2003-12-15
Originally published by the Sierra Club in 1995, this handbook has already helped thousands of aspiring writers, scholars, and students share their experiences with nature and the outdoors. Using exercises and examples, John Murray covers genres, techniques, and publication issues. He uses examples from such masters as Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, Larry McMurtry, Edward Abbey, Ernest Hemingway, and Henry David Thoreau. Also included are recommended readings, a directory of creative writing programs, professional organizations for writers, and a directory of environmental organizations. This revised edition includes a new chapter on nature writing and environmental activism. "Nature is our grandest and oldest home, older than language, grander than consciousness. John Murray knows that in his bones, and he shares his knowledge generously with anyone who opens this book. Whether you write about the earth for publication or only for deepening your perceptions, you will find keen-eyed guidance here."--Scott Russell Sanders, author of Staying Put
The Sierra Club Nature Writing Handbook by John A. Murray
Call Number: QH14 .M87 1995
ISBN: 9780871564368
Publication Date: 1995-10-01
This volume includes autobiographical writings, essays, short stories, and poetry that communicate a passion for nature which enhances our appreciation of a wide range of landscapes and wildlife. Diverse in mood and setting, the nineteen selections, including seven in print for the first time, represent the best of the genre. Readers will delight in Chip Rawlins's memoir of life in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, Dan O'Brien's tale of falconry on the Great Plains, David Rains Wallace's exploration of the Darien, Barry Lopez's essay on the coral reefs of the Caribbean island of Bonaire, and Marybeth Holleman's evocative essay on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. Other contributors are Rick Bass, SueEllen Campbell, Lisa Couturier, John Daniel, Jan Grover, Penny Harter, Adele Ne Jame, Homer Kizer, W. S. Merwin, David Petersen, April N. Rieveschl, Alianor True, Louise Wagenknecht, and Terry Tempest Williams.
Historical Dictionary of Environmentalism by Peter Dauvergne
Call Number: GE195 .D358 2016
ISBN: 9781442269606
Publication Date: 2016-09-09
To capture the diversity within environmentalism, this dictionary takes a global tack with a focus on ideas, events, institutions, initiatives, and green movements since the 1960s. It strives to avoid a common error in many histories of environmentalism: to exaggerate the input of the wealthy countries of Europe and North America and understate the influence of Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Polar Regions. It aims as well for a more comprehensive analysis than most histories of the modern environmental movement, understanding environmentalism as emerging not only from grassroots and formal nongovernmental associations, but also from corporate, governmental, and intergovernmental organizations and initiatives. This assumes the ideas and energy infusing environmentalism with political purpose arise from hundreds of thousands of sources: from corporate boardrooms to bureaucratic policies to international negotiations to activists. Thus, environmentalists are not only indigenous people blocking a logging road, Greenpeace activists protesting a seal hunt, or green candidates contesting an election; an equal or larger number of environmentalists are working within the Japanese bureaucracy to implement environmental policies, within the World Bank to assess the environmental impacts of loans, within Wal-Mart to green its purchasing practices, or within intergovernmental forums to negotiate international environmental agreements. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Environmentalism contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important events, issues, organizations, ideas, and people shaping the direction of environmentalism worldwide. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about environmentalism.
Environmental Justice and Environmentalism by Ronald Sandler (Editor); Phaedra C. Pezzullo (Editor)
ISBN: 0262195526
Publication Date: 2007-01-12
Analysis and case studies from interdisciplinary perspectives explore the possibility and desirability of collaboration between the grassroots-oriented environmental justice movement and mainstream environmental organizations. Although the environmental movement and the environmental justice movement would seem to be natural allies, their relationship over the years has often been characterized by conflict and division. The environmental justice movement has charged the mainstream environmental movement with racism and elitism and has criticized its activist agenda on the grounds that it values wilderness over people. Environmental justice advocates have called upon environmental organizations to act on environmental injustice and address racism and classism in their own hiring and organizational practices, lobbying agenda, and political platforms. This book examines the current relationship between the two movements in both conceptual and practical terms and explores the possibilities for future collaboration. In ten original essays, contributors from a variety of disciplines consider such topics as the relationship between the two movements' ethical commitments and activist goals, instances of successful cooperation in U.S. contexts, and the challenges posed to both movements by globalization and climate change. They examine the possibility and desirability of one unified movement as opposed to two complementary ones by means of analyses and case studies; these include a story of asbestos hazards that begins in a Montana mine and ends with the release of asbestos insulation into the air of Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade Center. This book, part of a necessary rethinking of the relationship between the two movements, shows that effective, mutually beneficial alliances can advance the missions of both. Contributors Kim Allen, J. Robert Cox, Vinci Daro, Kevin DeLuca, Giovanna Di Chiro, Daniel Faber, Dorothy Holland, Dale Jamieson, M. Nils Peterson, Markus John Peterson, Tarla Rai Peterson, Phaedra C. Pezzullo, J. Timmons Roberts, Ronald Sandler, Steve Schwarze, Peter Wenz
African American Environmental Thought by Kimberly K. Smith
Call Number: E185.6 .S63 2007
ISBN: 0700615164
Publication Date: 2007-03-05
African American intellectual thought has long provided a touchstone for national politics and civil rights, but, as Kimberly Smith reveals, it also has much to say about our relationship to nature. In this first single-authored book to link African American and environmental studies, Smith uncovers a rich tradition stretching from the abolition movement through the Harlem Renaissance, demonstrating that black Americans have been far from indifferent to environmental concerns. Beginning with environmental critiques of slave agriculture in the early nineteenth century and evolving through critical engagements with scientific racism, artistic primitivism, pragmatism, and twentieth-century urban reform, Smith highlights the continuity of twentieth-century black politics with earlier efforts by slaves and freedmen to possess the land. She examines the works of such canonical figures as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Alain Locke, all of whom wrote forcefully about how slavery and racial oppression affected black Americans' relationship to the environment Smith's analysis focuses on the importance of freedom in humans' relationship with nature. According to black theorists, the denial of freedom can distort one's relationship to the natural world, impairing stewardship and alienating one from the land. Her pathbreaking study offers the first linkage of the early conservation movement to black history, the first detailed description of black agrarianism, and the first analysis of scientific racism as an environmental theory. It also offers a new way to conceptualize black politics by bringing into view its environmental dimension, as well as a normative environmental theory grounded in pragmatism and aimed at identifying the social conditions for environmental virtue. Smith's work offers a new approach to established writers and thinkers and shows that they justly deserve a place in the canon of American environmental thought. African American Environmental Thought enriches our understanding of black politics and environmental history, and of environmental theory in general. Because slavery and racism have shaped the meaning of the American landscape, this body of thought offers us fresh conceptual resources by which we can make better sense of our world.

