Environmental Attitudes through Time

Our attitudes to our environment are widely and often acrimoniously discussed, commonly misunderstood, and will shape our future. We cannot assume that we behave as newly minted beings in a pristine garden nor as pre-programmed automata incapable of rational responsibility. Professor Berry has studied nature-nurture interactions for many years, and also been involved with many national and international decision making bodies which have influenced our environmental attitudes. He is therefore well-placed to describe what has moulded our present attitudes towards the environment. This book presents data and concepts from a range of disciplines - genetic, anthropological, social, historical and theological - to help us understand how we have responded in the past and how this influences our future. Beginning with a historical review and moving forwards to current conditions, readers will reach the end of this volume more capable and better prepared to make decisions which affect our communities and posterity.

Preface; 1. Choices; 2. No primeval Eden; 3. Striving with nature; 4. Nature's study; 5. Scientific method and the new biology - controlling; 6. Science in public affairs - organizing; 7. National nature - a digression; 8. The regulatory century; 9. Running out of world; 10. Reckoning, perhaps rueing; 11. From scavenging to supermarkets; Index.

R. J. Berry, FRSE, is Professor Emeritus of Genetics, University College London. He has been president of: the Linnean Society, the British Ecological Society, the European Ecological Federation, the Mammal Society and Christians in Science. Professor Berry's research focuses on the interactions of genes and the environment. He has received both a Marsh Award for Ecology and a UK Templeton Award.