Customer Reviews

A Conservationist Manifesto

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A Conservationist Manifesto envisions a path toward a materially simpler and spiritually richer way of life. At present, merchants and mass media, politicians and pundits, agree in defining us as consumers, as if the purpose of life were to devour the world rather than to savor and preserve it. However appealing consumerism may be to our egos, and however profitable it may be for business, it is ruinous for our planet, our communities, and our souls. What I propose instead is that we imagine ourselves as conservers, as stewards of the earth's bounty and beauty.

We need to embrace a conservation ethic if we are to address such threats as the disruption of global climate, the tattering of the ozone layer, the clear-cutting of forests, the poisoning of lakes by acid rain, the collapse of ocean fisheries, the extinction of species, the looming shortages of oil and fresh water, and the spread of famine and epidemic disease.

How might we shift to a more durable and compassionate way of life? What models do we have for a culture of conservation? What changes in values and behavior would be required to bring it about? Where can we see it emerging in practice?

This book seeks answers to those questions. Ranging geographically from my home ground in southern Indiana to the Mount St. Helens volcano and Alaska's Glacier Bay and Minnesota's Boundary Waters Wilderness, and ranging culturally from the Bible to billboards, it maps the practical and ecological grounds for a conservation ethic. The roots of conservation go deep in America, back through such visionaries as Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Henry David Thoreau; back through the frugal habits of the Depression and wartime rationing, through agrarian thrift and frontier ingenuity and the prudent advice of Poor Richard's Almanack; back through Quakers and Puritans, with their emphasis on simplicity; and even farther back to the indigenous people who inhabited this continent before it was called America. Drawing on this heritage, I seek to show that the practice of conservation is our wisest and surest way of caring for our neighbors, for this marvelous planet, and for future generations. --SRS

I am always interested in what people have to share about reducing our personal and collective environmental footprints especially in such a mad dog material consuming society as we have in most western countries and I was quite impressed with Scott Sanders' take on this. Sanders is Professor of English at Indiana U of Bloomington and writes/teaches quite extensively on conservation utilizing the lives of such thinkers as Henry David Thoreau, et al. to impress simplifying our existence by walking the walk. Sanders relates how he and his wife have settled into a life of community involvement by shopping locally, growing some of their own food and doing without much of the gadget trappings of the consumerist society. I was impressed by Sanders' explanation of expanding a frugal yet satisfying existence beyond himself to the community- "sustainable arks" and time is of the essence because of the "exponential" growth and decay of our hyper-consuming, resource depleting and polluting society. Much of Sanders ideas concur with Bill McKibben (End Of Nature, etc.), Gary Snyder (The Practice of the Wild, etc.), Barry Lopez (Arctic Dreams, etc.) and others. A good portion of this fine book covers writing about the ethics of sustainability. Kindred spirits make for expanding sustainable community arks- and the concept is catching on all over the globe.

I was in Bloomington at a bookstore and a friend recommended it to me during a weekend of camping at a near by state park. Very beautiful writing style, evocative, but not wordy. The topic is needed and Prof. Sanders adds another powerful voice to the argument for finding an alternative to mindless devourism.

Book was sent quickly and was in great condition. Would do bussiness with this business/person again.