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This Is Hope: Green Vegans and the New Human Ecology: How We Find Our Way to a Humane and Environmentally Sane Future
478NOOK Book(eBook)
Overview
The issues most important to us converge at our human ecology. Our human ecology consists of our relationships with and between other people, other species, our institutions, and the physical environment — between us and our external environment. Because of its comprehensive consideration of these relationships to all else, an examination of our human ecology reveals how multiple issues are connected—issues that advocates from diverse causes care about deeply.
In "This is Hope", I compare the outcomes of two human ecologies; one is tragic, the other is full of promise. I describe in depth our current human ecology to illustrate how we are living inappropriately, cruelly, and unsustainably. It is obsolete and has been for a long time. Our current human ecology is the cause of our overpopulation, our overconsumption of resources, the poverty of ecosystems and people, and our disregard for the rights of individuals from other species. I propose the new human ecology to replace it.
The new human ecology is characterized by Seven Results that we create the moment we change our personal behaviors. The Results include reduced human populations, increased possibilities for social and economic justice, and a vegan human ecology. Building on deep ecology, the topics I consider include our impacts on ecosystems; species rights as a concept that is essential to environmental advocates; fish and wildlife management and how it cannot stop the loss of biodiversity in the presence of our current human ecology; carnism; human overpopulation; the poverty found in social and economic injustice; and the environmental communities' misguided reliance on the omnivore movement.
I examine Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma among other works and popular media's distorted portrayal of veganism. I critique his misuse of biological terms, describe how he misleads readers in his accounting of philosophers associated with animal rights, and describe the flaws in his methodology that led him to dismiss vegans as misguided urbanites.
Over a span of three decades, I managed campaigns for species rights and environmental organizations. We operated without the overarching context we needed to make the connections between those and other issues that pulled at my heart. Environmentalists seemed unaware that there is immense suffering in ecosystem destruction. Animal rightists ignored the innate value of all species and too often chose sentience as the ultimate test for responding to issues. They failed to acknowledge the dependence of the sentient upon the nonsentient and their ecosystems. During and since then I wrote "This Is Hope: Green Vegans and The New Human Ecology / How We Will Find Our Way to a Humane and Environmentally Sane Future."
For the first time, advocates from many fields will see that our human ecology is the context they have been seeking to further their successes. Above all, I explain why all of these issues are connected by a common thread—our human ecology. Because of the depth and breadth of the subject matter, I substantiate my work with several hundred citations from the scientific and reliable popular literature.
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781624884061 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | BookBaby |
| Publication date: | 12/21/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | NOOK Book |
| Pages: | 478 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface xxi
Introduction xxv
Part I The Past Has No Future xxxv
Chapter 1 Current and New Human Ecologies 1
Two Human Ecologies 4
Mega, Presence, and Economic Predation 6
Disrespect for a Whale 7
Pushing on Human Ecology 9
Visionaries 10
The Obstacle to Our Survival 11
Lumps 12
Homo Sapiens Express 13
Avoiding Past Behavior and Future Tragedy 15
Chapter 2 The Seven Results 19
The Synergy Factor 28
Limiting Factors: Do as I Say, or the Tree Dies Interconnected 29
Chapter 3 Our Worldviews, the Problems they create, and a Profile of Where They Have Taken Us 32
Killer Views
Global Norms as Blindness 35
Dairy Me Not 37
Taking Responsibility 42
Chapter 4 The Bullet Points at Our Hearts 46
Humanity 47
Other Species: Wild 49
Other Species: Animal Agriculture 51
Earth 53
Planets 54
Chapter 5 Perspective/Views of the View 56
A Vital Perspective
Transoceanic 58
From Fertilizer to Poverty 60
The Most Important Dilemma: Problems with Flawed Choices 62
Give Us Our Daily Food Web 67
Cross Pollination 72
Relax 74
Dismissing Philosophers 76
Pollanist Destiny 79
The Omnivore's Disappointment 82
Bell-Ringers 83
Chickens and Eggs 86
More or Less Different? Our Sense of Other 90
My Youth 93
Chapter 6 Beyond Anthropomorphism 95
Early Imprinting 97
Flowing Empathy 99
Paying Attention and Knowing Empathy 102
At the Intersection of Our Empathy and the World 105
Plastic Out/Plastic In 106
Crossing Dexter Avenue 107
Killing Whales 110
Part II We are Neo-Predators 117
Chapter 7 Meet Mega Predator 118
Mega Predator + Presence Predator + Economic Predator = Neo-Predation
Carnist Vampires 120
Killing Elephants 122
Killing Lions 126
Poisoned 128
Eating Elephants: Trophies and Ivory Accessories 131
The Trophy Business 134
The Fishers 136
Scraping for a Living 138
Bycatch 139
The "Next One Hundred Years" 140
Sinking Sharks 141
No Middle Ground 143
Chapter 8 Meet Presence Predator 144
Soundscape Ecology 145
Our Presence in the Congo Basin 146
Turn Down the Volume 147
Alien Invasion 148
The Presence of Cars, Roads, and Barriers 152
What Road Barriers Do 153
Going Over and Under 155
Presence Predation at Fur Rendezvous 158
Chapter 9 Meet Economic Predator 150
Economic Predation
Eating Salmon Like an Economic Neo-Predator 163
