ABSTRACT

Until recently, there has been a widespread view that we must give up amenities of modern life in order to achieve environmental sustainability. While newspapers and other popular media tend to focus on the negative aspects of environmental change, this volume examines the alternative notion of 'positive ecology'. Initially gleaned from the orientation of 'positive psychology', this argues that environmental science has been all too focused on analysing negative 'pathologies' and forgetting to provide more positive analysis and activism for sustainability. Bringing together a wide range of 'positive ecology' orientated case studies for the first time, the book discusses the wider contexts of how humanity is dependent on a functioning, biodiverse ecosphere of which we are only one part. It provides an original and previously undervalued approach to sustainability, and suggests that work towards sustainability is not only a necessity for our children's future, but necessary, sensible and meaningful in the present.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

part 1|26 pages

Contexts and Approaches

part |24 pages

A Plurality of Perspectives

chapter 1|3 pages

The Biospheric Perspective

chapter 2|7 pages

Human Perspectives

chapter 3|4 pages

Biospheric Dependence

chapter 4|3 pages

The Paradox of the Human Position

chapter 5|2 pages

“Personal” Perspectives

part 2|34 pages

Towards A Synthetic Theory

part |32 pages

Map and Territory

chapter 6|12 pages

Evolutionary-Ecological Exigencies

chapter 7|11 pages

Anthropological Contexts

chapter 8|4 pages

“Integration”

part 3|66 pages

Fundamentals of Integration

part |64 pages

Basic Needs and Ecology

chapter 9|4 pages

Conditions and Contexts

chapter 10|7 pages

Water

chapter 11|24 pages

Nutrition

chapter 14|5 pages

Security and Sustainability

chapter 15|6 pages

Health

part 4|26 pages

Eco-Cultural Integration

part |28 pages

Ecology in Culture and “the Good Life”

chapter 16|5 pages

Rest and Arousal

chapter 17|3 pages

Social Needs and the Company of Nature

chapter 18|2 pages

Spirituality

chapter 19|6 pages

Nature, Knowledge, and Creativity

chapter 20|2 pages

Sustainability and Self-Efficacy

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion