807
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_93
Chapter 93
Ecological Idealism
93.1 Constructivist Lives and Deaths
At the conclusion of his book The Social Conquest of Earth, E.O. Wilson writes in
a chapter entitled “A New Enlightenment” that, guided by his “blind faith” the
“Earth, by the twenty second century, can be turned, if we so wish, into a permanent
paradise for human beings”
1
. We saw a similar idealism propounded in Paul and
Anne Ehrlich’s 1987 book, Earth, in which, and subsequent to such chapters as
“The Shadow of Humanity,” “The Costs of Numbers” (figuring an image of a starving Sudanese child), “Fouling the Nest,” “Disrupting the Biosphere,” and later, “The
Spirit of Folly,” their Chapter Nine is titled, “The News Is Not All Bad,” as they
indicate that “There are some hopeful signs.”
2
In their far more devastating work,
The Annihilation of Nature – Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals (2015), the
Ehrlichs, and co-author Gerardo Cerballos, concluded their soul- dispiriting litany
of extinction events, with the added news of 28 years or so of ponderous devastations, offering up “a grim account” throughout the book, though concluding with a
final section, “Toward a Better Future”
3
(Fig. 93.1). Even as early as 1962, following upon her own intense diagnoses of “Rivers of Death” and “The Human Price,”
Rachel Carson elaborated upon “The Other Road,” declaring “Only by taking
account of such life forces and by cautiously seeking to guide them into channels
favorable to ourselves can we hope to achieve a reasonable accommodation between
the insect hordes and ourselves.”
4
1 The Social Conquest of Earth, by E. O. Wilson, Liveright Publishing Corporation, A Division of
W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2012, p. 297.
2 Earth, by Anne H. Ehrlich and Paul R. Ehrlich, Franklin Watts, New York, 1987, p. 205.
3 The Annihilation of Nature – Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals, by Gerardo Ceballos,
Anne H. Ehrlich, and Paul R Ehrlich, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 2015,
p. 178.
4 Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1962, p. 296.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_93
Chapter 93
Ecological Idealism
93.1 Constructivist Lives and Deaths
At the conclusion of his book The Social Conquest of Earth, E.O. Wilson writes in
a chapter entitled “A New Enlightenment” that, guided by his “blind faith” the
“Earth, by the twenty second century, can be turned, if we so wish, into a permanent
paradise for human beings”
1
. We saw a similar idealism propounded in Paul and
Anne Ehrlich’s 1987 book, Earth, in which, and subsequent to such chapters as
“The Shadow of Humanity,” “The Costs of Numbers” (figuring an image of a starving Sudanese child), “Fouling the Nest,” “Disrupting the Biosphere,” and later, “The
Spirit of Folly,” their Chapter Nine is titled, “The News Is Not All Bad,” as they
indicate that “There are some hopeful signs.”
2
In their far more devastating work,
The Annihilation of Nature – Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals (2015), the
Ehrlichs, and co-author Gerardo Cerballos, concluded their soul- dispiriting litany
of extinction events, with the added news of 28 years or so of ponderous devastations, offering up “a grim account” throughout the book, though concluding with a
final section, “Toward a Better Future”
3
(Fig. 93.1). Even as early as 1962, following upon her own intense diagnoses of “Rivers of Death” and “The Human Price,”
Rachel Carson elaborated upon “The Other Road,” declaring “Only by taking
account of such life forces and by cautiously seeking to guide them into channels
favorable to ourselves can we hope to achieve a reasonable accommodation between
the insect hordes and ourselves.”
4
1 The Social Conquest of Earth, by E. O. Wilson, Liveright Publishing Corporation, A Division of
W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2012, p. 297.
2 Earth, by Anne H. Ehrlich and Paul R. Ehrlich, Franklin Watts, New York, 1987, p. 205.
3 The Annihilation of Nature – Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals, by Gerardo Ceballos,
Anne H. Ehrlich, and Paul R Ehrlich, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 2015,
p. 178.
4 Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1962, p. 296.