ABSTRACT
This chapter interrogates the common environmentalist call for people to “love” the world, nature, and particular places, suggesting that even this is a complex and fraught moral idea. The chapter makes three central points. First, “the world” to be loved is always an abstraction and a construct, which calls for a nuanced but still-committed form of love. Second, to love is to be open to change, requiring careful attention to what is loved, how it changes, and how and when it might die. Third, one who loves must learn to accept what cannot be known, to resist the temptation to revere simplistic ideas, and to learn from marginalized and silenced communities who have been forced to develop love in oppressive circumstances.
