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Diversity in Ecopsychology: A Review by John Scull
A Review of Peter H. Kahn, Jr., and Patricia H. Hasback. Ecopsychology: Science, Totems, and the Technological Species, by John Scull, Ph.D.
John’s review begins:
“There is a confusing tangle of words about the several psychological disciplines related to the environment – environmental psychology, ecological psychology, conservation psychology, human ecology. It is not just confusing for outsiders: When communicating among themselves, psychologists need to explain what they mean because different writers have used these words in different ways. These diverse fields all have one common feature; they are in the mainstream of academic social psychology. They all privilege experiments and other controlled quantitative research over qualitative research and they elevate all kinds of research above anecdotal evidence, clinical experience, opinion, narrative, and philosophy.
Ecopsychology has come from different traditions. The diverse pioneers in the field arrived at ecopsychology from humanistic and transpersonal psychology, experiential environmental education, scientific ecology, systems thinking, and deep ecology. As a result, the field has been much more interdisciplinary than the inclusion of “psychology” in the coined word suggests.”
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Ecopsychology Journal
If you don’t yet know about the peer-reviewed quarterly journal, Ecopsychology, you’ll want to! Volume Two, Issue 4 contains a review written by our own John Scull of ICE: Review of Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy by Peter G. Brown and Geoffrey Garver, with Keith Helmuth, Robert Howell, and Steve Szeghi.
Our Choice
by John Scull
The library had a copy of Al Gore’s new book “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” It’s a glossy book full of coloured pictures and laid out like a very thick magazine. He goes through various options for dealing with climate change, reviewing the research, supplying facts and figures, and telling histories.
- He gives high marks to solar, wind, geothermal, conservation, and the supergrid.
- He gives low marks to biofuel, carbon capture and sequestration, and nuclear power
- He gives very high marks to conservation
- He has good review of forests, soil, and population, factors often ignored in climate discussions
The book goes on to discuss “the obstacles we need to overcome” and “going
far quickly” but I haven’t read these sections yet.
From what I have read so far, I feel this book is good for informing people who are concerned about climate change and want to do the right thing and support effective policies. I doubt if it will have much effect on the unconvinced.
John Scull
www.naturecowichan.net
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”
~ Walt Whitman