Traditional and Modern Approaches to the Environment on the Pacific Rim: Tensions and Values

Harold Coward

jul 1998 · State University of New York Press

Acerca de este libro electrónico

The most vigorously developing economies and largest markets today are located on the Pacific Rim, suggesting that the economic "center of gravity" is shifting from the shores of the North Atlantic. Yet the Pacific Rim is also the location of much of the earth's natural beauty as well as the home of still thriving traditional aboriginal societies. The Pacific Basin's environmental assets and its aboriginal peoples are confronted by the forces of development. The resulting tension between traditional and modern approaches to the environment are addressed in this book by an interdisciplinary team of scientists, social scientists, and humanists.

Part I introduces the tensions between traditional and modern values; Part II examines the problem in more detail with regard to the relationships that exist between some belief systems, institutions, and the environment; while Part III presents case studies from Canada, the United States, Russia, and China where attempts have been made to reconcile the tension between traditional and modern approaches to the environment.

Acerca del autor

Harold Coward is Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Society and Professor of History, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of Derrida and Indian Philosophy and Jung and Eastern Thought; editor of Hindu Ethics: Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia (with Julius Lipner and Katherine K. Young); Derrida and Negative Theology (with Toby Foshay); Modern Indian Responses to Religious Pluralism; and Population, Consumption, and the Environment: Religious and Secular Responses, all published by SUNY Press. In addition, he is the editor of the SUNY Series in Religious Studies.