|
|
Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and The Deep Ecology Movement
Page 2
Many other authors have developed ecosophies very similar to Naess's
based on the idea of extending awareness and care to a larger ecological Self. However,
other supporters of the deep ecology movement have ecosophies which do not start
with the Self-realization! norm. Warwick Fox (1990) and I have both observed that
the extension of self and the idea of the ecological Self overlaps in many ways with
work in transpersonal psychology. Fox calls these Self-realization types of ecosophies
transpersonal ecologies. (Today we call them transpersonal ecosophies and their psychological
study is transpersonal ecology.) Matthew Fox's (1988) Creation Theology (which has
a long history as a minority tradition in Christianity) is a transpersonal ecology
in the form of a Christian philosophy and practice that finds the Christ principle
and power of love revealed in the ongoing creation of the world. It is this that
we should reverence. This opens us to the expansive sense of Self. A Mahyana Buddhist,
concerned for the deliverance of all sentient beings, can easily support the deep
ecology movement principles.
Other writers who support the platform principles
of the deep ecology movement have criticized the extension of self identification.
Some prefer to find their ultimate premises and ecosophies grounded in a different
conception of self, emphasizing the social self--in some cases, or stressing the
difference between the way self identity develops for women in contrast to men in
our traditions. In this way, some supporters of the deep ecology movement are ecofeminists,
some are social ecologists, some Christians.
No supporters of the deep ecology
movement as characterized above could be anti-human, as is sometimes alleged. Some
vociferous environmentalists who claim to be supporters of the movement have said
and written things that are misanthropic in tone. They have not explained how such
statements are consistent with commitment to platform principle number one, which
recognizes the inherent worth of all beings, including humans. Supporters of the
deep ecology movement deplore antihuman statements and actions. They support Gandhian
nonviolence in word and deed. Arne Naess says that he is a supporter of the ecofeminist,
social ecology, social justice, bioregional, and peace movements. He believes that
the platform principles of the deep ecology movement are broad enough to be this
inclusive.
Another dispute has centered on the critique of anthropocentrism
offered by some supporters of the deep ecology movement. "Anthropocentrism"
has a number of different meanings. We must not let verbal misunderstandings be divisive.
When we defend our loved ones or are moved more by human suffering than the suffering
of other beings, we are acting as descendants, parents, friends, lovers, etc. One
can support the deep ecology movement consistent with such feelings. What is inconsistent
is refusing to recognize the inherent worth of other beings to the extent that one
is willing to allow unmerciful exploitation and destruction of life forms purely
for human convenience and profit. Anthropocentrism as a bias against other life forms
fails to recognize that we are part of these lives and they are part of ours. Our
human self in the deepest sense cannot be separated from the earth from which we
have grown. Anthropocentrism is objectionable when it emphasizes "humans first!"
regardless of the consequences to other beings.
When we explore our own embodied,
in place, ecological Self we discover our affinities with other beings as part of
our humanity. This once more emphasizes that the platform principles refer to the
intrinsic worth of all beings, including humans. Supporters of the deep ecology movement
platform are committed to recognizing and respecting in word and deed the inherent
worth of humans and other beings. This leads to actions that try to minimize our
own impacts on ecological communities and other human cultures. In order to start
the process of lessening our impacts diverse transition strategies are vital. In
the area of business, for example, The Natural Step (Nattrass and Altomore 1999)
is a process of lessening negative impacts and encouraging positive ones. It uses
bottom up initiatives, diverse leaders, and back and forth play between workers and
leaders. For more on industrial ecology and new values and directions in work and
business see Hawken (1993 & 1999) and on higher value leadership see Secretan
(1996.)
If one accepts the platform principles of the deep ecology movement,
this involves commitment to respect the intrinsic values of richness and diversity.
This in turn leads to a critique of industrial society. This critique cuts across
cultural boundaries. It is presented from both within and outside of industrial societies.
It is partly from such a critique that support for indigenous cultures arises within
Modern societies. The gist of the critique goes like this:
Industrial culture
represents itself as the only acceptable model for progress and development. However,
application of this model and its financial and technological systems to all areas
of the planet results in destruction of habitat, extinction of species, and destruction
of indigenous cultures. The biodiversity crisis is about loss of critical species,
populations and processes that perform necessary biological functions, and it is
also about loss of multitudes of other values which are good in themselves and depend
on preservation of natural diversity and wild evolutionary processes. Industrial
society is a monoculture in agriculture and forestry, and in every other way. Its
development models construe the Earth as only raw material to be used to satisfy
consumption and production to meet not only vital needs, but inflated desires whose
satisfaction requires more and more consumption. Its monocultures destroy cultural
and biological diversity, both of which are good in themselves and critical to our
survival and flourishing. The older industrial development models are now superseded
by the ecological approaches referred to in this paper. (See websites listed below.)
