THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601290234
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBOTHAM
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
UNCOMMON GROUND
Toward Reinventing Nature
EDITED BY WILLIAM CRONON
W.W. Norton. 561 pp. $29.95.
It is no secret that the environmental movement is in trouble. But the threat is not coming exclusively from conservative politicians and industry lobbyists. To a large extent, environmentalists are undermining their own agenda. They have tended in recent years to dig in their heels rather than try to formulate a new vision around which the nation can rally.
The movement is not entirely without intellectual vitality, of course. A number of recent books - notably Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory - have questioned our most fundamental assumptions about nature without attacking the concept of environmental protection itself. Uncommon Ground, a provocative collection of essays on various aspects of environmentalism, is the latest contribution to this new school of thought.
The essays in this book are diverse, to say the least. One, for example, explores the relationship between environmentalism and social justice, while another examines the ways in which Sea World shapes our view of wildlife. Nonetheless, all of the essays are linked to a single premise - that nature is ``not nearly so natural as it seems.'' In fact, writes editor William Cronon in the introduction, nature ``is a profoundly human construction.''
One essay looks at instances in which ``natural'' environments have been ``constructed.'' The grounds surrounding the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., for example, appear to be pristine woodlands; but as landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted admitted, this particular landscape was created out of ``whole cloth.'' Other examples of subtle manipulation of nature include Olmsted's work at Yosemite and Niagra Falls.
Jennifer Price contributes a witty essay on The Nature Company, the mall-based chain that sells birdfeeders, wind chimes, field guides, herb teas, rock-collecting kits, and thousands of other ``nature-related'' products. ``Each product,'' according to the company's literature, ``introduces customers to an aspect of the natural world.'' But as Price points out, the store blurs the lines between nature and culture.
``Items like Viento de los Andes, a CD of Andean folk music, get in by association, since nature and indigenous cultures have both come to connote a simpler and more authentic reality,'' she writes. Ultimately, Price points out, ``the entire inventory stands as a monument to the middle class, white collar vision of `nature' as something we enjoy in our leisure time.''
A contribution from Richard White, a professor of history at the University of Washington, picks up where Price leaves off. The title of his essay, ``Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?'' refers to a bumper sticker that is popular in northwestern logging towns. White does not share the loggers' unrelenting animosity toward environmentalists, but he is troubled by certain aspects of the modern environmental movement.
``Environmentalists often seem self-righteous, privileged and arrogant because they so readily consent to identifying nature with play and making it by definition a place where leisured humans come only to visit and not to work, stay or live,'' he writes.
Other essays in the book are less interesting, and a couple - notably one that focuses on ``Biological Kinship Categories in the 20th Century United States'' - are virtually unreadable. Indeed, if the book has one flaw it is that many of the essays are sprinkled with academic jargon. Irritating as this can be, it does not undermine the book's power.
Uncommon Ground also contains reproductions of newspaper clippings, photographs, posters and other items that challenge our preconceptions about nature. The most fascinating is a brochure about the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a toxic waste site that, because of its isolation, has become one of the nation's richest wildlife refuges. Notes Cronon: The ``paradoxical juxtapositions of toxicity and wilderness raise all sorts of interesting questions about what people mean when they use words like `natural' and `unnatural.' ''
Because this book is filled with such disturbing paradoxes, many environmentalists are likely to dismiss it as another example of the ``backlash'' against the movement. Cronon protests that ``nothing could be further from the truth.''
``It is precisely because we sympathize so strongly with the environmentalist agenda - with the task of rethinking and reconstructing human relationships with the natural world to make them more just and accountable - that we believe these (issues) must be confronted.'' MEMO: Tom Robotham is a historian and writer who lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: [JOHN EARLE]
by CNB