Taking the Measure of Deep Ecology

"There's No Going Back to Nature" by Walter Truett Anderson, in Mother Jones (Sept.-Oct. 1996), 731 Market St., Ste. 600, San Francisco, Calif. 94103.

Deep ecology, bioregionalism, ecofemi- the future." The earth, he points out, "is nism, neo-Luddism, and other forms of becoming more densely populated, not 'back-to-nature" environmentalism are all less; more urbanized, not less; more tech- the rage in some precincts of the Left nological, not less. Most important of all, today. Passionately opposed to "anthro-human beings are exerting ever more-not pocentric" (human-centered) thought and less-power in nature, having a greater action, thinkers such as Kirkpatrick Sale impact on ecosystems." hate technology, love the primitive, and Even the most benign human interven- dream of a world in which people stay put tions reshape nature, Anderson argues. in their own bioregions, living and working "People are rebuilding rivers and streams alongside native plants and animals. A for- and ponds and beaches, reconstructing mer editor of Earth First! Journal wrote forests and prairies and deserts, sometimes that he would like "to see human beings coaxing populations of near-extinct species live much more the way they did 15,000 back to a sustainable size." But restorations years ago" (i.e. hunting and gathering). can never be perfect replicas of past ecosys-

Popular as such notions may be on col- tems. Inevitably, the restored ecosystem lege campuses, writes Anderson, author of lacks certain species that have become Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be (1996), extinct and includes some bird, insect, or they are almost completely irrelevant to plant that has moved in and made itself at "most of the valuable environmental work home. that is being done now and will be done in Technology, the nemesis of radical environmentalists, is vital to environmental pro- tection, Anderson asserts. It takes sophisticat- ed equipment, for instance, to detect and monitor a hole in the ozone layer. Even biotechnology-"the Great Satan for the back-to-nature ideologistsn-can be used to protect the environment, he points out. Its products include "bioremediation (microbes that take chemical pollutants out of water; plants that take up mercury from the soil), and new kinds of materials including gen- uinely biodegradable plastics."