Ecological Pioneers: A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/22/2001
EAN 9780521811033, ISBN10: 0521811031
Hardcover, 346 pages, 23.4 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Whenever the history of ecological thought has been written the contributions of Australian thinkers have been omitted. Yet Australia as a continent of extreme, rare and complex environments has produced a startling group of ecological pioneers. Across a wide range of human endeavour, Australian thinkers and innovators - whether they have thought of themselves as environmentalists or not - have made some truly original contributions to ecological thought. Ecological Pioneers traces the emergence of ecological understandings in Australia. By constructing a social history with chapters focusing on different fields in the arts, sciences, politics and public life, the authors bring to life the work of significant individuals. Some of the ecological pioneers featured include Joseph Banks, Russell Drysdale, Judith Wright, Myles Dunphy, Philip Crosbie Morrison, Vincent Serventy, Francis Ratcliffe, the Gurindji and Yolngu peoples, Bill Mollison, Jack Mundey, Val Plumwood, Michael Leunig, and many more.
1. Introduction
2. The colonisation of Australian nature and the first stirrings of ecological thought
3. Seeing the land in a new light
people and landscapes in Australian art
4. Of drovers' wives and a timeless land
land and identity in Australian literature
5. Taking nature to the public
nature education in public media
6. Towards a conservation ethic
birth of the conservation movement
7. Working at the edges of mainstream science
Australian innovations in ecological science
8. Thinking like an ecosystem
Australian innovations in reconceptualising and redesigning land and resource management
9. Challenging terra nullius views of people and nature
on the origins and impact of the Aboriginal Land Rights Movement
10. Green politics in the wide brown land
the cross-fertilisation of wilderness politics and social justice agendas
11. Towards a communicative ethic
some Australian contributions to ecophilosophy
12. Conclusions.
'For Australians of any age, it is a superb primer for increasing one's knowledge of the history of ecology in this country.' Gardening Australia 'Mulligan and Hill's Ecological Pioneers provides a rate conjunction: a rattling good read that is also a work of wide-ranging yet meticulously detailed scholarship ... its emphasis on the human and the vulnerable makes for an account that is more than usually engaging ... it is my opinion that this is a very fine book ... what emerges is an informative, compelling, compassionate, grounded and immensely entertaining social history of Australian environmentalism.' Ecopolitics