Friday Bookshelf

What is the worth you place on a river otter, a tree, a forest, or a river? How much for that home where the muskrats lounge in the spring sunshine? Have you ever seen a whale in its natural habitat? What would that be worth to you?

In Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Really Mattered, by Bill Devall, George Sessions, these questions are posed and a thoughtful debate is begun on answers that would make it possible to invest as much in the earth and place as much importance in nature, as our society places in things like iPads, smart phones, and satellite television.

Preservation and maintenance, good stewardship of the natural world does not come for free. Most of us without thinking automatically assume that nature is as free as the air we breathe. On the contrary, nature is a valuable resource that takes millions to protect, manage, and maintain. The human world, without thinking, destroys much of what we need to protect.

This book is not aimed at transforming people into nature lovers. It is for the lovers of nature who would like to change their own little corner of the world in tiny ways that, when added to the next guy's tiny ways, add up to a national park, river, or whale becoming more important (at least as important) as that latest iPad or phone.