ABSTRACT

Biologists often tell us that humans are full of selfish genes, consequently they are constituted by human nature to act primarily in terms of self-interest (Rolston 1994: 223). Many of the narrative, thematic and textual studies in this volume seek to question such a general assertion. Back in another time, at the foundation of the environmental movement during the late 1950s and 1960s, Rachel Carson (1962) argued that social issues needed a moral language articulated in the public media before minds could be changed and society move forward. Her extraordinary career demonstrates that when common problems are understood, not just technically but most essentially ethically, then constructive social action becomes possible.