ONCE MORE INTO THE DÉJÀ VU:
Essays on Ecology
The
essays are offered with whatever justification may be derived from the premise
that sensitivity to initial conditions may enormously magnify the effects of
trivial causes. The premise was developed and analyzed in the 1960’s by the
greatest of weather forecasters, Edward Lorenz. He illustrated it with a
metaphor known as the “butterfly effect” which proposes that a butterfly
flapping its wings in the Amazon can create hurricanes on the gulf coast of
North America.
On that marvelously attenuated contingency it could be possible that one or
part of one of these essays might exert a durable influence.
-- From the Preface
What reviewers
have to say—
“…[This book]
offers a leisurely, engaging, and timely tour through the most critical
(and scary) issues of our time: environmentalism, the social implications of
evolution, overpopulation, epidemics, war, and the prospects for human
survival. Indeed, the value of the book lies precisely in the readable way it
weaves together these topics that some may think disparate. Hopefully it will
persuade those who still need convincing that these problems cannot be solved
separately, but only with a comprehensive vision of how they interrelate. Some
few statements are debatable, but on the whole I found the author’s vision to
be on target.”
Professor Daryl P. Domning
Dept.
of Anatomy, Howard University
“John Renaker is best known for his paperback
(five star rating on Amazon.com) entitled Dr. Strangelove and the Hideous
Epoch, a book devoted to nuclear deterrence and briefly summarized in one
of the essays in the present volume. The central theme of this collection of
essays is man’s relation to nature portrayed in Darwinian-Malthusian terms. The
essays are well written, with textual references to the books and articles on
which Renaker draws in developing his argument and with light-hearted allusions
to literary works by Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and Samuel
Butler….”
Professor John C.
Greene, Emeritus
History of Science, University of Connecticut
Renaker, John. 106 Pages (PB)
$ 15.95