"The authors review the foundations of current land use practices from historical, constitutional, economic, ecological, and societal perspectives. They analyze the results of these practices and suggest alternative methods for guiding, directing, and controlling the ways in which we modify the landscape.

They make the case that we - as humans - have the capacity for community with all life and can ultimately embrace the notion that individual well-being is wrapped up in the well-being of the whole, and that social change can occur before major disasters require it."--BOOK JACKET.