The war against ourselves - Nature, power and justice

The future of the environment, and the destructive impact of unregulated market-led growth on it, has become the defining socio-political issue
Cock, Jacklyn
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Author: Jacklyn Cock
Publisher: Witwatersrand University Press
Johannesburg, 2007
ISBN: 13: 978-1-86814-457-0
Paperback, 15x24 cm, 245 page
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Description:

For many people 'nature' means wilderness and wild animals. It is experienced indirectly through magazines and television programmes or through visiting the highly managed environments of national parks. Nature, however, is not external, separate from the world of people - we live in nature and interact with it daily.

In this book, Jacklyn Cock describes how these intricate and complex interconnections, seen and unseen, are often ignored. Each of the ten chapters examines an aspect of our relationship with nature: ignoring, understanding, enjoying, imitating, privatising, polluting, abusing, protecting as well as organising for nature.

The concluding chapter deals with the growing inequality between the North and the South. "The War Against Ourselves" compels us to re-examine our relationship with nature, to change our practices and dissolve present binary divisions such as people vs. animals, economic growth vs. environmental protection, 'nature' vs. 'culture'. It demonstrates the need for an inclusive politics which brings together peace, social and environmental justice activists who believe that another world is both possible and necessary.


About the author:

Jacklyn Cock is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg where she lectured for 25 years. She is also Honourary Research Professor in the Sociology of Work unit (SWOP). She has been involved in the environmental movement since the 1970s.


Review:

Eddie Webster, Director of the Sociology of Work Unit, University of the Witwatersrand:
The future of the environment, and the destructive impact of unregulated market-led growth on it, has become the defining socio-political issue of the 21st century. This book, by taking a holistic approach to the subject, will attract readers who are interested in the section on the origin, growth and social composition of bird-watching through to those who see capitalism on a suicidal course in its drive to exploit nature for profit.


Content:

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ignoring Nature
Chapter 2: Understanding Nature
Chapter 3: Enjoying Nature
Chapter 4: Imitating Nature
Chapter 5: Privatising Nature
Chapter 6: Polluting Nature
Chapter 7: Abusing Nature
Chapter 8: Protecting Nature
Chapter 9: Organising for Nature
Chapter 10: Rethinking Nature
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index


Introduction:

The central argument of this book is that nature is a site of struggle, a struggle largely shaped by relations of power and different conceptions of justice. The argument is built through an analysis of different ways of relating to nature. The starting point is that nature is a social construct in the sense that different people understand 'the natural world' in very different ways.

For many people 'nature' means wilderness and wild animals, and it is experienced very indirectly through magazines and television programmes or through visiting the highly managed environments of national parks. Nature is understood as a place apart, a place to visit, to escape to wearing sunblock, mosquito repellant and protective clothing. But nature is not external, separate from the world of people. We live in nature and interact with it every day in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.

These interactions are described in ten chapters that emphasise how our current ways of relating to nature are not grounded in a recognition of the intricate and complex ways in which all living things are interconnected. Many of these interconnections are - like the stars at noon - largely unseen, hidden from our direct experience. Similarly, many threats to
nature are invisible, and are threats to the survival of all forms of life, including our own species. Because these threats are largely due to human actions, there is the potential to change.

Realising this potential involves dissolving the present divisions between people or animals, economic growth or environmental protection, and 'nature' or 'culture'. This implies overcoming the fragmentary nature of our politics and confronting questions of power and justice. In this sense, the book demonstrates the need for an inclusive politics that brings together peace, social and environmental justice activists who believe that another world is both possible and necessary.

This is a work of scholarship, but is aimed at general readers to stimulate them to ask some new questions about their encounters with nature in their daily lives. The scholarship draws on a number of sources, including informal conversations and more formal in-depth interviews with key informants, a survey of different understandings of 'nature' among a sample of young South Africans and a literature review of primary and secondary sources.

All the chapters draw on my personal experience describing some of the environmental activists I have been privileged to know, some of the struggles I have been part of and some of the wild places and creatures I have encountered. My experiences as an honorary nature conservation officer in the Eastern Cape in the 1970s gave me insights into the 'victim blaming' conservation discourse of the time, and my friends in the Group for Environmental Monitoring, Earthlife, the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance and the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) helped me to understand the linkages between environmental and social justice.

