What do you think?
Rate this book
Listening to the Land: Conversations about Nature, Culture, and Eros
In this far-ranging and heartening collection, Derrick Jensen gathers conversations with environmentalists, theologians, Native Americans, psychologists, and feminists, engaging some of our best minds in an exploration of more peaceful ways to live on Earth. Included here is Dave Foreman on biodiversity, Matthew Fox on Christianity and nature, Jerry Mander on technology, and Terry Tempest Williams on an erotic connection to the land. With intelligence and compassion, Listening to the Land moves from a look at the condition of the environment and the health of our spirit to a beautiful evocation of eros and a life based on love.
340 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
Derrick Jensen
53 books685 followersDerrick Jensen is an American author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California. He has published several books questioning and critiquing contemporary society and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He holds a B.S. in Mineral Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. He has also taught creative writing at Pelican Bay State Prison and Eastern Washington University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 11, 2020
The American West is the part of the US most dominated by economic interests. The Cowboy Myth ignores how the West is so beholden, not to rugged individualism while having Brokeback Mountain moments in tents, but to corporate welfare. Seeking tools for craft doesn’t destroy the planet, seeking tools for technology does. Technology is for forcing things nature doesn’t do naturally. We are culturally taught that only humans have anything to say. Birds sing and dogs bark but we are taught not to listen. Civilized society stopped listening to the natural world and stopped respecting the reservoir of knowledge gleaned from indigenous and non-state cultures who alone lived sustainably for most of human history. We should be training our children to defend places but instead each child is taught by the culture to further industrialize the planet. Children who graduate from college with no concept of protecting their land base, become in the words of Thomas Berry, “itinerant professional vandals.” Rarely learned is the simple fact that successful communities cannot prosper at the expense of other communities. Capitalism and technology have atomized us because industrial civilization destroys communities.
Dr. Rosie Bertell says the future of humans is now slow death by poisoning. Ah, the joys of endless mining w/o thought for the consequences. Fundamentalism and fascism are about “fear and scapegoating others.” Once you stupidly see the universe as unfriendly, you will be guided by paranoia. Erich Fromm wondered why this culture was necrophiliac instead of biophiliac. Civilization doesn’t stop harmful acts in their tracks – for example, the Exxon Valdez was simply renamed The Mediterranean and Exxon Shipping merely changed its name to SeaRiver Maritime. No real change happens, the media stay silent and the public remains clueless. Nuclear power favors centralized cultures, solar is neglected by finance because it favors decentralized community-based environments. Does TV make you smarter? Did you know that 250,000 dumb shit Americans actually wrote Marcus Welby asking for medical advice? To connect with nature requires slowness and calm – the opposite of our culture.
To explain overshoot, imagine reindeer being introduced to an island which can hold 2,000 reindeer. It happened on Saint Matthew Island in the 1940’s. Twenty-nine reindeer were brought in and the herd grew to 6,000 before die-off happened and the reindeer population stabilized at a decreased carrying capacity of 42 reindeer in 1966.
Energy wise, hunter gatherers used 2500 to 3000 kilocalories per day while in the US the average is now about 200,000 kilocalories per day. A massive waste of energy based solely on the one-time only reuse of ancient sunlight (fossil fuels). This prehistoric energy deserves William R. Catton Jr’s name “phantom carrying capacity”. It will soon be gone but Capitalism pretends w/o evidence that cheap energy will always be with us. William says that to solve the problems facing us all, sociology must become an ecological discipline. “what we do to an ecosystem, we do to ourselves.”
Robert Jay Lifton says “You cannot kill very large numbers of people without a claim to virtue.” Hitler went East killing the Slavs, copying the US, which went West also killing the natives. 80% of US natives were taken from their family and force educated in white wetiko ways. Assimilationist thinking. Bioregionalism is about keeping your ecosystem in shape, making life there sustainable and making people native to the place they live. Bioregional studies should be required learning by students. People should be on fire about protecting their landbase for the future.
Paul Shepard says, “Power becomes centralized in a world where nature is no longer your storehouse.” Jesuits studying native peoples in Canada remarked that these people never killed anyone to gain property or anything. The !Kung people pick up their crying children in only six seconds – when you can’t recall your pain as a child, you will inflict it on others. Descartes “wrote that man must learn to cut off his relationships to his childhood if he is to become a human being”. Had Picasso done that, no one would have heard about him. What a recipe for turning yourself into a machine. When we can’t confront why we hate, says Arno Gruen, we feel the need to project it.
Author Wally Stegner told Terry Tempest Williams “thank you for staying” on a visit to Terry after Terry told Wally, “Thank you for coming.” Our future is committing to a place and staying and protecting it and giving to your community. This is the message of this book. If you listen to the land, you will know what to do. If we don’t understand to protect the land where we live, there will be nothing left to protect us.
Another beautiful book by Derrick.
Dr. Rosie Bertell says the future of humans is now slow death by poisoning. Ah, the joys of endless mining w/o thought for the consequences. Fundamentalism and fascism are about “fear and scapegoating others.” Once you stupidly see the universe as unfriendly, you will be guided by paranoia. Erich Fromm wondered why this culture was necrophiliac instead of biophiliac. Civilization doesn’t stop harmful acts in their tracks – for example, the Exxon Valdez was simply renamed The Mediterranean and Exxon Shipping merely changed its name to SeaRiver Maritime. No real change happens, the media stay silent and the public remains clueless. Nuclear power favors centralized cultures, solar is neglected by finance because it favors decentralized community-based environments. Does TV make you smarter? Did you know that 250,000 dumb shit Americans actually wrote Marcus Welby asking for medical advice? To connect with nature requires slowness and calm – the opposite of our culture.