If
we do not accept the Industrial development model, what then? Endorsing the deep
ecology platform principles might lead us to study the ecosophies of aboriginal and
indigenous people so as to learn from them values and practices that can help us
to dwell wisely in neighboring places. We also can learn from the wisdom of our places
and the many beings who inhabit them. At the same time, the ecocentric values implied
by the platform lead us to recognize that all human cultures have a mutual interest
in seeing Earth and its diversity continue for our sake, for its own sake and because
we love it. Most want to flourish and realize themselves in harmony with other beings
and cultures. How can we better develop common understandings that enable us to work
with civility toward harmony with other cultures, creatures and beings? The deep
ecology movement platform principles are guides in this direction. Respect for diversity
leads us to recognize the forms of ecological wisdom that grow out of specific places
and contexts. Supporters of the deep ecology movement embrace place-specific, ecological
wisdom, and vernacular technology practices. No one philosophy and technology is
applicable to the whole planet. Diversity on every level is good!
In the West
there is a renewal of Christian practices that support ecotheology based on a reverential
spirit for Creation. The ferment of this with the new ecocentric paradigms--influenced
by field ecology and leading edge science--has led writers like Thomas Berry (1988)
to begin fashioning a "new story" as a basis for Western initiatives in
creating an ecologically wise and harmonious society. All of these efforts can be
seen as compatible with support for the platform principles of the deep ecology movement,
with perhaps some slight modifications.
Bioregionalism (see The Planet Drum,
and also Sale 1985) is an activist form of support for the deep ecology movement.
The Wildlands Project, The Arne Naess Selected Works Project, the Ecoagriculture
Movement, the Ecoforestry Institute and Institute for Deep Ecology education programs,
and the Ecostery Foundation are a few examples of applications of deep ecology movement
principles to work in support of biodiversity, preservation of wildness and ecological
restoration. Other deep efforts include Ecopsychology (Roszak, et al 1995), The Natural
Step, the Turning Point Project, the project to measure our ecological footprint
(Rees and Wackernagel 1996), and Redefining Progress and its measures by means of
a General Progress Index or GPI.
For specific applications to Forestry see
Drengson and Taylor (1997). For examples of how Buddhist thought and practice have
influenced some Western ecosophies see the works of Joanna Macy (1991) and Gary Snyder
(1990). For applications and critiques from Third World perspectives see the writings
of Vandana Shiva (1993) and Helena Norberg-Hodge (1991). On trade, the global economy
and relocalization see Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (1996). For more on natural
capitalism and industrial ecology see Paul Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins (1999).
To learn more about ecophilosophy and the movement to deep and diverse values check
out the illustrative (not exhaustive) sample of references and websites listed below.
References
Abrams,
David. 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous: Language and Perception in a More-than-Human
World. New York, Pantheon Books.
Berry, Thomas. 1988. Dream of the Earth.
San Francisco, Sierra Books.
Bowers, C.A. 1993. Education, Cultural Myths
and the Ecological Crisis: Toward Deep Changes. Albany, SUNY Press.
Devall,
Bill. Editor. 1994. Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. San Francisco,
Earth Island Press.
Devall, Bill. 1988. Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Practicing
Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City, Gibb Smith.
Devall, Bill & George Sessions.
1985. Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, Peregrine Smith.
Drengson,
Alan and Yuichi Inoue, Editors. 1995. The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory
Anthology. Berkeley, North Atlantic Publishers. (This book has been revised and translated
for publication in Japanese.)
Drengson, Alan. 1995. The Practice of Technology:
Exploring Technology, Ecophilosophy, and Spiritual Disciplines for Vital Links. Albany,
SUNY Press.
Drengson, Alan & Duncan Taylor, Editors. 1997. Ecoforestry:
The Art and Science of Sustainable Forest Use. Gabriola Island, New Society Publishers.
Fox,
Matthew. 1988. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. San Francisco, Harper and Row.