I write as a sociologist, not a natural scientist. This may seem presumptuous, but I will argue in the concluding chapter that Environmental Sociology has a special capacity to address the current crisis of nature, by exposing its social causes and consequences.

Chapter 1: Ignoring Nature shows how our daily interactions with nature are hidden and easy to ignore. People are increasingly remote and disconnected from nature. Most of us do not know where our water comes from, or where our household rubbish goes, or whether the stars were out last night, or when the next full moon is, or where our food comes from, or what source of energy provides the electricity in our homes. We think of electricity as a switch in the wall, ignoring the coal-burning power stations that generate the
carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to the devastating process of global warming. This is one manifestation of nature in crisis, a crisis largely due to human agency, but often unseen and unrecognised.

Chapter 2: Understanding Nature shows how our relations with nature are complicated by different meanings and values. These generally reinforce the idea of nature as external to human beings. The chapter begins with a description of an 'ecotherapy' project in the Drakensberg in which young people swim through a rock tunnel and confront the challenge of surviving in a wild environment in ways that deepen their self-confidence and ability to relate empathetically to others. It explores some of the different values and understandings that various people attribute to nature. For some, nature is a spiritual source, a place of healing where people living in urban settings can reconnect, not only with the natural world, but with one another and with their own capacities. For others, nature is a fund of resources to be used for economic development, or a store of biodiversity or of scientific knowledge. It is shown that some of the worst instances of environmental destruction have been done in the name of controlling nature. Increasingly, nature is commodified and images of nature are used to market a range of consumer products.

Chapter 3: Enjoying Nature describes the different, largely remote, packaged and passive ways in which people experience 'wild' nature. It begins with a profile of one of South Africa's best ornithologists, Warwick Tarboton, and discusses the growth of birdwatching, claimed to be the fastest growing hobby in the world. This involves increasing corporate sponsorship, often by the self-same corporations responsible for the destruction of habitats that is threatening many bird species. It is suggested that television documentaries on nature and ecotourism often provide a false, packaged experience that reduces nature to entertainment and deepens our alienation. At the same time, the capacity of 'wild' nature to intrigue and delight us is disappearing.

Chapter 4: Imitating Nature describes relating to nature as a source of ideas about appropriate social relations and behaviour, as a model of social arrangements. It begins by describing the first gay rights march in South Africa, an event that some described as celebrating 'unnatural' behaviour. The gay rights struggle has emphasised how appeals to 'nature' or to 'the natural' are often made to legitimate a particular
normative order; the claim is that patterns of social behaviour such as heterosexual sex, marriage, jealousy, competitiveness, social inequality and war, for example, are 'natural'.

Chapter 5: Privatising Nature describes relating to nature as a source of profit and the struggles this generates. The process of turning natural resources into commodities to be bought and sold is happening around the world and is deepening both social and environmental injustice. The main culprits are the multinational corporations that have been termed 'ecological destroyers'. The chapter is set in Orange Farm, a large informal settlement in South Africa, and uses this to introduce a discussion of privatising a 'natural resource' that is also a crucial human need, water. It is shown that the introduction of pre-paid water meters in Orange Farm has had devastating health and social impacts on poor households, who are organising through the Coalition Against Water Privatisation.

Chapter 6: Polluting Nature describes the cost of disregarding nature in the production process, what is sometimes called 'externalising costs'. It begins by profiling Strike Matsepo, who has been involved in a struggle against South Africa's largest steel manufacturer's pollution of the groundwater in Steel Valley, the area around Vanderbijlpark. It describes the efforts of Matsepo and groupings such as the Steel Valley Crisis Committee and the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance to stop this pollution of nature and obtain compensation for the thousands of people who have lost their health and livelihoods. The chapter shows that in Steel Valley, as in the case of Love Canal in New York State (the scandal that acted as a catalyst to the American environmental movement), the pollution was neither cataclysmic nor dramatic. There was no sudden moment when the physical surroundings changed suddenly. The pollution of the groundwater from invisible chemicals was slow, insidious and often denied by state officials and even the residents themselves.