To explain overshoot, imagine reindeer being introduced to an island which can hold 2,000 reindeer. It happened on Saint Matthew Island in the 1940’s. Twenty-nine reindeer were brought in and the herd grew to 6,000 before die-off happened and the reindeer population stabilized at a decreased carrying capacity of 42 reindeer in 1966.
Energy wise, hunter gatherers used 2500 to 3000 kilocalories per day while in the US the average is now about 200,000 kilocalories per day. A massive waste of energy based solely on the one-time only reuse of ancient sunlight (fossil fuels). This prehistoric energy deserves William R. Catton Jr’s name “phantom carrying capacity”. It will soon be gone but Capitalism pretends w/o evidence that cheap energy will always be with us. William says that to solve the problems facing us all, sociology must become an ecological discipline. “what we do to an ecosystem, we do to ourselves.”
Robert Jay Lifton says “You cannot kill very large numbers of people without a claim to virtue.” Hitler went East killing the Slavs, copying the US, which went West also killing the natives. 80% of US natives were taken from their family and force educated in white wetiko ways. Assimilationist thinking. Bioregionalism is about keeping your ecosystem in shape, making life there sustainable and making people native to the place they live. Bioregional studies should be required learning by students. People should be on fire about protecting their landbase for the future.
Paul Shepard says, “Power becomes centralized in a world where nature is no longer your storehouse.” Jesuits studying native peoples in Canada remarked that these people never killed anyone to gain property or anything. The !Kung people pick up their crying children in only six seconds – when you can’t recall your pain as a child, you will inflict it on others. Descartes “wrote that man must learn to cut off his relationships to his childhood if he is to become a human being”. Had Picasso done that, no one would have heard about him. What a recipe for turning yourself into a machine. When we can’t confront why we hate, says Arno Gruen, we feel the need to project it.
Author Wally Stegner told Terry Tempest Williams “thank you for staying” on a visit to Terry after Terry told Wally, “Thank you for coming.” Our future is committing to a place and staying and protecting it and giving to your community. This is the message of this book. If you listen to the land, you will know what to do. If we don’t understand to protect the land where we live, there will be nothing left to protect us.
Another beautiful book by Derrick.
October 22, 2008
You. read. Now.
The people interviewed in this, and what they say, will give you a good overview of what problems we face in our current civilization and how we can think about them in order to find ways to solve the problems, prevent them, and transform society. A great starting point for the would-be environmentalist, a reality check for glassy eyed, greenwashed liberals, and completely necessary.
The people interviewed in this, and what they say, will give you a good overview of what problems we face in our current civilization and how we can think about them in order to find ways to solve the problems, prevent them, and transform society. A great starting point for the would-be environmentalist, a reality check for glassy eyed, greenwashed liberals, and completely necessary.
May 27, 2010
Fantastic essays on spiritual relationships to ecology, including chapters which focus on (relatively) contemporary issues, and some which dive deep into anti-capitalism, ecofeminism, deep ecology, biomimicry, and more. Rants are few and tempered by intentional disclosure, and the chapters by Christopher Mannes and Thomas Berry are among my favorites.
April 16, 2012
B Interviews with powerful individuals about the earth, environmentalism, spirituality and the earth. At the beginning, I wasn't got into it but then, it got awesome and I was sad when it ended.
September 26, 2025
I didn’t get a ton out of this book or find it so interesting but I’m not sure why because the people are interesting and their unique connections to the environment. Maybe it felt preachy, maybe I would have liked it better auditory like as a podcast? Idk.
May 13, 2018
I really liked it. It is full of inspiration and interesting thoughts one should follow up on. I definitely recommend it!
February 12, 2021
Changed my way of thinking. Derrick is an amazing interviewer!
March 19, 2026
at first i was like oh this is my bible i agree with everything and then eventually it got too woo woo even for me
September 7, 2007
Great book! I love all of Derrick Jensen's writings. Not always the most uplifting, especially those like Culture of Make-Believe, but always very insightful and accurately critical of our culture.
May 12, 2013
this was a very thought provoking book showing the vastness of environmental thought that exists in the world. While I don't agree with all points I do believe that it is valuable it helping a person identify what they think at the present time.
August 30, 2013
There were some interesting thinkers in this book but interview-style stuff is always off-putting for me. I tend to avoid it when possible. Because of that I had a hard time focusing on the book and getting through it. It did give me a lot to think about, despite the lapses into liberal reformism.
February 21, 2014
In my top 20, I think. I found many of the conversations utterly fascinating, heartening, validating, you name it. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn more about why the world is the way it is.
January 12, 2019
amazing!
Read
November 1, 2008Only got through part of it before i had to give it back. I will return to it though!
August 12, 2009
Very intriguing interviews from a wide swath of authors, activists and intellectuals.
January 25, 2024
Some very good interviews in this book.
June 19, 2011
I really liked this book. I found it very thought provoking.
May 28, 2012
Interesting selection of interviews. I dug it.
Read
October 18, 2014Listening to the Land 02102008
Derrick Jensen
Derrick Jensen
February 16, 2008
nearly thirty interviews: jerry mander, susan griffin, david orr, terry tempest williams, et al.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews