Nature, Agricultural Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Ecology & Environmental Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Ecology, Landscape & Environment - Social Aspects, Natural History
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Overview
Tony and the Cows is a story of friendship between two men, but it is also the story of intrigue and mystery laced with violence. The book examines what it means to live responsibly in a world where no one can avoid compromise with technology. In July of 1995, ten weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing, novelist Will Baker participated as a journalist in the annual gathering of Earth Firsters on the Trinity River in Northern California. He drank and smoked with them, listened to their poetry, attended seminars and workshops, was suspected of being an FBI plant, and hugged and serenaded. It was there that Baker met Tony, who, in the few months that remained in his life, led Baker to reconsider all his attitudes toward the natural world and our place in it.
Synopsis
In 1995 Will Baker traveled to California's Trinity River to write a magazine piece on the annual Earth First! Rendezvous. There he met a passionate defender of the Southwest desert named Tony Merten, a former officer in the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club.The two struck up a friendship and debated vigorously their views on matters environmental. One issue in particular roused them: the smoldering controversy over the century-old practice of allowing ranchers to graze livestock on public lands for a nominal fee.
Beginning what he thought was routine research on this turbulent topic, Baker soon found himself confronting a tragedy with intense personal, regional, even global implications. The elements of that story include a sniper who gunned down thirty-four head of cattle and left them to rot in a remote "wilderness study" area; a xerox copy of a letter from Tony Merten on the day of his death; and the rumor of a large bequest to one of the most radical environmental groups in the nation.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Former Sierra Club officer Tony Merten, who made his New Mexico ranch a habitat for wildlife, shot himself to death without explanation in 1996 while under suspicion in the criminal investigation of the wanton shooting of 34 cows and calves. Baker, essayist and novelist, wrests from this unsolved case a crackling mystery, a jolting ecoparable and an extended meditation on humanity's relationship to the planet. He uses the case as a springboard to examine the long-running controversy over whether Western ranchers should continue to receive grazing permits on public lands. Baker attempts to steer a middle course between grassroots activists who advocate a sweeping ban on such permits and ranchers who regard long-term leasing of public rangelands as a permanent, indispensable base for their livelihoods and lifestyle. Much of the book is a pointed critique of what Baker calls the radical wing of the environmental movement, which he accuses of dubious thinking, apocalyptic sermonizing and romantic clinging to a fantasy of reborn humanity living in harmony with wild nature. Taking aim broadly at EarthFirst!ers, green activists, deep ecologists, Theodor Roszak, Jeremy Rifkin and others, he draws disturbing (some would say outrageous) parallels between their demonization of technocivilization and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's yearning for close-knit rural tribal community. Baker's recognition that we face an eco-crisis makes his tough-minded, philosophically grounded critique worthwhile; it will challenge environmentally minded readers to rethink and fortify their positions. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Book Details
Published
July 1, 2000
Publisher
Confluence Press
Pages
121
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781881090359