In Defense of Walden and Desert Solitaire

In Defense of Walden and Desert Solitaire
31 March 2014
M. Burget

Our Chief Scientist here at The Nature Conservancy, Peter Kareiva, surprised some of us when he ridiculed as hypocrites the American writers Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Edward Abbey (1927-1989) in a series of speeches, some now easily found in a quick web search.

Intrigued by the charges, I felt compelled to do some reading. It took some time, but I went back to review what Thoreau wrote in Walden and Abbey wrote in Desert Solitaire. Having done my homework, I believe that Peter missed the enduring message of both books.