Background
Ehrenfeld, David William was born on January 15, 1938 in New York City. Son of Irving and Anne (Shapiro) Ehrenfeld.
(This is a study of the shrinking wilderness and the ongoi...)
This is a study of the shrinking wilderness and the ongoing degredation of the environment, especially its cost to human dignity and potential. The author ruminates on the impacts of short-sighted governmental and economic policies, and of new technologies on human values and communities.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FDVIZDK/?tag=2022091-20
(Early in this volume, David Ehrenfeld describes what prop...)
Early in this volume, David Ehrenfeld describes what prophecy really is. Referring to the biblical prophets, he says they were not the "holy fortunetellers that the word prophet has come to signify....The business of prophecy is not simply foretelling the future; rather it is describing the present with exceptional truthfulness and accuracy." Once this is done, then it can be seen that broad aspects of the future have suddenly become apparent. The twentieth century is drawing to a chaotic close amidst portents of unprecedented change and upheaval. The unravelling of societies and civilizations and the destruction of nature march together--linked--a fact whose enormous significance is often lost. In Beginning Again, David Ehrenfeld has undertaken the difficult task of describing the present clearly enough to reveal the future. Out of his broad vision emerges a glimpse of a new millennium: a vision at once frightening and comforting, a scene of great devastation and great rebuilding. Ehrenfeld ranges far and wide to present a coherent vision of our relationship with Nature--its many aspects and implications--as our century opens into the next millennium. Whether he is writing about the problem of loyalty to organizations, rights versus obligations, our over-managed society, the vanishing of established knowledge, the failure of experts, the triumph of dandelions, Dr. Seuss, Edward Teller, or the future of farming, he is always concerned with the intricate interaction between technology and nature. As in his classic book, The Arrogance of Humanism, Ehrenfeld never loses sight of our fatal love affair with the fantasy of control. We now have no choice, he argues, but to transform the dream of control, of progress, from one of overweening hubris, love of consumption, and the idiot's goal of perpetual growth, to one based on "the inventive imitation of nature," with its honesty, beauty, resilience, and durability. Few American writers and even fewer scientists can describe these timeless, transcendent qualities of nature so well. In "Places," the opening chapter, David Ehrenfeld tells about nightly vigils he spent alone on the moonlit beach of Tortuguero, watching giant sea turtles emerging from the sea to lay their eggs in the black sand where they were born. "I could watch the perfect white spheres falling," he writes. "Falling as they have fallen for a hundred million years, with the same slow cadence, always shielded from the rain or stars by the same massive bulk with the beaked head and the same large, myopic eyes rimmed with crusts of sand washed out by tears. Minutes and hours, days and months dissolve into eons. I am on an Oligocene beach, an Eocene beach, a Cretaceous beach--the scene is the same. It is night, the turtles are coming back, always back; I hear a deep hiss of breath and catch a glint of wet shell as the continents slide and crash, the oceans form and grow."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195096371/?tag=2022091-20
(A brilliant writer and gifted "big picture" thinker, Davi...)
A brilliant writer and gifted "big picture" thinker, David Ehrenfeld is one of America's leading conservation biologists. Becoming Good Ancestors unites in a single, up-to-date framework pieces written over two decades, spanning politics, ecology, and culture, and illuminating the forces in modern society that thwart our efforts to solve today's hard questions about society and the environment. The book focuses on our present-day retreat from reality, our alienation from nature, our unthinking acceptance of new technology and rejection of the old, the loss of our ability to discriminate between events we can control and those we cannot, the denial of non-economic values, and the decline of local communities. If we are aware of what we are losing and why we are losing it, the author notes, all of these patterns are reversible. Through down-to-earth examples, ranging from a family canoe trip in the wilderness to the novels of Jane Austen to Chinese turtle and tiger farms, Ehrenfeld shows how we can use what we learn to move ourselves and our society towards a more stable, less frantic, and far more satisfying life, a life in which we are no longer compelled to damage ourselves and our environment, in which our children have a future, and in which fewer species are endangered and more rivers run clean. In the final chapter, he offers a dramatic view of the possibilities inherent in a fusion of the best elements of conservatism and liberalism. Our society has an inherent sense of what is right, says Ehrenfeld, and the creativity and persistence to make good things happen. It is now time to apply our intelligence, guided by our moral judgment, to the very large problems we all face. This book is an important first step.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195373782/?tag=2022091-20
(Never in history has life been so complicated and full of...)
Never in history has life been so complicated and full of sudden changes. Technology, the environment, and the way we work and relate to one another are all in upheaval. With wit, humor, a calm voice, and great authority, Swimming Lessons gives a clear view of what our world has become - not just our successes, but also the destruction set loose by our own genius and inventions. In addition, it offers practical, non-utopian suggestions for keeping afloat in the dangerous waters of the 21st century's globalized civilization. Whether it is describing a comical brainstorming session in a Washington boardroom or a close encounter with an Alaskan grizzly and her cubs, Swimming Lessons is a delight to read. Trained in history, medicine, and zoology, David Ehrenfeld brings a grand perspective to his challenging task. He writes not just as a scientist, but as one who values and understands the social sciences and humanities as well. In the first half of Swimming Lessons, we learn to recognize the lies we live: about education, new military weapons systems, biotechnology, electronic pseudocommunities, and accelerated obsolescence. We also learn about the deadly corporate economics that affect every aspect of our lives, even environmental conservation. The second half reveals the pitfalls and opportunities in the main tasks we face: relating to nature in a manmade world and restoring our damaged communities.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195148525/?tag=2022091-20
(Attacks nothing less than the currently prevailing world ...)
Attacks nothing less than the currently prevailing world philosophy--humanism, which the author feels is exceedingly dangerous in its hidden assumptions.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195028902/?tag=2022091-20
Ehrenfeld, David William was born on January 15, 1938 in New York City. Son of Irving and Anne (Shapiro) Ehrenfeld.
Bachelor, Harvard College, 1959. Doctor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 1963. Doctor of Philosophy, University Florida, 1966.
From assistant professor biology to associate professor biology Barnard College Columbia University, New York City, 1967-1974. Professor biology Rutgers University, School Environmental and Biological Sciences, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1974—1996, professor II, since 1996. Editorial board member Koedoe South African National Parks, since 2009.
(Attacks nothing less than the currently prevailing world ...)
(This is a study of the shrinking wilderness and the ongoi...)
(A brilliant writer and gifted "big picture" thinker, Davi...)
(Never in history has life been so complicated and full of...)
(Early in this volume, David Ehrenfeld describes what prop...)
(Early in this volume, David Ehrenfeld describes what prop...)
Trustee E. F. Schumacher Society, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, since 1979, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Gainesville, Florida, since 1980, Ednl. Foundation American, Westport, Connecticut, 1987-1993, 98-. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Member Ecological Society American, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Marine Turtle Specialist Group, Specialist Group on Sustainable Use of Wild Species.
Married Joan Gardner, June 28, 1970. Children: Kate, Jane, Jonathan, Samuel.