Chapter 7: Abusing Nature describes relations with nature that are grounded in the notion that nature exists for the benefit of humans, and that human beings are the source of all value and meaning in the world. As in the other chapters, it begins with a story as a spotlight, a way of focusing on a set of issues. It describes a visit to a 'hidden abode' of production, the abattoir, and discusses difficult questions raised by struggles for animal rights about our treatment of other animals and their intellectual and emotional capacities.

Chapter 8: Protecting Nature describes relations aimed at protecting nature as a store of biodiversity. It begins by describing the ruins of the fifteenth century settlement of Thulamela in the north of the Kruger National Park and reports on our efforts to protect wild nature in national parks and game reserves. We need such protected areas, but they promote the dangerous idea that nature is separate from civilisation and that people can put nature in a specific, bounded place and live outside of it. Travelling in an air-conditioned car through a national park provides a very tame and domesticated experience of wild nature: it is reduced to a purely visual experience emptied of any discomfort involving heat or dust or physical exertion or danger. Furthermore, up to four-fifths of South Africa's biodiversity lies outside its protected areas. An important theme explored in this chapter is the social impact of conserving 'wild nature! Over a million people visit the Kruger National Park each year and some even feel reverential about the ruins at Thulamela, but ignore the living real-world people who are economically and politically marginalised around the edges of the park and who are struggling to obtain material benefits from conservation.

Chapter 9: Organising for Nature profiles individuals like Thabo Madihlaba, Bobby Peek and Mandla Mentoor, who describes himself as 'organising for nature'. It reports on the efforts of increasing numbers of people who relate to nature as a site of struggle to achieve sustainable development or environmental justice. Based on interviews with various key environmentalists, this chapter records their very different understandings of nature, their routes into activism, and the different organisations and struggles with which they are involved.

Chapter 10: Rethinking Nature returns to the theme of nature as a site of struggle. It is suggested that at this time of deepening crisis in nature, it is well to remember Rachel Carson's warnings about how we are poisoning the planet and ourselves. In her book Silent Spring she argued that the methods employed for insect control were such that 'they will destroy us as well'. Since she wrote world pesticide production has increased dramatically. The reason has to do with issues that Carson neglected - issues such as power, justice, social inequality, globalisation and war. These are issues that may seem remote from a concern with nature, but are deeply implicated in the current crisis.


Index:

African Black Duck 210
African Wild Dog 15
Albertyn, Chris 183,188
Alexandra township 101-102
American environmental movement 4,25,
178-179
animal rights, abuse of 4,123-138,170,175,186,
210,213
abattoirs 4, 9-10,123-124,127,129-132
Animal Anti-Cruelty League 133
factory/battery farming 127-131, 213
vegetarianism 123,130-132
vivisection 126-127,129,213
animals
captive/zoos/oceanariums 134-135
culling of 136,139,178
domesticated/pets 132-134
objectification of/hunting 53,57,59,76,126,
135-138,147,153-154,171, 176
antelope, roan/sable 15, 58
anthropocentrism/speciesism 82-83,126,
138-139
Anti-Privatisation Forum 96-98,192-193
Coalition Against Water Privatisation 4,
94-97,191-192,195
apartheid 33, 95,97,102,119,138,148-150,152,
155,162, 164,167,171, 173,177,180, 215
anti-apartheid struggle 115,125,170-171,
193
Arcelorl09,119
archaeological sites 142,149,163
Great Zimbabwe 141
Mapungubwe 141,160,163
Masorini 163
Thulamela 5,141-142,149,163
Arctic circle/polar ice caps 14,65, 209
Attenborough, David 64-65, 81
baboon 80,125,127,132,139
Bailey, Cora 133
Baines, Thomas 66,199
Basson, Wouter 124-125
Beall, Jo 101
Berry, Thomas 20
Bhopal 120
biocentric/ecocentric ethics 49,211
biotic community 48-49
land ethic 48-49
biodiversity 3, 5,14-15, 21,24, 32,36-37,43,49,
61,104,118,135,137,142-143,148,150-152,
154,157,162,164,166-167,176,178, 204, 208
biotechnology 42-44, 74
biological warfare 125
cloning 44
genetic modification 9,42-44,105,118,186,
188
bird flu 128
Birdlife Guide Training Scheme 61
Biyela, Nokwethemba 30
Black-collared Barbet 210
Black Sash 124
Blackeyed Bulbul 210
Blue Swallow 10, 57
Boipatong 101,113
Botswana 124,137,155-156,163
Brazil 98,203
buffalo 138,142,152,154
bushbuck 8,40,85
Cape clawless otter 8
Cape Floral/Fynbos Region 15
capitalism 18,45, 67,75,98-100,129,195,
204-206
Carson, Rachel 5,13,16,24-25, 37,47,127,173,
200-201,211-215,217
Cato Ridge 116
Chiluba, Frederick 70
Chloorkop campaign 187
chorister robin 8
civil society mobilisation 104,159,177,183,189,
191,195-196
class inequality/divisions 72, 78,101-102,108,
115, 117, 175-176,179-180, 183, 191, 195,
201-206, 211, 216
Coega Industrial Development Zone 121
Coetzee, JM 8,129
colonialism/colonisation 112,138,147,149-150,166
commodification/marketisation/privatisation of
nature 3-4, 35-36, 38-45, 67, 90,93, 96, 99,
103-105,119,135,180, 204, 217
Disneyland 41
environmental consumerism/commercialism
64-65, 121, 162-163
genome/genomics 44,104
theme parks 41
communism 45
Community Led Animal Welfare 133
Confederation of Hunters of South Africa 137
conservation/conservationist 2, 5, 23-24,28, 39,
43, 55-57, 61-62, 67,134-136, 138, 142-143,
146,148,150-152, 154, 156,158, 164-165,167,
175, 177,180,196, 208
community involvement in 157-159,
161-162, 166, 176-177
corporate involvement in 52, 57-58,61,166
ethic of reverence 138
heritage 163-164
traditional 31, 56,163
crane 58-60, 66
culture
cultural diversity 142
relation of nature to 46,199
Darwin, Charles 11, 74, 78-79, 82, 213
Dawkins, Richard 11, 79
Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) 13
deforestation 14,18
Delhi 12, 99
desertification 14,16
dinosaurs 14, 142,152
DNA fingerprinting 11
dragonfly 51-52
Drakensberg 3, 23, 58
Durban 117,172, 184, 193,196
Durban Declaration of Climate Justice 104
dwarf mongoose 83-85
Earthlife Africa 2, 15,174, 178, 180, 183,185-187,
191, 194
East London 7-8
Eastern Cape 2,136,215
Eastern Cape Game Management
Association 136
ecocentrism/deep ecology 49,139-140
ecology/ecological 8,17, 36-37,47, 50, 74, 89,
148, 152,174, 181,192, 208
modernisation 37,175
