I was raised on 1960s-1970s-style environmentalism. I believed in the threat of the Population Bomb and the holy sanctity of Nature. But more recently, I’ve been revisiting some of the key ideas of the era, and now realize that the thinkers were well-meaning  but too simplistic, too anti-technological, and too married to the idea that humans and nature are separate and antagonistic. There is always, hovering the background of old-school environmentalist thought, this vision of a Green Eden, a longing for a return to a mythical garden that existed long ago, back when humans lived in harmony with nature. Things were never quite that rosy, of course. Ask a woolly mammoth what it was like back in the good old days. If you can find one.

But that longing for The Garden — I can hear Joni Mitchell singing now — seems to be hardwired into Green thinking. The operative assumptions are that wild is good, civilization is bad, and humans are a sort of global cancer. This has made me increasingly uncomfortable with old-school Green activists, the folks who see environmental apocalypse around every corner, who believe that any economic/technological human activity that affects nature is pretty much evil,  and who think that the only proper response is the adoption of no-growth or anti-growth policies. Who believe, in other words, that to save Mother Earth we must stop consuming, stop reproducing, and fondly consider living more like our Paleolithic ancestors.

I don’t think so. Like it or not, humans with all their technology are a part of nature.  We need to move beyond knee-jerk “stop technology, stop development” responses and toward smarter technology and wiser development. More, not less. I guess I’m a “green modernist,” according to the linked post, and am happy to see that there are others out there who agree that it’s time to move environmentalism forward.

Thanks to all The Skeptical Chymists at the journal, esp.  Stuart Cantrill, for the thoughtful questions and skillful editing.

Turns out that the organic movement might be a smaller, less important factor than it appears.  Check out this interesting item over at Sustainablog for the background.

As a sometimes-publisher, it was an education to see how complicated  it is to create an ebook from hard copy . Turns out to be a lot harder than it should be, but that’s only because I wanted to do everything myself.

Oh, yes — My son Jackson designed the cover. Great job.  You can order the book here.

Here’s the email:

Dear Professor Hager,

I am writing from FiveBooks at TheBrowser.com. Each day on FiveBooks, we feature an interview with an expert — a scholar, artist, politician, journalist, or other eminent figure — who recommends and discusses the five best books in his or her field. I thought you might be interested to know that  Dr Rajiv Shah has recommended your book, The Alchemy of Air, as one of five must read books on Breakthroughs in Development. Here is the link:
http://thebrowser.com/interviews/rajiv-shah-on-breakthroughs-development