A broader and more comprehensive understanding of how we communicate with each other about the natural world and our relationship to it is essential to solving environmental problems. How do individuals develop beliefs and ideologies about the environment? How do we express those beliefs through communication? How are we influenced by the messages of pop culture and social institutions? And how does all this communication become part of the larger social fabric of what we know as "the environment"?
Communicating Nature explores and explains the multiple levels of everyday communication that come together to form our perceptions of the natural world. Author Julia Corbett considers all levels of communication, from communication at the individual level, to environmental messages transmitted by popular culture, to communication generated by social institutions including political and regulatory agencies, business and corporations, media outlets, and educational organizations.
The book offers a fresh and engaging introductory look at a topic of broad interest, and is an important work for students of the environment, activists and environmental professionals interested in understanding the cultural context of human-nature interactions.
"Traditionally, Nature's beauty has been in the eye of the beholder, when not in the wayof the bulldozer. Now, Julia Corbett turns a scientist's eye to how we communicate with each other about the natural world. Her astute and deep analysis is greatly needed. …."---Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods "Corbett gives practical advice in this text for her students in environmental studies ... The author explores attitudes toward the environment from lawn care at home to ecotourism. Valuable for graduate and undergraduate students as well as the lay public and organizations concerned with the environment. Summing Up: Recommended." "For those involved with the communication of nature, this is an important book. No matter where your particular point of view fits into the spectrum of environmental ideology, understanding how your beliefs were formed and how they color your views of the natural world is important." "… theoretically sound and immediately practical. [Professor Corbett] has writtenan excellent textbook, filled with fun little gems of activities that will encourage studentsto complement the content knowledge [she] provides with their own personal experiences."---Tarla Rai Peterson, Texas A&M University; editor of Green Talk in the White House "This is a wonderful book for any student of the environment.... Julia Corbett provides a valuable text exploring issues ranging from the morality of zoos to our consumer society and the 'buyosphere.' Readers will come away with a new understanding of nature and culture."---Susan K. Jacobson, University of Florida; author of Communication Skills for Conservation Professionals "Communicating Nature is a timely and important book on a subject that has received relatively little critical attention. This book… should be of great value to people interestedin promoting and marketing more responsible and effective resource management andenvironmental conservation."---Stephen R. Kellert, Yale University; author of Building for Life "This focus on the role of communication-in its broadest sense-in the construction ofenvironmental beliefs and behaviors will be… a must-read for environmental communicationstudents and practitioners."---Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Corbett's book is carefully researched and thoughtfully presented...her overall tone is unflinchingly objective...Communicating Nature is extremely successful at laying bare the messages that shape our attitudes."