social 19,50,158-160,163
economic growth/development 2-3,17,19,
137,150,158-159,161-163,166,170,176,
202-203, 205-206
black economic empowerment 163 *A
Growth, Employment and Redistribution !A
strategy 190
informal economy 87, 92
ecosystems 14-15,17,20,36,65,134,167,176,206,209
management of 38
ecotourism/nature-based tourism 3,15,30, m-
41, 61-63, 67, 137, 143,146, 152-154,158,
160-164
bird tourism 60-61
ecocultural tourism 170
Wilderness Safaris 152-154
ecotherapy/nature as healer 3, 23-28
as agent for transformation 25, 27-28 ill
nature as sanctuary 171
notion of risk 25-26
Educo Africa 27
Youth at Risk Programme 27
elephant 83-84, 124,137, 146, 152, 154,171
emotions in animals 4, 83-85
Emperor Penguin 60
endangered species 15, 30, 39,47, 52, 57-60, 65,
134,138, 213
Endangered Wildlife Trust 60,121,137,176,178
Engen 116-117,172
environmentalism/environmental activism 2, 5,19,
21, 35,166-167,170-171,173-175,177-182,
184-188,195-196, 200, 208, 211-213, 217
grassroots/community-based 21, 96,99,115,
119, 175,182, 184-196
criminalisation of 189
environmental
disasters 18-19
education 160-161,169-172
management 38,139,159
protection 2, 5, 137, 142-148, 151,165-167,
170,175, 208
policy 13, 19, 142
sociology 2, 176, 214-216
environmental degradation/destruction/hazards
4, 11-15, 17-18, 34, 37-39, 43, 57, 66, 68, 89,
100, 117-118, 175-176,180, 188, 191-192,
201-203, 207, 209, 213
role of corporations/industry 13, 57-58,109,
113,116-118,120-121,134,172,177,195,
201-204, 206, 209
role of off-road/4x4 vehicles 65-66
Environmental Justice Networking Forum 2,172,
174,182,184,186-188,194
Environmental Monitoring Group 188
Eskom 116,118
ethology 83-84
eugenics 43, 78
European Commission 119
evolution/mutability 76-80, 82
extinction of species 14-15, 36-37, 53, 57, 59-60,
65,134, 138, 142, 213
fast food industry 128-129
industrial agriculture 128-130
McDonald's 128
Felix, Marianne 172
feminisation of nature 73-74
Fig, David 149,151,158,178,185-186
Fitzsimons, FW 37
Florida Everglades 38
food
hunting for 30-31,48, 53, 57, 59,135-136,
155,166
production/farming 9,39,42-45,105,127-131
security/scarcity 43, 96,180,183, 209
Fossey, Dian 173
fossil fuels 104, 202-203, 209
Freud, Sigmund 76, 82
game reserves 5, 30, 41, 63,143-145,150-151,
164,170
Gauteng Province 26, 87, 97
gender inequality/sexism/rape/domestic violence
9, 72-74, 78, 96, 124-126, 157, 179, 191,
211, 216
Ghana 70, 98
Giddens, Anthony 45-47
global warming/climate change 3,11,13-17,20,41,
57,65-66, 99,104,186,204,207, 209-210,217
carbon emissions 15-17,19-20,104,170,209
greenhouse gases 11,15,17,103,131, 203, 209
Global Witness 111
globalisation/global power 5, 18, 45, 110-111,
115-116, 118-119,190, 201, 203-205, 213
democratic 204-205
grassroots 119, 190,195-196
golden mole 15
golf courses/estates 9, 39-41,91,100
Goodall, Jane 169,173
Gore, Al 19
gorilla 14, 65, 84, 173
Gray, John 204
Greater spotted genet 8
Greenbacked heron 8, 210
green deserts 57,118
green turtle 14
Grey Heron 210
Grey Loerie 210
groundwater contamination 4,103,107,108,110,
112-114,122,172
Groundwork 116,173-174,177,179-180,184,
193-195
Group for Environmental Monitoring 2,135, 151,
158,178,188
habitats, destruction of 3,14,16, 20, 36, 57-59,
61, 65,134, 145,175, 208, 216
health and safety, threats to 4, 11-13, 94-95,
101-103, 107, 116-120, 122, 128, 171-173,
180-182, 184-187, 195, 201, 207-208,
212-213
asbestos 16, 172,187,195
benzene 173
cancer/carcinogens 11,16, 47,107,113-114,
116, 118, 201, 212-213
cholera 10,16, 93-94
malaria 16
mercury 116
sulphur dioxide emissions 11,112,116-118,172
