Critics of the environmental movement contend it has become something of an oxymoron-a secular religion with its own commandments: nature is good, destroying nature is bad, nature is in balance, and the more power humans have the more damage they do. As a result, civilized society is a sin against nature and through their actions humans inevitably upset the inherent balance of nature. Increasingly, however, science suggest there exists a state of disharmony in the natural world, and that balance, if it exists at all, is fleeting.


Objectives

After completing this week’s readings and web-lectures, students will have an opportunity to explore whether environmentalism has evolved from a movement concerned largely with protecting the environment to a “way of life” that orders and structures how adherents understand and explain societal relationships.