Swimming Lessons

David Ehrenfeld is among the most eloquent writers on ecology and conservation biology. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Conservation Biology, and author of The Arrogance of Humanism and Beginning Again. This new book presents an elegant neo-luddite perspective on the costs to human dignity and potential, of the shrinking of wilderness and the ongoing degradation of the environment. Ehrenfeld ruminates on the specific impacts of shortsighted governmental and economic policies, and of new technologies on human values and communities, tracing the human impacts upon the urban, agricultural and wilderness environments. Ehrenfeld has a unique, unmistakable voice as a major spokesperson for the conservation ethic and the human values implicit in environmentalism and conservation biology. This book should appeal strongly to readers of Ehrenfeld's earlier books and essays, and reach and satisfy a broad constituency on the green end of the political spectrum.