In this impassioned polemic, radical environmental philosopher Derrick
Jensen debunks the near-universal belief in a hierarchy of nature and
the superiority of humans. Vast and underappreciated complexities of
nonhuman life are explored in detail--from the cultures of pigs and
prairie dogs, to the creative use of tools by elephants and fish, to the
acumen of caterpillars and fungi. The paralysis of the scientific
establishment on moral and ethical issues is confronted and a radical
new framework for assessing the intelligence and sentience of nonhuman
life is put forth.
Jensen attacks mainstream environmental journalism, which too often
limits discussions to how ecological changes affect humans or the
economy--with little or no regard for nonhuman life. With his signature
compassionate logic, he argues that when we separate ourselves from the
rest of nature, we in fact orient ourselves against nature, taking an
unjust and, in the long run, impossible position.
Jensen expresses profound disdain for the human industrial complex and
its ecological excesses, contending that it is based on the systematic
exploitation of the earth. Page by page, Jensen, who has been called the
philosopher-poet of the environmental movement, demonstrates his deep
appreciation of the natural world in all its intimacy, and sounds an
urgent call for its liberation from human domination.
