Seeing Our Planet Whole: A Cultural and Ethical View of Earth Observation

Harry Eyres has become one of the most eloquent advocates of the worldwide Slow movement. He holds an MA in English from Trinity College, Cambridge (where he was an Entrance and Senior Scholar), the Diploma de Estudios Hispanicos from Barcelona University and an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Evaluation from LSE, where he graduated with a Distinction. Having worked for leading newspapers and magazines as a theatre critic, wine writer and poetry editor, in 2004 he created the weekly Slow Lane column in FT Weekend, which ran for eleven years until April 2015. Slow Lane covered cultural and environmental themes and consistently advocated a less consumption-focussed lifestyle. Eyres is also the author of The Beginner's Guide to Plato's The Republic (Hodder & Stoughton), the memoir Horace and Me: Life Lessons from an Ancient Poet (Bloomsbury: short-listed for the PEN/Ackerley Prize in 2014), and several books on wine. He lives in London.

Introduction.- Cosmology and astronomy from pre-history to the Roman Empire.- Aquinas to Newton.- The Enlightenment, the Romantic Rebellion, the Industrial Age, the nature conservation movement and total war.- The post-war period and the rise of ecological consciousness.- Non-western cultures' attitudes to environment.- The ethical dimension: the slow evolution of environmental ethics.- A short history of earth observation.- The resistances.- The aesthetic dimension.- Earth observation for whom? Towards an environmental democracy.- Conclusion.- Epilogue.

"Throughout this work, Eyres urges an informed citizenry to take an active part in the care of Earth's resources. The text contains helpful footnotes ... . Summing Up: Recommended. All readers." (M. Dickinson, Choice, Vol. 54 (9), May, 2017)