Encyclopedias and General Reference

Scholarly Encyclopedias

Similar to Wikipedia, these resources provide an overview on a given topic, but the authors are experts in the fields they are covering. Below you will find a few general encyclopedia collections with coverage across a wide variety of fields.

Credo All Titles
Credo is a database of background content. It's full-text and can help you learn the basics of any topic. Start your research here to focus your topic, find keywords and people, and discover more in-depth books and articles.
Gale eBooks
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
Oxford Reference Library
Brings together digitized entries from Oxford's Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias, spanning multiple subject areas.

Sage Knowledge
A database of ebooks and reference books published by SAGE covering the social sciences and education, including such areas as African American Studies, Aged & Gerontology, Anthropology, Communication and Media Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Gender & Sexuality Studies, History, Politics, Psychology, Social Issues, Social Work & Social Policy, and Sociology.
Encyclopedia of Global Change

Encompassing tsunamis, elephant conservation, ocean pollution, mining regulation, and permafrost melt, the 300 authoritative articles in this unique and wide-ranging encyclopedia investigate all types of phenomena that change life on Earth. The entries cover a range of general research categories: altered ecosystems, climate change, food and water supply, population, politics and global change, institutions and policies, biographies, and case studies.

General Reference

On Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the world's largest encyclopedia, Wikipedia's coverage is vast. It can be useful, but it's important to remember that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone in the world, and some articles are more reliable and accurate than others. As with any source you use, it's important to verify the information you find.

Strengths of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is updated frequently. New information can be, and often is, added to the site within minutes. Due to editorial limitations, scholarly encyclopedias are usually updated annually.
Because Wikipedia crowd sourced, there is the potential for a broader authorship than is found in academic publications.
Citations in Wikipedia offer a wider array of materials, including articles and resources that are available for free and online.

Weaknesses of Wikipedia

Editors on Wikipedia are not necessarily experts. Authorship on Wikipedia is often anonymous or obscured.
Articles are always changing, making them difficult to cite in your research. An article you read today, may look quite different tomorrow.
Articles can be vandalized, providing wildly inaccurate information.

Ways to use Wikipedia

Use Wikipedia to get a general idea about a topic you are interested in.
Wikipedia is great for generating keywords for further searching in CLIO and elsewhere.
Check the citations, recommended resources and external links to guide you to more scholarly work.

Suze Meyers, Feminist Wikipedia, 2016.