Finally, the text of the latest Scott / Vare book has been despatched to the publishers. The title is Learning, Environment and Sustainable Development: a history of ideas. [*] The formal is the same as our most recent publication: The World We'll Leave Behind: grasping the sustainability challenge, with 43 short chapters. These have an average length of 1350 words, somewhat longer than before.
This is how the introduction begins:
"This book is an introduction to the long history of our learning about human-environment relationships; that is, our struggles with and within the natural world; first for survival, then for dominance, currently for self-preservation, and in future perhaps, even for long-term, mutually-beneficial co-existence. We set out to [i] chart these relationships through the specific lens of human learning, putting on record many of the people, ideas and events that have contributed, often unwittingly, to the modern global movement for sustainable development; [ii] locate current efforts to achieve sustainable development within the broad history of ideas; and [iii] outline some probable and some possible future directions for sustainable development. ..."
The book starts around 10,000 BCE and ends around 2030 CE. It's divided into three sections with a set of appendices:
– Section 1 – Past historic – up to the end of the 1950s
– Section 2 – Present imperfect – from the publication of Silent Spring to today
– Section 3 – Future possible – looking ahead to 2030 and beyond
It was a joy to write as it is a distillation of a working lifetime's thinking in the round about environmental education. Publication will be in the late Autumn, somewhen, virus permitting.
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May 18th Update: The title of the book has been changed since this post was first written. It is: Learning, Environment and Sustainable Development: a history of ideas. Everything else remains.
How wonderful- I am so glad I just checked in on the blog to catch this exciting news about the new book! I am very much looking forward to reading it!