ANNOTATIONS

It’s not coincidental that the two books I’m annotating are essay anthologies. The decision came about for two reasons. First, the concept of “the environment” is so broad that some of the best eco writing focuses on just a single aspect of it, often in essay format; second, “environmentalism” has so many contentious, hot-button issues, it’s useful to be familiar with a range of writings about them when formulating one’s own.

American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (New York: Penguin Putnam, 2008) is a comprehensive historical survey, featuring over one hundred selections that fittingly begin and end with the first true American naturalist, Henry David Thoreau (in his own writings, and as interpreted by a contemporary essayist, Rebecca Solnit). With a foreword by Al Gore, this anthology is a fascinating, eclectic mix of essays, letters, fiction, and even song lyrics—an overview of environmental writing in its broadest sense. The editor, Bill McKibben, is a prolific author in his own right, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, and a prominent peaceful eco-activist. McKibben’s approach is scholarly and objective; he precedes each entry with an informative description of the author, their work, their point of view, and a justification for their inclusion in the anthology.

Much current environmental writing is in the form of persuasion—arguments for conservation, government and corporate policies, radical activism, etc. One of the values of American Earth is that it provides a vibrant historical context for these concerns, with sources that can be drawn upon as precedents. Evidently the idea of environmental stewardship is a quintessentially American notion, originating as a response to the sublime beauty of Western wilderness in the nineteenth century, and then spreading like cast seeds across our rapidly developing nation. Thus the baton in American Earth passes from Thoreau’s transcendent solitude in Walden (1854), to John Muir’s passionate defenses of Yosemite (1867-1912), to the discourses of Appalachian Trail founder Benton MacKaye (1928), to the almanac essays of Aldo Leopold (1949), and on to the more contemporary writings of Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey, Alice Walker, and Michael Pollan, with dozens of other voices in between.

McKibben posits that “an argument can be made that environmental writing is America’s single most distinctive contribution to the world’s literature.” American Earth is a unique and indispensable resource for that contribution, documenting its origins and scope, and eloquently establishing it as an honorable, ongoing national tradition.

Conserving the Environment (Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006) is an equally valuable but very different sort of anthology. As part of the popular Opposing Viewpoints Series, it juxtaposes pro and con essays on topics relating to environmental problems, like conservation, energy sources, and the roles of institutions and individuals in resolving these issues. The aim of this format is to encourage both open mindedness and critical judgment in the reader, leading him to informed opinion. The essays are written by a wide range of authors, from experts in the field to novice writers recounting a relevant personal experience.

A chapter preface introduces each topic and then outlines the issues at stake. For example, “Conserving the Environment,” has three issues for debate: whether the earth really faces an environmental crisis, whether global warming poses a serious threat, and whether deforestation threatens the environment. Each of these three issues has one pro and one con argument, excerpted from a book or magazine in which it was recently published. The authors’ contrasting backgrounds makes for lively juxtapositions: on the issue of deforestation, the argument that deforestation damages the environment is made by a forest preservationist and carpenter, while that which dismisses deforestation concerns is made by a Danish statistics professor. To further stimulate objective thinking, the editors preface each pro and con essay with questions for the reader to consider when formulating an opinion on the debate.

Opposing Viewpoints’ approach perfectly lends itself to the polemical nature of environmentalism; it articulates both sides of heated eco debates in an objective, thought-provoking context. For anyone building their case on a controversial environmental subject, this anthology offers useful counterpoints to be anticipated and refuted. Its essays may not alter your opinion on a particular issue, but they will offer powerful ammunition for your argument.