Wild at Heart: America’s Turbulent Relationship with Nature, from Exploitation to Redemption

Outwater (Water: A Natural History), a water quality consultant, does a solid job of tracing North Americans’ relationship with nature, but few are likely to be as optimistic as she is about the future of the environment. She begins by contrasting religions which hold that every living thing has a soul and the Judeo-Christian tradition, which distinguishes between humans and nature. Outwater traces the implications of that latter, dominant Western belief, and of the Industrial Revolution, and the collateral consequences of decimating certain species. She does more than simply examine how the environment changed for plants and animals, spelling out the changes’ effects on human health, as with the horrific mortality rate among the lower classes in 19th-century industrialized England. On the whole, however, her glass is decidedly half-full; she notes, with pride, that since the 1960s the U.S. has “helped save the whales, heal the ozone hole, and halt acid rain.” While acknowledging that climate change “poses enormous challenges,” she asserts that humanity has come “full circle” and embraced environmentalism. Her outlook is cheerful but far from convincing at a time of enormous opposition to proactive environmental legislation in the U.S. and elsewhere, marring an otherwise well-written historical survey. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. (Apr.)