IT CAN be very difficult to sell environmentalism, because to the prosperous the benefits often seem far off. In An Ecology of Happiness, geographer Eric Lambin tries to bring them closer to home by articulating how the natural world is essential to everybody’s well-being. The best motivation is, he argues, to demonstrate that our health, happiness and security depend on reducing our ecological footprint.
He conjures up a creative array of examples to back this up, some of which work better than others. At one extreme, he shows how environmental disruption from climate change, deforestation and increased human mobility has…
