Content area
Full Text
Martin Mulligan and Stuart Hill: Ecological Pioneers: A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable read at a time when much academic literature has become a little hackneyed in its prescriptive and uncreative response to the environmental crisis. There simply are not that many academic texts out there which provide a new take on the environmental crisis. Indeed, in order to understand the relationship between humans and "nature," I have been encouraging my students to focus their attention on the work of poets, novelists, literary activists, artists and musicians, rather than on academics. This was until I read Ecological Pioneers. Mulligan and Hill, two academics from the University of Western Sydney, Australia, have written an excellent book about responses to the environmental crisis that falls somewhere between academic text and creative non-fiction. It is a book that tells an inspirational story of Australians who have fought against environmental despoilation using paint, words and their own energy, individuality, ingenuity and creativity. Thankfully, there is no mention of renewable energy technologies, "hyper cars" with gas/electric hybrid engines or "smart" showerheads. This will be a relief to readers tired of seeing the words "technology" and "development" in books about solutions to environmental problems. Of course, technology has a role to play in slowing environmental deterioration; however, without a radical change in the way we view "nature" and how we consume "nature," technology will act merely as a palliative. This book offers hope; it shows ways to reorient our relationship with nature to one that is less violent and self-destructive.
Mulligan and Hill demonstrate clearly the important role individuals and small groups have to play in the search for ways to live that are more in tune with natural systems. The first few chapters look at the artists and writers who were the first ecological pioneers in Australia after British invasion. The book shows that people who sit and contemplate light and shade, contours and natural forms, are well qualified to tell of the uniqueness of the Australian continent and the vulnerability of its biophysical systems to human exploitation and misuse. Importantly, the way artists and writers experience the land and the way they represent their relationship with...