I’m pleased to report that submissions to the Trumpeter are increasing, and a renewed commitment to the publication is becoming evident. As the online version develops, we are finding a renewed and evolving use of the site. The number of visits to the site (about 1300 every week) probably indicates a growing, albeit emerging, readership as a more web-savvy, environmentally concerned community grows.
We are presently examining different technologies for delivery, keeping the view in mind that these technologies are to serve the community, rather than dictating the way in which the community disseminates its ideas, research, and views. Sometimes technologies emerge, such as e-books and bulletin boards, that promise to increase potential for access to information, ideas, and forums. Often, however, the cost of technology and access to the means for the utilization of it (e.g. broad-band transmission) bars access to many who desire and would benefit from such technology. We wrestle with these issues at the Trumpeter. We face the need to compromise with technological demands by offering some increased functioning (e.g., easier locating of references), but not incorporating others that might require computing capacity that many people don’t have. Accessibility by as wide an audience as possible is of foremost concern. We encourage the use of libraries and other modes of access to enable those without adequate technology to access the online version of the Trumpeter. We also invite members of the deep ecology community to voice their concerns and ideas about this shift to more technologically dependent delivery.
In this issue, Chet Bowers discusses some of the implications of moving more toward a computer-based society and, particularly, the effect of this move on cultural identities and autonomy. The growing tendency of our society to treat knowledge as data, Bowers argues, is having an impact not only on cultural identity, but on our ability to be attuned to local ecosystems.
Alan Drengson, founder of the Trumpeter, writes about the possibility of identifying and acting upon deeply held and shared values in addressing environmental degradation and the social impacts of that degradation. By tracing the development of the shallow and deep ecology movements, Drengson reviews for us the key facets of the deep ecology movement, with a focus on Arne Naess’s open-ended approach. With this background, he outlines some implications for business and world trade, were these to become ecologically responsible.
Viktor Postnikov brings a brief survey, international in flavour, of the development of eco-poetry. He provides a way of understanding the nature and aims of such poetry in its role in conveying the sacred feeling of unity with nature. We are happy to continue to publish poetry in the Trumpeter and find Postnikov’s contribution a welcome inspiration to that end.
The idea of the Aleph, or as David Wright would have it, “the substance, the divinity that the primordial symbol seeks to communicate across time and space,” explores the elements of magic and the transcendence in alphabetized languages. Appealing to the likes of David Abram and Jorge Luis Borges, Wright explores the “translation from experience to explanation” through the problematic of written language. The article follows on the focus of the last issue on ways of knowing through the perceptions of Annie Booth and Tim Rogers.
Holons are the focus of Stan Rowe’s critique of Ken Wilber’s . Brief History of Everything. Rowe’s critical review examines the organismic roots of Wilber’s idea and concludes that its use is over-extended, and as such, both unwarranted and dangerous (including the potential for supporting fascist thought).
Jason Wallin’s narrative challenges the established pedagogical methods in biological sciences and how we come to learn about other species and ecosystems. At-one-ment is seen as an open-ended form of knowing that anticipates surprise in the more immediate presence of natural processes. In many respects the article reads better as a narrative of Wallin’s own experience in the teaching process, despite his critique of the Cartesian and Baconian approaches to knowing nature.
Richard Arnold offers us a series of poems, Earthshark, Prophet River, an untitled piece, and Second Ascent. We are grateful for Arnold’s contribution and encourage further submissions of poetry. Arnold’s poems contribute a richness to the Trumpeter—a special element that distinguishes the Trumpeter from other scholarly publications.
John Seed presents us with a detailed report on the “EarthSpirit Rising” conference held at Bellarmine University, Louisville, Kentucky in June, 2001.
Finally, we thank Richard Arnold once again for his review of Under the Tough Old Stars. We are mostly interested in reviews of books for which we request reviews, although unsolicited and unpublished reviews of books pertinent to supporters of deep ecology will be considered.
I am deeply grateful for the work of referees, both board members and non-board volunteers, for making the online version of the Trumpeter possible. Without their dedication and concern for the deep ecology movement, this journal would not exist.
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