Thinking of our life in nature

One of the many paradoxes confronting students of literature and the environment is the fact that "environments" are both places and processes. On the one hand, deserts, mountains, prairies, watersheds, and other familiar environments are clearly places; they "take place" in particular locations and inspire legions of devoted citizens to work for their protection. On the other hand, environments are never stable; they change all the time, shaped not only by the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, water, and nitrogen but also by the anthropogenic changes that accompany population growth and technological innovation. What may not be as obvious is that the term most often used to describe the study of literature and the environment-ecocriticism- is equally paradoxical, signaling at once the physical products of this lively form of critical theory and practice and also the ongoing process of scholarly conversation, the boundaries of which are as fluid as the sea itself.