292 Sigurd Bergmann, Irmgard Blindow and Konrad
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292 book reviews Sigurd Bergmann, Irmgard Blindow and Konrad Ott (eds) Aesth/Ethics in Environmental Change: Hiking Through the Arts, Ecology, Religion and Ethics of the Environment. Zurich and Berlin: lit Verlag, 2013 (pb) 210 pp. €29.90. isbn 978-3-643-90292-4. In the present volume, the thirteen contributors explore a number of ap- proaches in which aesthetics and ethics have and might be joined. A recur- ring theme is how this link can serve to craft responses to environmental change and, in particular, what Heather Eaton tellingly names as “the social- ecological crisis” (109). These actualities and potentialities are invoked by the term “aesth/ethics” as brought forward by Sigurd Bergmann. Employing that nomenclature, the genesis for this project was the workshop, “Aesth/Ethics in Environmental Change,” which took place on Hiddensee Island, Germany, in May 2010. The introduction, written collaboratively by the editors, explains their vision for the conference. Notably, they were seeking to move the focus away from quick technical fixes to long-term knowledge generation within environmental science. Furthermore, they sought to challenge a normative division between ethics and aesthetics. In particular, they source a problematic reductionist emphasis on beauty in philosophical study to the exclusion of perception and awareness. In addition to making several spaces for religious content, the workshop was designed to be “in place.” As a result, Hiddesnsee features at a number of points in the volume. The second chapter by Irmgard Blin- dow grounds that sense of place by discussing intersections between land- scape conservation and human recreation, employing the island as a case study. Next, we are presented with a photographic essay, “Essential Landscape,” by George Steinmann. The photographs include images of human technologies grafting themselves onto natural landscapes. A fourth chapter by Konard Ott sets a challenge for environmental philosophy not to be marked by an overly parsimonious, colonizing and limiting rationality, in order to instead permit sharing “the adventure of human experience with nature” (36). In chapter five, Sigurd Bergmann advocates overcoming a harmful spilt between imminence and transcendence present in both Western philosophy and culture through an integrative aseth/ethics of landscapes, which recognizes humanity’s formative location within landscapes both “bodily and morally” (62) and not just as out- side observers. The following chapter by Celia Deane-Drummond suggests that wonder at the natural world is best disciplined by love. As a result, she argues, paying attention to the natural world transfers to environmental responsibil- ity at various ecological levels, which encompass “a localized, nurturing sense © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/15685357-01803012 book reviews 293 of agrarian living, but also … a wider sense of solidarity with different nations, cultures and contexts” (81). Forest Clingerman’s contribution characterizes environmental theology as a form of theology of culture. For him, this characterization represents a way to mark the manner in which “the divine depth dwells at the intersection of culture and nature itself” (90) and opens up libratory spaces at the intersec- tions of art, place, aesthetics and ethics. Heather Eaton’s finely crafted chapter supports the premise that an ecological imagination, supported by an Earth literacy attuned to the elegant numinous creativity of the planet, is the counter- imaginary necessary to respond to the current socio-ecological crisis. In the following chapter, Lillian Ball describes the crafting of the first “WATERWASH project,” a boat launch in Mattituck, ny, designed as a site of education and storm water pollution mitigation. The project required what she names as a Zen approach to navigate the bureaucratic complexities associated with the initiative. In chapter ten, Beth Caruthers offers a vision of deep aesthetics that allows us to see anew “kosmos,” the right order of proper human-Earth relations, which can be lost if we image “human culture … as somehow outside a world” (135). Thomas Heyd’s contribution puts forward a case for holding the effect of environmental change on iconic species, landmarks, artworks and sacred sites as issues of concern from a climate justice perspective. He adds that such a focus has the potential to ground climate action, overcoming the debilitating effect of a situation characterized by information overload. Heyd concludes that programming, including such culturally significant markers, should be more often included as part of policy initiatives designed “to engender action on climate change across wide sectors of society” (154). For his part, Philip Meurer demonstrates how both Olafur Eliason’s glacier series photographs and sixteenth and seventeenth century Netherlandish winter landscapes painted during the “little ice age” have nuanced meanings beyond merely being a documentary depiction of landscapes during times of climate change. In the final chapter, Grete Refsum and Ingunn Rimestad, present a theo- retically informed description of their “Being on the Beach” event, which was developed in Norway and realized on Hiddensee. About thirty workshop atten- dees participated in the event during the second day of conference. Refsum and Rimestad guided them through “Being on the Beach,” during which the partic- ipants engaged in myriad of activities to “explore personal sensation in nature” (200). These activities included walking blindfolded near the sea with a guide and gathering objects brought to Hiddensee Island by the tides. This volume’s contributors represent seven different nationalities. As is the danger when undertaking such a cross-cultural project, there are a number of Worldviews 18 (2014) 289–297.