tobacco industry 13
toxic/hazardous waste 103-104,107-108,
112-118,172,184-186, 196, 208
typhoid 10,122
vanadium 195
World Health Organization 16, 91, 116,128
Heraclitus 10, 80
Hermanus 41
Holomisa, Chief Phathekile 70
human nature 75-83
distinction between human and non-human
79-85,139, 178
hyrax, tree/rock 8, 85
identity and nature 34-35
Afrikaner 33,148
ethnic/indigenous 33-34, 52-53,154-155,
164, 166, 216
national/nationalism 33-34, 75,148,164
Imbewu Project 160
inclusivity2,16,48,56,164,179,181,183,191,209
indigenous people/societies 7,29-32,34,41,52-53,
100,138,142,145,149-151,154-156,204
Khoisan 66
Industrial Revolution 46
industrial tourism 165
informal settlements/squatters 4,56,87,102
instinct 75-76, 84
International Fund for Animal Welfare 178
International Sociological Association 83
International Union for the Conservation of
Nature 136
Iscor 107-109,112-115,119
Jameson, Fredric 45,47
Japan 59, 212
Jefferson, Thomas 125
Johannesburg 9-10, 40, 87, 92-93, 97-98,
101-103, 119, 123
Johannesburg Memo 202-205
justice/injustice 1-2, 5,126, 201, 205
environmental 2,4-5, 21-22,114,116,119,
122, 157, 167, 170, 172,174,177-186,
188-195, 202, 213, 217
Justice for Animals 130
social 2,4,9,15,17-18,21-22,97,119,122,126,
146,150-151,167,170,181-184,202,213,217
Kagiso Environmental Awareness Forum 191
Kalahari 85,155-156
Karoo 14-15
Biome 58
Kenya 70
Kotze, Gert 173
Kruger, Paul 33,164
Kumba Resources 121
Kyoto Protocol 103
KwaZulu-Natal 94,116
land
dispossession/appropriation of 99-100,
149-152, 155-156, 166, 177, 203, 215
privatisation/commodification of 45, 99-100
restitution 151-157,159
Land Claims Committee 151
Laughing Dove 210
Le Valiant, Francois 53
Leon, Tony 203
leopard 30,135-137, 152
Leopold, Aldo 23, 38, 48-49, 58-59,171
Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme 9
Liberia 110-111
lion 137,152,199,200
Lopez, Barry 35
Lorenz, Konrad 84
Mabilitsa, Zac 172
Madihlaba, Thabo 5,182-183,188,195
Mafefe community 172,187
Makuleke community 30-31, 33,152-155,166
Maputa-Pondoland 15
marginalised communities 5,16,101-103,115,
184,188,193, 203
disempowered youth 27,160
Marx, Karl 45
Mathaai, Wangari 202
Matopos 31-32
Matsepo, Strike 4,108,115
McKibben, Bill 20,47
Mentoor, Mandla 5,169-171,188
Merchant, Caroline 40, 44,49
Metcalfe, Mary 202
Meyer, John 67
Mhala, Xhosa chief 8, 33
migratory patterns of birds 14-15
Mittal, Lakshmi 108-109,115,119
Mittal Steel 108-113,115-116,118-119, 204
modernity/modernism 12, 42,47,63, 97
post-modernity 45,47,76,100
Moffat, Robert 199-200
Moi, Daniel Arap 70
Mokaba, Peter 139
Monarch butterfly 213
Mondi 116-117,196
Monsanto 116,118
Motherwell 102
Mount Kilimanjaro 14
Mozambique 111, 148, 152
Mugabe, Robert 70
Muir, John 23, 38,171, 200
Munnik, Victor 180,186
Museveni, Yoweri 70
Mutwa, Credo 32-33
Nabham, Gary 20-21, 36
Naess, Arne 36
Namibia 70, 98
national parks 1, 9,137, 142-151,157, 159,
164-167, 170-171
Addo Elephant 62,146,161-162,166
Amboseli 62
Camdeboo 157
Gemsbok 156
Golden Gate 160
Kalahari Gemsbok 155-156
Kgalagadi 28
Kruger 5,15, 33, 57,137,141-142,145,
148-149,151-152,154,156-162,164
Limpopo 163
Richtersveld 158
South African National Parks Board 143,
145-146, 149-150,152,154-164
trans-frontier parks 156
Tsitsikamma 159,161
West Coast 159
Yellowstone 11, 34,142
Yosemite 147
Zimbabwe 31
Zuurveld 143
National Environmental Management Act 38,
181-182
National Peace Accord Trust 25-27
natural resources 4,17, 37
demand for/use/exploitation of 19, 37-38, 61,
89, 182, 204, 206-207, 210, 216
management of 32,45,49, 87-88,90,165,205
