Humanity's Environmental Future: Making Sense in a Troubled World

Getting to the Source: Readings on Sustainable Values

by William Ross McCluney

SunPine Press: Cape Canaveral 2004

Contents of both books

How the books came to be

For several years, as a research professor at the University of Central Florida, I have been reading, studying, and writing in the broad area of energy and environmental policy. A conclusion has become inescapable. From the evidence of scientists, philosophers, other scholars, and the reports we all hear, see, and read about in the media, the future of humanity is in doubt.

A central problem is overpopulation, coupled with a large and growing per capita environmental impact. Another inescapable conclusion is that the current structure of industrialized society is incompatible with human survival. Fortunately, a great deal of work has been done identifying what is wrong, how it came to be, and what we might do to avoid participating in the Sixth Great Extinction Spasm (as E. O. Wilson calls it), initiated by humanity in the last couple of centuries. Many authors offer hope and bright visions of a sustainable future with greatly improved quality of life for nearly everyone. Others are not so sure.

My work culminated in the drafting of two book manuscripts dealing with these issues. The first is an original work titled Humanity’s Environmental Future: Making Sense in a Troubled World. Second is a collection of essays by prominent environmental writers from Aldo Leopold to Thomas Berry, titled Getting to the Source: Readings on Sustainable Values. Both manuscripts have been reviewed by 30 authors, educators, and others. Comments have been very favorable.

Both books were published in April 2004 by SunPine Press of Cape Canaveral, Florida (www.sunpinepress.com). Click here to see the contents of the books: Book Contents

New College Course

A remarkable new undergraduate course was taught in the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 semesters at the University of Central Florida.

The new course examined Earth’s history before and after the rise of civilization, considered the environmental threats to humanity’s existence, and will addressed the beliefs and values influencing human involvement in those threats.

The 3-credit course, Philosophy 3033 (Philosophy, Religion and the Environment), examined these issues, delineated a number of capabilities we shall have to develop if we are to deal with the problems adequately, and explored policy changes and citizen and government actions that can be taken to reverse the dangerous trend.

Central are the value systems underlying many of the threats which face us. The course addressed our world views and beliefs as they relate to the environment, offering a multicultural treatment of the influence of philosophical and religious views on our understanding of, and relation to, the Earth.

Instructor: Ross McCluney, B.A., M.S., Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, Florida Solar Energy Center, author and speaker on environmental ethics.

For more information, click on For Instructors.

General information about the UCF Cocoa campus.

UCF Catalog Course Description

PHI 3033

Philosophy, Religion and the Environment

A multicultural treatment of the influence of philosophical and religious views on our understanding of, and relation to, the environment. 3(3,0)

3 units min / 3 units max, Lecture

Book Information

Click here for Book Contents

The Future of Humanity -- Dr. William Ross McCluney, Cape Canaveral, Florida