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Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change
A guide for understanding the ecological and existential aspects of global environmental change.
This book shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they become an integral part of everyday awareness. At its core is a simple that the best way to learn to perceive the biosphere is to pay close attention to our immediate surroundings. Through local natural history observations, imagination and memory, and spiritual contemplation, we develop a place-based environmental view that can be expanded to encompass the biosphere. Interweaving global change science, personal narrative, and commentary on a wide range of scientific and literary works, the book explores both the ecological and existential aspects of urgent issues such as the loss of biodiversity and global climate change. Written in a warm, engaging style, Bringing the Biosphere Home considers the perceptual connections between the local and global, how the ecological news of the community is of interest to the world, and how the global movement of people, species, and weather systems affects the local community. It shows how global environmental change can become the province of numerous educational initiatives—from the classroom to the Internet, from community forums to international conferences, from the backyard to the biosphere. It explains important scientific concepts in clear, nontechnical language and provides dozens of ideas for learning how to practice biospheric perception.
This book shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they become an integral part of everyday awareness. At its core is a simple that the best way to learn to perceive the biosphere is to pay close attention to our immediate surroundings. Through local natural history observations, imagination and memory, and spiritual contemplation, we develop a place-based environmental view that can be expanded to encompass the biosphere. Interweaving global change science, personal narrative, and commentary on a wide range of scientific and literary works, the book explores both the ecological and existential aspects of urgent issues such as the loss of biodiversity and global climate change. Written in a warm, engaging style, Bringing the Biosphere Home considers the perceptual connections between the local and global, how the ecological news of the community is of interest to the world, and how the global movement of people, species, and weather systems affects the local community. It shows how global environmental change can become the province of numerous educational initiatives—from the classroom to the Internet, from community forums to international conferences, from the backyard to the biosphere. It explains important scientific concepts in clear, nontechnical language and provides dozens of ideas for learning how to practice biospheric perception.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 26, 2001
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June 29, 2013
Thomashow's main goal is to help teach the effects of climate change and extinction at the local level. He doesn't go off any theoretical deep ends--he integrates scientific, spiritual, and personal thoughts on "place" and nature observations into a beautifully conceived book.
I was impressed by his sophisticated ethic of "bioregional cosmopolitanism" that's much needed in a field that often over-romanticizes the local. He shows how migration, diaspora, and painful exile are part of the biosphere--and not just among humans.
Frankly, anyone interested in the world today should pick this book up. It's based in environmental studies, but touches on everything from art to religion to global business.
I was impressed by his sophisticated ethic of "bioregional cosmopolitanism" that's much needed in a field that often over-romanticizes the local. He shows how migration, diaspora, and painful exile are part of the biosphere--and not just among humans.
Frankly, anyone interested in the world today should pick this book up. It's based in environmental studies, but touches on everything from art to religion to global business.
Displaying 1 of 1 review