Living Through the End of Nature The Future of American Environmentalism

"In this insightful and well-structured book, Wapner points clearly to the dilemmas and difficulties in modern environmentalism. To survive and succeed, it has had to draw boundaries between good and evil, right and wrong, and humans and nature. Yet it is these very borders that have led to polarised dreams of naturalism and mastery. The truth is that there is no such thing as a single environmentalist movement – it is highly variegated. It will have to find a way into, as Wapner puts it, a 'postnature age'."
– Jules Pretty, Times Higher Education

"Wapner is right: environmentalists have to adjust to a world without pristine nature. And once they do, they are bound to invent environmental techniques that go beyond creating protected areas. In future, the wilderness may be less wild, but our cities, suburbs, farms and industrial sites will be wilder."
– Emma Marris, Nature

"Wapner's book is the most sophisticated analysis of the theoretical issues underlying contemporary environmentalism yet written. In easily accessible language, Wapner unveils some of the contradictions facing environmentalism. For example, he shows that while environmentalism 'wants to preserve, conserve, and sustain the more-than-human realm, which involves minimizing our presence, reducing our footprint, and otherwise restraining our interventions,' it is also 'realizing that this cannot be done without extreme intrusion using some of the most sophisticated technologies and managerial types of control' [...] [His] 'middle path' involves a set of principles to inform environmentalist policies and a spiritual consciousness that requires mindfulness, heartfulness, a respect for the wildness both within nature and within ourselves, and a willingness to accept our state of not fully knowing how to maintain our awareness of the deep mysteries that abide both inside and outside ourselves – mysteries 'whose wildness is crucial to maintaining our own sense of well-being along with that of the world.'"
– Tikkun

"Anyone who grapples with the slippery semantics of 'nature' is practicing a form of intellectual bravery few of us seem willing to endure. And for good reason. As we discover in Paul Wapner's deep and poignant treatment of the subject, there is no easy resting place between an environmentalist's love of nature and his mastery of it."
– Mark Dowie, author of Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century (MIT Press)

"Design is the first signal of human intention. Given the state of the world today, it is clear: nature doesn't have a design problem, people do. Because we are the 'dominant' species, our design question now encompasses the entire world and takes us to the essential places of human intention and natural experience and their interdependence. Paul Wapner, with this book, takes us on an elegant and richly informed exploration of these essential places so that we may divine a path forward worthy of our promise as a species. His book insightfully wrestles with the fundamental design question: 'How do we love all the children of all species for all time?'"
– William McDonough, coauthor of Cradle to Cradle

"Paul Wapner provides important ideas about what nature means, and what it doesn't mean. He offers a strong voice in an intellectual argument that needs to continue because it bears very heavily on the practical choices we now face."
– Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"Wapner is one of the world's leading scholars of environmental politics and his latest book, Living Through the End of Nature, is a sophisticated exploration of the future of the environmental movement. If you dream of a better tomorrow, Wapner's book will lead the way."  – Peter Dauvergne, Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Politics, University of British Columbia, author of Shadows of Consumption