Douglas Spieles is a Professor of environmental studies at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, USA. He teaches courses on environmental science, ecosystem management, wetland ecology, and geographic information systems. His previous works include the book Protected Land: Disturbance, Stress and American Ecosystem Management.
Dr. Spieles' book is timely, ambitious, well-researched, and wonderfully comprehensive. It integrates myriad perspectives on environmentalism, analyzing our current and historical relationship to the environment from biological, sociocultural, psychological, and spiritual angles. We are in an age of intense global environmental anxiety as we grapple with the implications of anthropogenic climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, expansion of human populations into natural areas, and overexploitation of our natural resources. This comprehensive text helps make sense of how our relationship to the environment developed through the course of our evolution, and how current conflicts and tensions have arisen as a result of differing perspectives on environmentalism. It also provides a roadmap for how we might seek resolution to these conflicts and achieve a more unified vision of environmentalism. Environmentalism: An Evolutionary Approach is eloquently and concisely written and should serve as a trusted handbook for students as they navigate the complex waters of the environmental sciences. - Elena Berg, The American University of Paris, France Environmentalism: An Evolutionary Approach is the first textbook to take a multidisciplinary approach to fully integrate the principles of biological and sociocultural evolution in the context of environmental issues. By exploring a diversity of worldviews and their roots in shared human values, the text seeks to understand the evolution of our place in, and dependence on, the natural world and our sometimes conflicted relationship with it. It is truly a unique and refreshing perspective, building a rich understanding of the relationship of humans and the environment, and highlights a way forward in our efforts to cope with the critical environmental issues of our time. - Siobhan Fennessy, Kenyon College, USA