(introductory text...)

I. Assumptions
II. Reorientation

The first step in an assessment of where we stand presently in the current of thought about our relationship with the natural environment and what we might be able to do about it is to find our bearings and develop a perspective. The best perspective for the study of a process is likely to be a historical one. In this chapter we look back over the last decade and trace some of the events that mark the gradual accretion of change in attitude. But first it will be well to review some of the basic ideas or assumptions in terms of which the slowly-changing discourse about natural resources has proceeded through the 1970s.