“Human Ecology is the study of interactions between human society and nature. Despite a rocky start in the 1920s, when it got muddled up with some dodgy sociology, it now enjoys a common syllabus at a network of universities in Europe, Scandinavia and USA.
Even Australia has, at last, come on board, with the Australian National University offering a course in Human Ecology.
Trying to ‘save nature’ by ignoring human needs is plain silly, and won’t work. Humans are at the core of the problem, and are also the solution.
Despite pretentious claims by some biologists, hoping to be eco-gurus, ecology is not a branch of biology. Biology is a root discipline of ecology, together with meteorology, climatology, chemistry, mathematics, sociology, politics, law, psychology, history etc.
How about calling those who want to find real solutions, involving both nature and society, Human Ecologists? I think H.G. Wells made that suggestion many years ago.
I would vote for a political party which made Human Ecology a main plank in its policy.“
This comment was made by a regular commentator at this blog who uses the pen name ‘Davey Gam Esq’. I think it is correct to note that he is an ecologist from WA? The comment was originally made at the long thread following my recent blog post titled ‘Join the Revolution’ which is about the first Australian Environment Foundation Conference in Brisbane on 23rd September.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.