A Different Kind of Country

by Raymond F. Dasmann

Headlines like the one above from the New York Times appear with alarming frequency. Smog cuts off our life oxygen, DDT perpetuates a vicious cycle of destruction. In megalopolis, inner cities crumble and are replaced by urban rewnewal projects as liveable as mausoleums. The world is fast becoming unfit for man or beast. Can we do anything about it? This provocative book by a distinguished ecologist and conservationist answers with a resounding affirmative- with a detailed plan for harnessing the onslaught of technology and for preserving the diversity of nature and mankind in the cities and wildlands.

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Raymond Frederic Dasmann (born 1919), whose research and writings about threats to the natural world helped mold the modern environmental movement, was a UC Berkeley-trained field biologist who began talking about the need for environmental conservation in the late 1950s, almost two decades before the concept took hold in the American mainstream.

Although not a household name like Rachel Carson or Jacques Cousteau, he is considered a luminary of environmentalism whose intellectual contributions include the concept of "eco-development," or sustainable development, the idea that a community's progress should not rely on exploitation of its natural resources.