The Ecological Dimension: Russian and American Views∗

The most inadequately treated dimension in recent American geographical writing is the “vertical'’dimension of ecological relationships. Man's impact on the land has been widely recognized, but influences from the natural environment upon man have been ignored. In Russia, however, despite the Marxist principle that economic causation is primary in social development, V. A. Anuchin has recently emphasized what I term “environmental causation.'’He has found “geographical determinism,'’or an overestimation of environmental causation, to be less dangerous than indeterminism, or the denial of causal relationships. Such views have led Anuchin to claim, contrary to Soviet tradition, that land should be given a price. Common basis exists for Soviet and Western geographers to combine an appreciation of environmental causation with forward-looking “idealistic'’approaches to remaking the landscape.