non-renewable/dwindling 111, 195, 206-207,
209, 213, 216
renewable/sustainable utilisation of 15,137,
139, 143,151, 162, 177, 186,196-197, 205
natural selection 11
naturalisation of the social 71-74
nature
alienation from/marginalisation of 3, 9-10,
20-21, 36, 38, 42, 48, 65, 67, 71,166-167,
178,210-211, 217
art 54, 59-60, 66-67
as site of struggle 1, 5, 37,170
hidden 1-2,4, 9-10,171-172, 210
interconnectedness of 1,10-11,16,18,20,22,
29-33, 35, 37, 82,179, 200-201, 214-215
socialisation/humanisation of 45-49
threats to/nature in crisis 1-2, 5,13-19, 29,
47, 50, 74, 88-89,104, 164-165,167, 176,
180, 201, 209
understanding of 24, 48, 196
wild/wilderness 5, 8-10, 27-28, 33-36, 39, 41,
52, 58-59, 61,63, 67-68,134-135,142-147,
149-151,160-161,164-165,171, 210
Ndlambe 8, 33
neo-liberalism 44, 88, 91, 97-99,175,192, 203
Ngwane, Trevor 96,190,192-193
Nguni cattle 31, 67
Nigeria 98,196
Nixon, Richard 173
Noah Principle 37
nuclear energy/technology 42, 71,171, 208
Chernobyl disaster 185
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station 118,171
threat/radioactivity 12,118,171,185-186,
194, 208,212
Nujoma, Sam 70
nutrient loading 14
Nylsvlei Nature Reserve 58
Nyl Floodplain 57
Ohio Citizen Action Group 119
Operation Gcin'amanzi 94
Orange Farm 4,22,87, 93, 97-98,102,194-195
Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee 98
ornithology/birding 3, 52-61
Birdlife South Africa/South African
Ornithological Society 55-58, 60-61
commercial birding 60-61
sanctuaries 56-58
pantheism 30
Passenger Pigeon 53
pathogens 11
patriarchal 74
Patterson, Gareth 137
peace 2
Peek, Bobby 5,171,173,184,188
Pelindaba 185-186
Pels Fishing Owl 152
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 178
People Opposing Women Abuse 124
People's World Water Forum 99
pesticides/herbicides 5,42,57,120,131,201,208,212
Phiri, Soweto 94-95, 97-99
Pickover, Michele 126-127,131
Pierneef, Jacob Hendrick 66
Player, Ian 28,143-146
polar bear 14, 65
pollution 4, 9-12,15-18, 47, 57-58, 68,107-110,
112-115,117-119,121,134,170,172-173,177,182,
184-185,187,194-196,201-204,208-210,212,216
Porrit, Jonathan 131
Port Elizabeth 7,101-103
post-apartheid South Africa 18, 34, 91,94,97,99,
121, 143, 147, 156,175, 183,185, 185, 203
transformation/democratisation in 25, 33,
143,146,149-150, 159,180, 184, 188,195
power, relations of 1-2, 5, 22,49, 71-72,119-121,
139,146, 148-149, 176-178,180, 184, 185, 201,
204-205,211,216-217
Pringle, Thomas 7
Professional Hunters Association 136
Project Coast 124-125
Qwelane, Jon 70
racial inequality/racism 9, 56, 72, 74, 78,
101, 108, 117, 126, 138-140, 148-150,
157, 161, 166, 172, 175-177, 179-180,
183-184, 201, 216
Ramke, Glen 60-61
Rasa, Anna 83-85
Read, Mark 66-67
recycling 19,101,103,187
Green House project 103,186-187
reductionist science 13
rhinoceros, black/white 15,136,137,144,146,152
Richards Bay Minerals 173
Riemvasmaak community 146
rights, human/constitutional 91, 96-97,122,
124-126,140, 151, 180-182, 184-185,188,
195, 204-205, 211
Roberts, Austin 27, 55
Robinson, DGA 158
Roodepoort Research Laboratories 124-125
Roots and Shoots Project 169-170
Children Loving Nature 170
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 53, 56
Royal Zulu Reserve and Biosphere project 30
Sachs, Wolfgang 19, 202-203, 209
Sapref 116,172-173
Sappi 116,121
Sasol 116-117,121
Sasolburg Environmental Committee 196
Schweitzer, Albert 140
Sebokeng 114
Seiler, Maggie 25-27
service delivery 87, 96, 98-99, 102, 122,175,188
electricity 87, 97
privatisation of 4, 62, 87-103, 119, 188,
190-192,194-195
sanitation 10, 22, 87, 93, 175
waste 102-103
