The twenty-first century presents an increasing number of
environmental problems, including toxic pollution, global warming,
destruction of tropical forests, extinction of biological
diversity, and depletion of natural resources. These environmental
problems are generally due to human behavior, namely
over-consumption of resources and overpopulation. Designing
effective policies to address these problems requires a deep
understanding of human behavior as well as ecology. This in turn
requires considerations of human nature, and the evolutionary
"design" of the human mind.
Evolutionary research on human behavior has profound implications
for the environmental sciences. The aim of this collection is to
bring together a variety of chapters that show how and why. Part 1,
"Human Nature and Resource Conservation," addresses environmental
problems from different evolutionary perspectives. Part 2, "The
Ecological Noble Savage Hypothesis," examines the notion that our
environmental problems are due to Western culture, and that our
ancestors and people in indigenous societies lived in harmony with
nature until the corrupting influences of Western culture. Part 3,
"The Tragedy of the Commons," explores the conservation of
common-pool or open-access natural resources, such as fisheries,
forests, grazing lands, freshwater, and clean air. Part 4, "The
Evolution of Discounting and Conspicuous Consumption," looks at the
problem of explaining why people are so ecologically short-sighted
and why people in developed countries consume so many resources.
Part 5, "Overpopulation and Fertility Declines," addresses the
evolution of human reproductive decisions. Part 6, "Biophilia,"
aims to explain why people cherish nature as well as destroy it.
The goal of this volume is to introduce environmental thinkers to
evolutionary perspectives on human behavior, and the new
interdisciplinary sciences of evolutionary psychology and
behavioral ecology. This reader aims to help bridge the artificial
division between the biological and social sciences, and provide a
synthesis between evolutionary sciences of human behavior and
environmental sciences.
Dustin J. Penn is director, Konrad Lorenz Institute, Austrian
Academy of Sciences, Vienna. Iver Mysterud is biologist and
researcher at the Department of Biology, University of Oslo,
Norway.
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