Fox,
Warwick. 1990. Toward a Transpersonal Ecology. Boston, Shambhala.
Hawken,
Paul. 1993. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. New York, Haper
Collins.
Hawken, Paul, and Amory and L. Hunter Lovins. 1999. Natural Capitalism:
Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Boston, Little, Brown.
Henderson,
Bob. 1997. "Friluftsliv". The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Vol 14, No.
2, Spring 97, p. 93-94.
Jackson, Wes. 1994. Becoming Native to this Place.
Lexington, University of Kentucky.
Lauck, Joanne Elizabeth. 1998. The Voice
of the Infinite in the Small: Revisioning the Insect-Human Connection. Mill Spring,
NC, Swan and Raven Press.
LaChapell, Dolores. 1988. Sacred Sex, Sacred Land:
Concerning Deep Ecology and Celebrating Life. Silverton, CO. Finn Hill Arts.
Macy,
Joanna. 1991. World as Lover, World as Self. Berkeley, Parallax Press.
Mander,
Jerry & E. Goldsmith. 1996. The Case Against the Global Economy: And a Turn Toward
the Local. San Francisco, Sierra Books.
McLaughlin, Andrew. 1993. Regarding
Nature: Industrialism and Deep Ecology. Albany, SUNY Press.
Naess, Arne. 1953.
Interpretation and Preciseness. Oslo, Dybwad.
Naess, Arne. 1974. Gandhi and
Group Conflict. Oslo, Universitets-Forlaget.
Naess, Arne. 1991. Ecology, Community
and Lifestyle. London, Cambridge.
Naess, Arne. 2000. Selected Works of Arne
Naess in English, edited by Harold Glasser. Amsterdam, Klewer. Forthcoming in approximately
10 volumes.
Nattrass, B. & M. Altomare. 1999. The Natural Step for Business
and the Evolutionary Corporation. Gabriola Island, New Society Publishers.
Norberg-Hodge,
Helena. 1991. Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. San Francisco, Sierra Books.
Orr,
David. 1992. Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Post Modern World.
Albany, SUNY Press.
Rees, Bill & Mathis Wackernagel. 1996. Our Ecological
Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, New Society Publishers.
Roszak,
T., Gomes, M.E. & Kanner, A.D. 1995. Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing
the Mind. San Francisco, Sierra Books.
Sale, Kirkpatrick. 1985. Dwellers on
the Land: The Bioregional Vision. San Francisco, Sierra Club Books.
Secretan,
Lance. 1996. Reclaiming Higher Ground: Creating Organizations that Inspire the Soul.
Toronto, Macmillan.
Sessions, George, Editor. 1995. Deep Ecology for the 21st
Century. Boston, Shambhala.
Shiva, Vandana. 1993. Monocultures of the Mind:
Biodiversity, Biotechnology and the Third World. Penong, Third World Publishing.
Snyder,
Gary. 1990. The Practice of the Wild. Berkeley, North Point Press.
Spretnak,
Charlene. 1997. The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern
World. Reading MA, Addison-Wesley.
*Please Note: An earlier version
of this article appeared in The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Vol 14, No. 3, Summer
1997, pages 110-111, entitled "An Ecophilosophy Approach, the Deep Ecology Movement,
and Diverse Ecosophies". Thanks to Arne Naess and Ted Mosquin for their suggestions.
Alan
Drengson is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria, B.C.
Canada, where he was a Director of Environmental Studies and a member of the Philosophy
Department. He is the author of numerous publications, including Beyond Environmental
Crisis (1989), Doc Forest and Blue Mountain Ecostery (1993), The Practice of Technology
(1995), co-editor of The Philosophy of Society (1978), The Deep Ecology Movement:
An Introductory Anthology (1995), and Ecoforestry: The Art and Science of Sustainable
Forest Use (1997), and also founding editor of two quarterlies The Trumpeter: Journal
of Ecosophy, and the journal Ecoforestry. He is also an Aikidoist, a musician, consultant,
and wild journeyer. He can be contacted at ecosophy@islandnet.com, or Box 5853 Stn
B, Victoria, B.C., CanadaV8R 6S8. He has completed three as yet unpublished books,
Wise Dwelling: Transitions from Modern Paradigms to Ecological Approaches; An Ecophilosopher's
Dictionary; and The Adventures of Flelix: Fables for the Third Millennium. He is
currently writing a new book called Wild Journeying.
|
