A01=Shaul E. Cohen
activism
afforestation
american forests
arbor day
Author_Shaul E. Cohen
big business
biodiversity
Category=RNK
clear cutting
conservation
deforestation
ecology
ecosystem
environment
environmental crisis
environmental groups
environmentalism
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eq_nobargain
forest
global releaf
government policy
green activism
green living
green politics
habitat
lumber
natural sciences
natural world
nature
nonfiction
political agenda
political science
relationship to nature
stewardship
timber
timber companies
tree planting
tree time usa
trees
trees for america
Product details
- ISBN 9780520237704
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 May 2004
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Trees hold a powerful place in American constructions of what is good in nature and the environment. As we attempt to cope with environmental crises, trees are increasingly enlisted with great fervor as agents of our stewardship over nature. In this innovative and impassioned book, Shaul E. Cohen exposes the way that environmental stewardship is undermined through the manipulation of trees and the people who plant them by a partnership of big business, the government, and tree-planting groups. He reveals how positive associations and symbols that have been invested in trees are exploited by an interlocking network of government agencies, private timber companies, and nongovernmental organizations to subvert the power of people who think that they are building a better world. "Planting Nature" details the history of tree planting in the United States and the rise of popular sentiment around trees, including the development of the Arbor Day holiday and tree-planting groups such as the National Arbor Day Foundation and American Forests.
Drawing from internal papers, government publications, advertisements, and archival documents, Cohen illustrates how organizations promote tree planting as a way of shifting attention away from the causes of environmental problems to their symptoms, masking business-as-usual agendas. Ultimately, "Planting Nature" challenges the relationships between a 'green' public, the organizations that promote their causes, and the 'powers that be,' providing a cautionary tale of cooperation and deception that cuts across the political spectrum.
Shaul E. Cohen is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Oregon and author of The Politics of Planting: Israeli-Palestinian Competition for Control of Land in the Jerusalem Periphery (1993).
