The Wealth of Nature : Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination

Abstract

Review: The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination By Donald Worster Reviewed by R. James Tobin University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Worster, Donald. THE WEALTH OF NATURE: ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY AND THE ECOLOGICAL IMAGINATION. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. 225 pp. US$25.00 ISBN: 0-19-507624-9. In The Wealth of Nature, Donald Worster, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Kansas, writes about natural history and its interactions with human history. The book is a series of essays published over a number of years, so readers will sometimes find themselves weighing theory and fact over three scales of time. Fortunately, the depth of Worster's insights will reward their efforts. Consider for instance what he has to say about the concept of the ecosystem and its place within the science of ecology. An earlier definition of ecology as the study of equilibrium, harmony and order in nature has now been challenged by the postmodern ecology of chaos theory, which describes nature as fundamentally erratic, discontinuous and unpredictable. Worster's early writings may have assumed the central importance of the concept of ecosystem, but in more recent essays, he has expressed the need to defend the idea. One result of such theoretical shifts is the implication for preservation. Eugene Odum's view of nature as a series of balanced ecosystems, achieved, or in the making, led him to favor preserving the landscape in as nearly natural a condition as possible. This would mean substantial restraint on human activity and environmental planning on a rational, scientific basis. Other ecological technocrats have believed in managing or manipulating the planet for improved efficiency, particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s. Whereas Odum saw natural succession as the road to equilibrium, Drury and Nisbet, in a very influential 1973 article, wrote that ecological succession does not lead to stability, diversification of species, or even greater success in regulating the environment. According to Worster, they saw a forest as just an erratic shifting mosaic of trees and other plants (163). The notion of ecological climax was challenged as early as 1926, but many recent ecologists