Ecologists and Environmental Politics: A History of Contemporary Ecology (review)

Book Reviews 451 a launchpad for many new Global Systems Initiatives to initiate a global systematization in green governmentality maneuvers to control the conduct of conduct by assuming the guise of such systems for terraforming environmentality" (114). This book was provocative. Others with environmental communication or political science familiarity might also enjoy the increased blood pressure this book provokes . In addition, the endnotes are profuse and, consequently, provide a useful bibliography. However, short of expending an enormous amount of excruciating effort, Ecocritique is most likely inaccessible to many who might otherwise profit from engaging Luke's arguments. Susan L. Senecah State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Ecologists and Environmental Politics: A History of Contemporary Ecology. By Stephen Bocking. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997; pp. xiv + 271. $35.00. Ecologists and Environmental Politics is a detailed account of the role of ecologists and the political context of ecology since World War II. In examining the political context of ecology, Stephen Bocking concentrates on institutions and how they shape the choices ecologists make in their research. Four institutions are examined, one in Great Britain, two in the United States, and one in Canada. Bocking begins his analysis in chapter two with the Nature Conservancy of Great Britain and traces its origins to the early years of World War II. Whereas wartime activities accelerated the destruction of flora and fauna in Great Britain and the British government assumed a more active role in land-use planning, ecologists rallied during the 1940s to ensure the protection of threatened, and potentially threatened, natural communities . Bocking explains how ecologists led by Arthur Tansley exploited the opportunity to secure an institutional home for their discipline that was controlled by ecologists to meet the requirements of their research. In chapter three, Bocking discusses the expansion of the Nature Conservancy in the 1950s and focuses on the conservancy's Merelwood research station in the Lake District, where researchers examined the relation between soil conditions and trees in woodlands ecology. Bocking follows with a careful examination of two research institutions in the United States: the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (chapters four and five) and the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study in New Hampshire (chapter six). The Oak Ridge National Laboratory was established in 1954 and experienced steady growth in ecological research through the 1970s, due in large part to the support of the Atomic Energy Commission, with its interest in the environmental effects of radioactive contaminants. As in the case of Britain's Nature Conservancy, research grew in the United States with increasing demands to solve environmental problems . With the high regulatory strictures placed on nuclear energy, opportunities 452 Rhetoric & Public Affairs for research grew tremendously, hence the science of ecology benefited greatly from the study and use of nuclear power during this time. Bocking then provides a history of the forest experiment and practice at Hubbard Brook, which began in 1963 as a collaborative ecosystem study between university scientists, with support of the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Forest Service. Collaboration generated a unique approach to ecosystem research based on the manipulation of watersheds, and focused during its first fifteen years on the environmental impact of forestry practices. Hubbard Brook became best known, however, for research on acid precipitation. Bocking's interest in discussing Hubbard Brook lies not only in the collaboration between government foresters and academic scientists that resulted in combining methods and ideas in ecology and forestry, but also in the way that ecologists at the study responded to the changing political context of U.S. resource management practices in the 1970s, particularly those of forestry. Ecologists made several recommendations from the study regarding sites for timber harvesting, road designs, stream protection, and protection of species significant to ecosystem recovery. Findings of the study showed that ecosystem research could provide a comprehensive approach to environmental protection and management. In chapter seven Bocking examines the study of fish populations and their environment in Canada by the University of Toronto and the Ontario government. The account is rather brief in comparison to the previous three, but Bocking does identify the contributions made by ecologists in fisheries management based on ecosystem...