The book does not offer solutions to environmental questions, but it does offer the hope that there can be new ways of thinking and flexibility in human/environmental relations. Although humans seem alienated from our the natural world, we can develop a new understanding of `self in the world.'
The second edition has a new preface and an epilogue in which Evernden analyses the latest environmental catch-phrase: sustainable development.
Neil Evernden is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University.