Are we seeing or ignoring the road signs to environmental disaster?

BOWLING GREEN, O.—If a poem were to be chosen to capsulize two new books by Dr. Donald Scherer, a professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University, it could well be Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”

Both of Scherer’s books, published this month by the California Academic Press, deal with environmental issues and chronicle crucial turning points at which disaster was either averted, by taking the right road, or experienced, through inattention to all the road signs pointing to it.

“Too many people think that environmentalists want us to freeze in the dark. But I say the clues are there. If we pay attention, we can get a lot smarter about finding out how to live lives we value in beautiful, sustainable surroundings that are, after all, our home,” Scherer, who specializes in environmental ethics, says.

In “We Never Aimed for Blight: An Historical Approach to the American Environment,” Scherer details the many unintended and unanticipated environmental problems historically faced by America.

From the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to the tragic results of DDT use to New York’s Love Canal debacle, he outlines case studies in which those involved failed to recognize the pattern events were following and the inevitable outcome. As a result, we have often degraded our environment, depleted our resources, poisoned our water and polluted our air.

Though greed and negligence are sometimes at work, Scherer points out that in many other cases degradation resulted from lack of attention to the bigger picture. He shows that these results were in fact foreseeable and gives advice on how to recognize these disastrous patterns as they occur so that environmental degradation may be avoided and sometimes reversed.

The second book, “Our Greener Ways: America’s Emerging Environmental Ethic,” with a preface by Jordan J. Lindberg, tells a happier story of cases over the last 30 years in which the correct environmental path has been recognized in time and disaster avoided. The accounts Scherer gives provide a refreshing counterbalance to the negative news of environmental neglect, and show that citizens, businesses and governments can effect positive outcomes.

Scherer recounts the moving stories of how strong-willed people have saved their homes, rebuilt their neighborhoods and protected their communities. “Our Greener Ways“ offers examples of corporations acting out of convictions and finding the incentives that make them good environmental citizens. A decade of research reveals effective strategies environmentally concerned people and organizations have used and can continue to use to overcome fear, misunderstanding and political opposition. Scherer illustrates how to make the connections and marshal community resources to tackle big issues.

Both books are designed not just for academics, but also for environmental activists and community organizers. “Our Greener Ways“ contains a CD-ROM that invites participation in a virtual community of environmental concern. (Posted April 17, 2002)