Green Gray Areas - Books that question the conventional wisdom on the environment (MICHAEL CRICHTON)

The Wall St. Journal ^ | 10/29/05 | MICHAEL CRICHTON

[paulat]

Green Gray Areas Books that question the conventional wisdom on the environment.

BY MICHAEL CRICHTON Saturday, October 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

1. "Playing God in Yellowstone" by Alston Chase (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986).

That raw sewage bubbles out of the ground at Yellowstone National Park--after more than a century of botched conservation--would come as no surprise to Alston Chase, who 20 years ago wrote "Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America's First National Park." Mr. Chase, a former professor of philosophy turned journalist, presents a clear critique of ever-changing environmental beliefs and the damage that they have caused the actual environment. As a philosopher, he is contemptuous of much conventional wisdom and the muddle-headed attitudes he calls "California cosmology."

2. "The Culture Cult" by Roger Sandall (Westview, 2001).

In "The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays," anthropologist Roger Sandall explores romantic primitivism--the myth of Eden and the Noble Savage. Mr. Sandall's histories of utopian communities (Robert Owen's New Harmony, John Humphrey Noyes's disastrous Oneida) are vivid, and his portraits of leading primitivists, from Rousseau to Mead to Levi-Strauss, are sharply drawn. This ignorant nostalgia for our tribal past ignores the truly horrific reality of tribal initiation, warfare, mutilation and human sacrifice.

[SNIP]

[paulat]

Humbly asking Admin Mod to change "Crighton" to "Crichton."

[Aetius]

#3 on the list sounds interesting

[paulat]

3. "Man in the Natural World" by Keith Thomas (Oxford, 1984).

Don't be put off by the academic title of Keith Thomas's "Man in the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800." The book's a delight. Mr. Thomas's account is both detailed and charming as he guides the reader from the Tudor view, that nature was made for man to exploit, through the later sense that nature was to be worshipped and cherished (such that trees became pets and aristocrats gave names to their great estate trees and said good-night to them each evening). Still later came the Romantic preference for untouched nature and rough settings, a rarified taste that required "a long course of aesthetic education." At every turn, Mr. Thomas emphasizes the contradictions between belief and behavior.

[Rastus]

Thanks! I've been casting about for a new book to read, and this reminds me that I never got around to Crichton's State of Fear. These opening words from the Amazon.com review are all I need. :~)

If Crichton is right–if the scientific evidence for global warming is thin; if the environmental movement, ignoring science, has gone off track; if we live in what he in his Author’s Message calls a "State of Fear," a "near-hysterical preoccupation with safety that’s at best a waste of resources and a crimp on the human spirit, and at worst an invitation to totalitarianism"–then his extraordinary new thriller may in time be viewed as a landmark publication, both cautionary and prophetic.

[paulat]

Thanks for fixing title...

...i am not worthy....

[RandyRep]

Go down to your public library - they probably have copies available to read for free. You might be ab le to pick it up now at a used book store.

It was a great read for the science - the adventure story is a bit overwrought, but he mixed the science in pretty well. And there's a great appendix about what Crichton believes on global warming, with references.

[Rastus]

Cool. I've read and enjoyed most of his works, so I'll probably even be able to overlook the creaky plot! I may get it used, but the paperback is out now and I may just go with that.

[GreenFreeper]

ECO-PING

FReepmail me to be added or removed to the ECO-PING list!

[taxesareforever]

Any book that pisses off the environmentalists has got to be based on truth.

[goldstategop]

Conservative Environmentalism Bump!

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")

[Jaysun]

#3 on the list sounds interesting

"Man in the Natural World" is a wonderful book. I'd recommend reading it straight away. I've read several books on this subject and most of them, while informative and interesting, make me furious (at the "environmentalist"). Not so with this book. He points out their barefaced craziness without leaving you with the desire to kill them.

[george76]

Playing God in Yellowstone...

The first , opening sentence is good.