The Great Human Divorce: Separating Ourselves from Cause and Effect 166
Reconnecting 168
Part III Destinations 171
Chapter 10 The Incomplete Environmentalist 172
Sounding the Depths 174
Incomplete Environmentalists and Other Advocates 176
NGOs Giving Comfort 180
Crawling, Not Walking 181
Species and Ecosystem Rights, and Species versus Individuals 183
Mixed Experiences 184
Deep Ecology 186
Suffering Ecosystems 189
An Inconsistent Relationship with Earth 192
What Revolution? Still Grazing the Prairies and Forests 195
The Bison Realm 199
How Many? 201
Paddling Up the River of Denial 202
Chapter 11 Vegan Human Ecology/The New Ecosystem Niche for Humans 203
Conversion 207
Pay Up or Die 211
Would You Like Shoes or a Handbag with That Ecosystem? 212
Our Place or Theirs? 215
Human Halitosis 216
Invest in Vegan Futures 217
Stealing Food from Wildlife 218
Chapter 12 Transnational Private Property: The New Commons 221
Multidimensional Tragedy 222
Private Parts, Public Domain 223
The Growing Global Village 224
This Land Is Our Land-and Theirs 226
Inverting Eminent Domain 228
Ecosystem Dominion Is Our Goal 229
Part IV The Human Ecology Of Managing Ecosystems 231
Chapter 13 Recognizing the Corruption 232
Asking and Offering 234
Departments of Ecosystems, Flora, and Fauna 236
Minority Control and Oppression 237
Ecosystem and Wildlife Management Schemes 242
Seattle Was 244
Chapter 14 Limits to Human Agency Abilities 245
The Five Insufficiencies
The First Insufficiency: Sufficient Knowledge 246
The Second Insufficiency: Political Will and Social Consensus 248
The Third Insufficiency: Economic Systems That Protect and Heal Ecosystems 249
The Fourth Insufficiency: An Appropriate Human Ecology 250
The Fifth Insufficiency: Access to Sufficient Resources and Human Effort 251
What Wildlife Management Allows: The Canned Hunt 253
Exotic Texas
Exotic Africa 255
New Human Ecology and Wildlife Management 257
Chapter 15 Establishing Relationships 262
Killing Wolves
The Alaskan Aerial Wolf Killers 266
Move Over, Alaska 269
More on Species vs. Individuals 270
Individuals Are Important 271
Agencies, Animal Rights, and Vegans 273
More on Un-Natural Selection 276
Chapter 16 Wildly Out of Control 280
Relationships 284
From Tank to Hunting 284
Relationships and Bowhunters Afield 285
Agency Responses 287
Birds
Mammals 290
Hunter's Want a Medal of Honor 293
More Agency Culture 295
Briefly?Selected Highlights 296
Spare Change 298
Part V Impediments 301
Chapter 17 Cultural Objections 302
Facing Ecosystem Collapse 303
Global Cultural Responsibilities 310
More on Poverty 311
Subsistence 313
Bushmeat 315
Cultural Approaches to Implementing the New Human Ecology 320
Being Anthropocentric about Other Cultures 321
Chapter 18 Washing Away the Answers: Green, Blue, Humane, and Religion Washing 323
Can't Get the Dirt Out 324
Green Washing 325
Humane Washing 327
Blue Washing 331
Religion Washing 332
Happy Death, Happy Meat 334
Nothing Sweet on the Other Side of the Fence Chef 337
Happy Media 339
The Hole of It 434
Part VI Hope 347
Chapter 19 This Is the Hope 348
The New Human Ecology: Seven Results and How You Can Achieve Them
Change 349
The Seven Results Revisited 350
Population: The Ethics of Carrying Capacity for Humans 352
The New Human Ecology: What It Will Do 355
Chapter 20 You Are the Hope 359
Never Allow Carnists to Define or Control Our Human Ecology
References 363
Recommended NGOs and Links
End Notes 364
Index: ThisIsHopethebook.com
What People are Saying About This
We have the power. We are at the precipice where human existence and that of all other species is in doubt. Can we commit to a course of action in time to stop the loss of biodiversity, while increasing human prosperity? In This Is Hope, we realize that our old way of thinking about our place in the world must change. Here you will find not just another explanation of where we have gone wrong; but also that we have the power to create the world all of us would hope for ourselves and future generations. —Brenda Peterson, author of Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals and Animal Heart
In THIS IS HOPE Will Anderson proposes a unifying and comprehensive approach to stop the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity and to end the wanton abuse of wild and domesticated nonhuman animals (animals). ... a wide range of people will find common ground....
A unifying and comprehensive approach. —Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., University of Colorado; author of many books including The emotional lives of animals, Animals matter, Wild justice: The moral lives of animals, and The animal manifesto: Six reasons for expanding our compassion footprint.
Never forget. Hope is filled with well-documented insights, eloquently expressed, into the causes and conditions of the malaise spreading over the Earth... This book presents its solid conceptual arguments in lucid prose while evoking the experiences of actual beings who, once you have lived with them in its pages, you will never again be able to forget.... —Karen Davis, PhD, is the President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns and the author of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs, More Than a Meal, The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality, and The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tales
Thoughtful and thought-provoking. This is Hope is thoughtful and thought-provoking. In this comprehensive and well-researched book, Will Anderson weaves together the impact our behaviors have on the web of life, without leaving loose ends. As a vegan, somebody with a comparatively light footprint on the planet, I appreciated the reminder that when I buy non organic vegan products I poison the Earth and thereby the animals. That may be what Anderson does best -- he challenges us to do better. —Karen Dawn, author of Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals.