Book contents
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Reviews
- Series page
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Thoreau Would Love Environmental Justice
- 1 Thoreau’s Social World
- 2 The Politics of Getting a Living
- 3 Thoreau’s Theological Critique of Philanthropy
- 4 Political Asceticism
- 5 Delight in True Goods
- Conclusion: The Promise of a Delighted Environmental Ethic
- Epilogue: On Mourning
- Bibliography
- Index
Epilogue: On Mourning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2021
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Reviews
- Series page
- Thoreau’s Religion
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Why Thoreau Would Love Environmental Justice
- 1 Thoreau’s Social World
- 2 The Politics of Getting a Living
- 3 Thoreau’s Theological Critique of Philanthropy
- 4 Political Asceticism
- 5 Delight in True Goods
- Conclusion: The Promise of a Delighted Environmental Ethic
- Epilogue: On Mourning
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I began to think seriously about environmental ethics in the aftermath of the explosion of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon in 2010. The disaster inspired my first fieldwork trip to Franklin County, Florida. As the oil gushed from the uncapped well for months, I – like everyone else who cares about the Gulf coast – felt a surge of sadness and anxiety: What if everything we loved was gone? I became obsessed, in the early days of the oil gush, with reading the news. As “solution” after “solution” for closing the so-called leak failed, as the estimates of the rate of flow climbed ever upward, from leak, to gush, to rip-roaring unstoppable tide, my heart fell. I couldn’t sleep.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Thoreau's ReligionWalden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism, pp. 279 - 282Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021