Customer Reviews

Developing Ecological Consciousness: Paths to a Sustainable Future

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From a multitude of perspectives (student, teacher, communicator, lover of the environment), this book speaks to the reader not only on a knowledge-based, fact-oriented level, but also (and possibly more importantly) to the most basic and essential needs of humanity. These needs include compassion, understanding, sustainability, and harmony and through the book, are translated into a sense of awakening, comprehension, hope, and tools to shape a universal ideal for a world in which we all hope to live. If there were ever to be a "required life text", I can only hope that this would be it.

This book is an exceptional book covering not just ecology as a science but also the need for humans to awaken to earth's beauty, its Being, and our relationship to it. The book is not a radical environmental one where humans must go back to tribal living, but a very thought out and even carrying book. It belongs on the shelf of humanistic and transpersonal students as well as integral philosophers. The only bad thing about the book is that it is so unknown.

Great reading to help connect and understand mother earth...

and not only mother earth but everything. The book offers information, reflections and activities that will help the reader appreciate everything that is around them...and I mean everything...from the stars in the sky to the cells in your body.

'Developing Ecological Consciousness' is brilliant and accessible to virtually anyone. Christopher Uhl has managed to write a book that is biologically informative and also personal, engaging, and poetic in its beauty. Through both fact and anecdote, he weaves the story of our deep interconnection with the planet and universe, and awakens in us a sense of what it really means to be human. This is an important and enjoyable read that I highly, highly recommend.

Let me start with the positive aspects of this book: For one, it strikes an excellent balance between environmental science and the application of it. I had this book for an environmental policy class and found it to be a helpful review of the basic tenets of biology and environmental science. It is completely understandable for the non-science major to read and gain new information while discovering new perspectives held by many environmentalists. Uhl was also careful to not assume too many basics so as to overlook facts; everything is laid out for the readers. He also does not simply dismiss or outright criticize those who hold differing beliefs on science and the environmental movement. He is careful to present a concrete point of view without alienating those who either are unaware or disagree with his conclusions. The bad: Well, the book is incredibly sensationalized. Uhl comes across quite whacky and off-center at times. Some of the reflections and practices he puts at the end of chapters border on the absurd (think tree hugging, literally, and having conversations with nature...). He is quite involved with the subject and his passion shows, although a better editor may have reworked the language at times. It can read like a diary at times, and it was distracting because it took away from the important aspects found in the book. Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a thorough introduction or brush-up on environmental science and wants to gain insight into a man deeply involved with the environmental movement.

A guide, on many levels, to deep discovery of our world and ourselves with delicate removal of our ego- and geo-centric views. Uhl's work is an awakening to the true state of our home and the distance now between modern man and Earth.