Help me educate myself in the philosophical side of environmentalism

• I'm a grad student in conservation biology who has always had a strong interest in conservation issues. However, I feel like the technical side of my education is much stronger than the philosophical side, and I want to restore that balance. Who should I read, what resources should I look into, what organizations or publications are out there that will help me gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical, historical, and cultural components of environmentalism? I'm mostly looking for reading material. I'm thinking works by people like Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold (I've read Sand County Almanac), Rachel Carson, and Edward Abbey; people whose thoughts and writings inspired the modern environmentalist movement, and whose names I know but whose works I haven't read. I'd like to know what you consider some of these people's most important works, as well as those of people whose names I haven't heard but should've. I'd like to put together for myself a reading list of what I might call "environmentalist philosophy", the thoughts and ideas that underpin modern environmentalism. I'd also like some good background material. It would be really good to read a well-written history of the environmentalist movement for instance, taking in the inspirations behind the idea, its rise in the popular consciousness, major milestones in terms of events that occurred within the movement and policies that could be thought of as inspired by it, that kind of thing. Biographies of some of its most notable figures would be good too. Finally, I'd really like some good material on the state of environmentalism as a cultural movement today – what does the playing field look like, who are the major players, what are the major challenges both internal and external, that kind of thing. Thanks for your advice. I look forward to hearing your suggestions and to broadening my understanding.

• Answer:

  http://ask.metafilter.com/255878/Help-me-educate-myself-in-the-philosophical-side-of-environmentalism: "John Muir" That was going to be my first suggestion. But I also may come at this from a different perspective because of my career (contaminant geology). In my opinion some of the awakening that has happened was/has been due to the chemicals we used to spread unchecked in our environment since industrialization began. You've made me realize I've never actually read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring, but I think it is referenced as the book that made people wake up to the pesticide issue (DDT mainly). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Beach,_Missouri are responsible for the majority of environmental law (CERCLA/SARA) that we have here in the US. Reading up on those would be good for history of the legal framework. A few years ago I struggled through http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802140114/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Michael Pollan. It's a tough, slow read but was really interesting when it talked about man's desire to control nature through gardening.