Greetings and welcome to our second on-line issue. As you may notice, we are still in an experimental mode as we test various models of presentation. This situation will continue as our functionality grows with developments in new formats. While still very much swimming in the obscure waters of computer jargon (e.g., HTML, XML, SGML, E-Book), I am, nevertheless, slowly beginning to understand and appreciate the increased functionality of this technology. Although I entered this technological world with considerable scepticism and with a view that I would do so only to ensure that the voice of the Trumpeter was not completely lost, I am beginning to see that the deep ecology community might benefit considerably from it. Some of these functions include: 1) increased referencing capacity, 2) cross-referencing to other articles, 3) indexing and 4) linking to other sources.
With John Ollerenshaw now joining us as managing editor, we hope to provide ongoing service to the community. His efforts to bring awareness of the on-line version and to encourage submissions from the deep ecology supporters are greatly appreciated.
We are experiencing an enormous number of visits to the site (approximately 1300 per month), far beyond our expectations. This phenomenon suggests that the Trumpeter remains a viable and perhaps important voice for the deep ecology community, if not a wider community. The idea of an on-line version has met with some resistance, but more people seem to be giving it a chance. With the kind of exposure we are getting we believe that the new publishing approach is both viable and particularly valuable to the environmental movement.
This issue of the Trumpeter focuses on ways of knowing and how it affects our relationship to the land. Supporters of deep ecology have concerned themselves with ways of knowing from the inception of the movement, but there remain many insights to gain, both from examining historical and marginalized perspectives (e.g., aboriginal) and by examining more contemporary analyses of various psychological dimensions of knowing. Our first three articles penetrate different dimensions of knowing from three different perspectives. Annie Booth explores the idea of ways of knowing and the meaning of information from bioregional, ecofeminist, deep ecological and aboriginal perspectives. Knowing, as an embodied, rational, individual and community quest, is a mode of knowing that many ecosophies seek to develop; yet it is already present in Native American traditions.
Tim Rogers asks us to consider an idea of third space as a way to appreciate and understand a more comprehensive mode of knowing: a way that is conversational in nature. His exploratory psychological examination begins with a characterization of this mode of knowing as “hunch” to one more structured and detailed as the notion of third space is unravelled.
Michael Caley and Daiyo Sawada present “a way of understanding current philosophies in relation to how we bring forth the world.” They “look for a way of understanding creativity as a source of transformation within and across philosophies.” Offering a typology of Mindscapes, Caley and Sawada propose a way to characterize and classify different ways of knowing and the sorts of creativity associated with those ways. These typologies can aid in the resolution of environmental problems as they promote deeper thinking about why we actually hold the views that we do and, moreover, how we hold them.
Ralph Martin’s proposal that Cuba can serve as exemplary of deep ecological principles, or at least an approximation of its principles from which other countries stand to learn, shifts focus more to the political perspective. It helps the deep ecology community, in turn, to demonstrate that the movement offers real possibilities for implementing the tenets of deep ecology.
Paul Chamberlain contributes the narrative in this issue. He addresses human hubris, by speaking to the question of why and how we formulate our aspirational ideals. David Orton’s piece on Green politics strains the seam between the ecologically motivated green movement and green politics. It offers a perspective on this tension from a wealth of experience from the battleground, so to speak. We round out this issue with two book reviews, one on Nancy Ryley’s The Forsaken Garden (Tom Henighan) and the other on Joanna Macy’s autobiography Widening Circles: A Memoir (Aryne Sheppard).
While we have been fortunate to have these fine articles, some from our backlog and some new, the Trumpeter is still in need of articles. We encourage the community to submit articles (especially research-based articles) that have a deep ecology connection, whether supportive or critical. Since we are now a university sponsored publication, our emphasis has shifted toward more research oriented articles, although we retain the presence of narrative, opinion pieces, poetry and reviews.
Copyright retained by author(s)