|
 Ecological Vignettes by Eugene Odum, director emeritus of the Institute of Ecology, is written to be understood by general readers at any level--from grade school to senior citizen. It draws upon essays written during Odum’s 40-year career as an ecologist, teacher and researcher.
Says Odum: “My idea was to use vignettes--short, provocative statements--to explain some ideas in an age that lives by sound bites. The truth is that the way we live now is not sustainable, and I wanted to use these vignettes, along with cartoons and simple charts, to explain why that is so.”
The volume, which relates treatment of the land to human affairs, covers such subjects as growth, energy, change, economics and technology. But the real purpose behind the book is to help promote environmental literacy, according to Odum.
“Until recently, very little environmental literacy was taught in our schools beyond a bit of nature study or geography,” he says. “Our slowness to act to halt unsustainable population growth and to sustain the quality of our environment may be in part due to the fact that most persons in the current decision-making generations are environmentally illiterate. It is encouraging that environmental education is beginning to receive attention as never before.”
|
|