water 87, 90, 92-94, 97-99,122
sexuality, nature and
heterosexuality 4, 73
homosexuality 3, 69-71
monogamy 71
Shaka, Zulu king 30
Shell 121,181,196
Shiva, Vandana 43, 207
Smit, Steve 130-131
Smith, Jeffrey 27,44
Snyder, Gary 9, 35
social inequality/poverty/previously
disadvantaged groups 4-5, 17-18, 22,
39, 49, 56, 59 56, 61, 87, 89, 91-95, 98,
100-102, 115, 125-126, 148-150, 160-
162, 166, 170, 175, 179, 181, 183, 186,
188, 192-193, 196, 201-203, 206, 211,
216-217
social organisation 3-4,10, 31, 46, 72, 77-79, 81,
83-84, 215
social responsibility/accountability 12, 35, 74, 95,
97,113, 116-117,120,185, 205, 217
corporate greenwash 57, 58, 120-121,
176-177,193
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
133,178
sociobiology 77-78
biophilia 78
soil erosion 16, 41
Soper, Kate 36, 39,67,72-74
South Africans for the Abolition of Vivisection 127
South Durban Community Environmental
Alliance 117,184,193,196
Soweto Mountain of Hope 169-170,183
spirituality, nature and 3, 8, 23-24, 27-31, 35, 38,,
144-145
Buddhism 29
Christianity/Judaeo-Christian tradition
28-29,31
sacredness 29-30,147
St Lucia 33,144,173, 176-178
Stanford Center for Conservation Biology 57
Steel Valley 4,113-115,195
Crisis Committee 4,107,114,192
Stephenson-Hamilton, James 151
succulent flora 14-15
sustainable development 18,61,114,175-176,
183-185,196, 202
Commission 131
Learning for Sustainable Living Programme
56
World Summit on 114, 185, 192-192, 202
Sustainable Energy and Climate Change
Partnership 186
Tanzania 59, 98
Tarboton, Warwick 3, 51-52,61
teratogens 11
Thor Chemicals 116,187,195
Thoreau, Henry David 7, 20-21, 34-35,130
Thula Thula Private Game Reserve 30, 83
titanium mining 33
trade unions/labour movement 92,109,115,171,
177,183,186-187,193,195
Cosatu 92,115,133,162,186,195
traditional cosmology/indigenous tradition 7-8,
29-33, 70, 166
#Khomani San 155-156
Ndebele 31
Xhosa 7-8,31,33, 53
Zulu 30-31, 33
traditional healing and nature 32
transformation, historical 45-46
Transvaal Museum 54-55
Tsonga 142
Uganda 70
ultraviolet radiation 15-16
urban-industrial environmental/'brown' issues
9-10, 12, 16, 34, 38, 52, 63, 65, 67, 136, 170,
175, 181, 183, 187, 196, 203, 210
Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance 2,4,115,
119, 196
van der Sandt, Vivien 124-125
van Eeden, Pieter 112
van Schalkwyk, Martinus 15,167
Vanderbijlpark 107-110,112-115,118,172
Vavi, Zwelinzima 92
Venda141-142
Verdoon, Dr Gerhard 56, 58,130,135,171
Voigt, Leigh 67
Walden Pond 7, 34-35
Walker, Alice 125
war/conflict 4-5, 138, 201, 206-208, 212-213
environmental warfare 208, 212
waste, generation and disposal of 15-16, 34,
101-103, 183,194, 203
landfills 16,101,103
sewerage 121-122
toxic/hazardous waste/illegal dumps
103-104,112-118,134,170-171,184,
186-187, 196, 203, 208-210, 212
water
access to/scarcity of 10,14-15, 88-91, 94,
97-99, 206-207
decommodification of 96, 98-99
wetlands/wetland conservation 58,67,134,176
White, Gilbert 52
Wilderness Leadership School 144,171
Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern
Africa 137, 176-178
Wildlife Society 136
Wilmut, Ian 44
Wilson, Edward 36,77-78
World Bank 89, 103-104
World Coalition Against Water Privatisation and
Commercialisation 99
World Commission for Environment and
Development/Brundtland Commission 176,181
World Social Forum 196
World Wide Fund for Nature 137
World Wilderness Congress 146
World Wildlife Fund 57
Worldwatch Institute 19
Worthington, Richard 15,186
Wright Mills, C 215
Yellowbilled Teal 210
Yosemite 23
Zambia 70
Zimbabwe 70
Zimbali 40
Zuma, Jacob 70,132-133