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Environmentalism and the evolving information society

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Summary

The problems of environment and development on a global scale are introduced, and the author's earlier characterization of the development of environmentalism as consisting of “alarmist”, “special-issue”, and “big-issue” stages, is summarized. This analysis is extended by a description and discussion of the seeming irreconcilability of “environmentalism as plan” and “environmentalism as goal” approaches. A brief outline is presented of some of the features of the emerging information society — from the media to technological innovation — and their implications for environment and development — from self-reliance and participative democracy to indicative planning. The paper concludes with examination of some developments in disciplines ranging from anthropology to physics that portend a new holistic, adaptive, more subjective and “irrational” science. A science that may, when coupled with equally new nonequilibrium systems theories and the implications of information technologies, provide the impetus and a framework for the drawing together of development and environment, of environmentalism as plan and environmentalism as goal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada

    D. Scott Slocombe

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  1. D. Scott Slocombe
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Mr D. Scott Slocombe holds a B.I.S. from the University of Waterloo, a M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia, and is presently a doctoral candidate in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Waterloo. Formerly a systems ecologist with Environmental and Social Systems Analysts (ESSA), in Toronto, the author is also a founding member of the International Society for Environmental Education. His current research interests include nonequilibrium systems theories and environmental management, and strategic planning for conservation and sustainable development.

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Slocombe, D.S. Environmentalism and the evolving information society. Environmentalist 7, 283–289 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02240217

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