Sustainability: A Bedford Spotlight Reader

by Christian R. Weisser

Overview

Sustainability explores questions around the central concept of sustainability: What are its foundations and politics? How do crises challenge sustainability? How is sustainability connected to local and transnational environments? How is sustainability connected to tourism and recreation? Readings by a range of ecologists, urban planners, philosophers, geographers, reporters, artists, and ordinary citizens take up these questions and more. Questions and assignments for each selection provide a range of activities for students. The Web site for the Spotlight Series offers comprehensive instructor support with sample syllabi and additional teaching resources.

The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series is an exciting new line of single-theme readers, each featuring Bedford’s trademark care and quality. The readers in the series collect carefully chosen readings sufficient for an entire writing course—about 30 selections—to allow instructors to provide carefully developed, high-quality instruction at an affordable price. Bedford Spotlight Readers are designed to help students make inquiries from multiple perspectives, opening up topics such as money, food, sustainability, and gender to critical analysis. The readers are flexibly arranged in thematic chapters, each focusing in depth on a different facet of the central topic. An Editorial Board of more than a dozen compositionists at schools focusing on specific themes have assisted in the development of the series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781457634314
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	09/05/2014
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Christian Weisser is an Associate Professor of English at Penn State Berks, where he coordinates both the Professional Writing Program and the Writing Across the Curriculum Program. 　Christian is the Editor of Composition Forum, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal in rhetoric and composition. Much of his research focuses upon the ecology of writing and environmental rhetoric, and he is the author or editor of half a dozen books and numerous articles on this subject, including Moving Beyond Academic Discourse, Natural Discourse (with Sid Dobrin), and The Locations of Composition (with Christopher Keller). Christian enjoys teaching courses in technical writing, environmental rhetoric, and the discourse of sustainability.

Table of Contents

Introduction for Students

Chapter 1: What are the Foundations of Sustainability?

*Jeremy Caradonna, Sustainability: A History

Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

John Muir, The American Forests

Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure

Aldo Leopold, Thinking Like a Mountain

David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature

Chapter 2: How is Sustainability a Political Issue?

World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future: From One Earth to One World (Brundtland Report)

Al Gore, Climate of Denial

*JR Thorpe, What Exactly is Ecofeminism?

*Jim Manzi and Peter Wehner, Conservatives and Climate Change

*Roger Scruton, How to Think Seriously About the Planet: a Case for an Environmental Conservativism

*Mark Buchanan, How to Sell Conservatives on Climate Change

Chapter 3: How Do Crises and Disasters Create Challenges for Sustainability?

*Lindsay Abrams, Hurricane Katrina’s Unheeded Lesson: The Climate Refugee Crisis We Still Won’t Address

David Biello, How Did the BP Oil Spill Affect Gulf Coast Wildlife?

*Alison Singer, Fracking: The Solution? Or the Problem?

*Heather Brady, 4 Key Impacts of The Keystone Xl and Dakota Access Pipelines

*Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction

Jared Diamond, The Last Americans: Environmental Collapse and the End of Civilization

Chapter 4: How is Sustainability Connected to Local and Urban Environment?

Jeffrey Kaplan, The Gospel of Consumption

*Michael Bloomberg and Patricia de Lille, Green Cities: Why Invest in Sustainable Cities?

*Kendra L. Smith, The Cities of the Future Will Be Smart, Sustainable, and Efficient

Amy Westervelt, Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?

*Prince Charles of Wales, On the Future of Food

Fritjof Capra, Ecology and Community

*Peter Poschen and Michael Renner, Green Jobs

*Scott Carlson, Whatever Happened to the Drive for Campus Sustainability?

*Jeff Sutton, Why Social Media and Sustainability Should Go Hand in Hand

Chapter 5: How is Sustainability a Transnational Issue?

The United Nations Panel on Global Sustainability, Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing

*Bill McKibben, A Moral Atmosphere

*Nanette Galloway, Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future

Brendan Smith, The Coming Green Wave: Ocean Farming to Fight Climate Change

*Kyle Frischkorn, A Blueprint for Genetically Engineering a Super Coral

*Christine Evans-Pughe, Cleaning Up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

*Mark Hay, Five Years After Fukushima, Japan’s Nuclear Debate Is Heating Up

*Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Challenges to Sustainability in Africa

Michael Moyer and Carina Storrs, How Much Is Left? The Limits of Earths Resources

Chapter 6: How are Tourism and Recreation Connected to Sustainability?

*Amanda Williams, Why Sustainable Tourism Should Matter to You

*Wouter Geerts, Overtourism and the Struggle for Sustainable Tourism Development

Bob OBrien, Our National Parks and the Search for Sustainability

*Jack Hannah, What Zoo Critics Don’t Understand

*Robyn Migliorini, Is Hunting Sustainable?

Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing

Sentence Guides for Academic Writers

Acknowledgments

Index of Authors and Titles