Read free. Helping Nature Heal, The Point Foundation, 1991. A Whole Earth Catalog special publication.
Excerpt
Behind the awareness of our environmental dilemmas there lurks a question how do we change the way we live? Large segments of our economy and our government still dispute the need for change, and view anything different as deprivation. Alter how we live and consume, they say, and we will all be bitching and grumbling our way into the next century. By ignoring the warnings that arrive daily from degraded ecosystems, however, we risk not only our own future, but the survival of much of the environment which surrounds and supports us.
Through the practice of environmental restoration, the people in this book are inventing better solutions. By learning to make adaptive responses, they are helping to improve both the environment and their communities – by first realizing that the environment is their community. Nature often works more slowly than the speeds modern humans are used to (quick solutions to biological problems are almost always the wrong solutions), and some of these projects will take lifetimes to complete.
That kind of altruism can be hard to sustain, but fortunately the acts of restoration themselves provide satisfaction. Righting wrongs is inherently ennobling, and in the process, these restorationists are discovering how to live lives that are more connected and rewarding. Their stories display the sense of accomplishment that can come when we align our actions with forces larger than ourselves. I hope their examples serve as an invitation for you to join in and get your own hands dirty.
Introductory Pages
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Man and nature or, Physical geography as modified by human action
