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Deep ecology, 1972-2016
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Deep ecology is a term coined by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess in 1972. The term encapsulates two main ideas: that all life systems, from living organisms and ecosystems to human beings, are interconnected and have inherent value and that economic, energy, and environmental policies should be designed to protect the well-being of all nature rather than to enhance human life and well-being.[1][2]
According to Naess, deep ecology is different from ecology as a discipline of science because the facts of science and ecology alone do not provide an answer to how human beings should live ethically or how they should implement environmental policy or energy policy.[3]
Advocates of deep ecology, such as the Foundation for Deep Ecology, are critical of the Industrial Revolution and economic and technological growth, claiming that industrial economies have damaged ecosystems. Deep ecologists generally favor controlling human population growth, limiting economic and technological growth, and reducing food and energy consumption.[4]
Critics of deep ecology have argued that the movement misidentifies human beings and their activities as the main cause of environmental problems. These critics compare deep ecology to environmental ideas they consider to be harmful to people, arguing that the movement's calls for human population control is misanthropic and would lead to harmful outcomes for the global population.[5]
History
Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Arne Naess, who coined the term deep ecology, was inspired by Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring and its environmental message. He began his career as a philosophy professor who specialized in scientific and environmental issues. As a mountaineer traveling across Europe, Naess continued to develop his environmental views. In a 1972 presentation to the Third World Futures conference in Bucharest, Naess contrasted what he called the "shallow ecology movement," which he criticized as too focused on technological or industrial solutions to environmental problems (e.g., recycling, fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, etc.) with the "deep ecology movement." For Naess, deep ecology went further by advocating for restructuring industrial and consumer-led economies to ensure greater protection for natural ecosystems.[2]
Douglas Tompkins, a former clothing company owner, was inspired by Naess' writings in the 1980s. A mountaineer, Tompkins led wilderness trips that inspired him to become a full-time environmental activist. He sold his clothing company to begin the Foundation for Deep Ecology in 1990 with fellow environmental activist Jerry Mander. The foundation provides money to environmental causes and campaigns in addition to publishing resources about deep ecology.[6]
Principles
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In 1984, Naess and his colleague George Sessions published the Deep Ecology Platform, which comprised the following eight principles:
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1. The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves (synonyms: inherent worth, intrinsic value, inherent value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes. 2. Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values and are also values in themselves. 3. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs. 4. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening. 5. The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease. 6. Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present. 7. The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of inherent worth) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great. 8. Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.[7] |
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| —Arne Naess and George Sessions[9] | ||
In a 1972 article published by the journal Inquiry, Naess combined the science of ecology, a discipline that observes how ecosystems relate to each other in nature, with his personal philosophy. In his view, public policy should seek harmony between ecological systems and human beings rather than promote economic growth and energy consumption.[10]
Deep ecologists do not necessarily support more centralized government action to protect the environment. Naess, in particular, expected local governments and local involvement to produce better environmental outcomes than centralized government since local residents would, on average, know more about their environmental problems and how to address them than state or national governments. Although Naess believed deep ecology should be adopted as a philosophy throughout the world, he maintained that only specific regions could address which environmental policies were best for them.[10]
Policies
Deep ecology focuses more on a theoretical or philosophical view of life rather than a set of specific policies, although some advocates have attempted to distill their philosophy into a policy program. Arne Naess and George Sessions offered the following public policy suggestions in 1984:[11][12]
- Naess and Sessions expressed their support for existing and continued conservation of wilderness areas so that plants and animals could live uninterrupted by human involvement. They also believed in expanding wilderness areas and preserves.
- Both believed that economic growth in advanced industrial societies was not sustainable and damaged the environment. They criticized Western societies for focusing more on energy consumption rather than natural resource conservation.
- Naess and Sessions accepted human population control as a necessary policy for advanced industrial societies, although they disagreed on how to achieve a smaller population. In their declaration of deep ecology principles, Naess and Sessions wrote, "The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease." Though Naess and Sessions were vague in their writings about the extent to which human population should decrease or which policies should be adopted for that end, some critics of deep ecology have pointed to the above statement as misanthropic and would lead to policies that would harm the world's population. Both Naess and Sessions supported population targets for all governments, but they expressed doubt over whether certain measures such as abortion or contraception were consistent with human rights.
Major figures
Rachel Carson
Although not a leader of the deep ecology movement, Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring helped shape the ideas of deep ecologists Arne Naess and others. In the book, Carson explored how DDT, a pesticide that was frequently used after it became available in 1945, harmed birds and other animals. She concluded that DDT had detrimental effects on food supply and animal populations. Deep ecologists took from Carson's writings the idea that all of nature was interconnected and that government policies should assist in protecting all natural life rather than promote economic growth and human consumption. Silent Spring inspired Arne Naess to begin his study of environmental problems and ecology as a philosophy professor in Norway.[3][13]
Arne Naess
Arne Naess coined the term "deep ecology" and published several writings on the topic during his time as philosophy professor at the University of Oslo in the 1970s and 1980s. Naess believed government policies should focus on achieving a balance between ecosystems. On topics such as the promotion of economic or industrial growth, he was highly critical of developed countries like the United States. "There is only a faint resemblance between ideal sustainable forms of economic growth and present policies of the industrial societies," he stated in 1984.[11]
Douglas Tompkins
Prior to his work as an activist, Tompkins co-owned the skiing and mountaineering gear company The North Face. After he became interested in deep ecology, he sold his business ventures for nearly $125 million and helped fund environmental causes throughout the world. In 1990, he and his wife established the Foundation for Deep Ecology, which publishes informational resources on deep ecology and provides grants to nonprofit organizations that focus on wilderness protection and sustainable agriculture.[14][15]
Major groups
- The Foundation for Deep Ecology is a nonprofit organization founded by Douglas Tompkins. The foundation is primarily an education-oriented and advocacy group that promotes educational materials for its deep ecology philosophy and provides grants for conservation activities. Its stated mission is "to support education and advocacy on behalf of wild Nature."[16] The group has funded environmental journals such as Wild Earth, Plain, and Adbusters, published books on deep ecology (including Deep Ecology for the 21st Century), and sponsored conferences with international environmental groups.[17]
Criticism
Murray Bookchin, a former professor at the City University of New York and prominent environmental activist, has criticized the deep ecology movement's calls for human population control. According to Bookchin, deep ecology misidentifies human beings and their activities as the main cause of environmental problems. He compared deep ecologists to radical environmentalists who are in favor of extreme, anti-human population controls, which Bookchin feared could lead to harmful outcomes for human beings.[5]
Anne Barbeau Gardiner, professor emerita of English at John Jay College of the City University of New York, wrote that deep ecology is "a movement that places more value on the ecological system than on human beings." Gardiner criticized the movement as "ecocentrism," the view that "the ecological system as a whole has more value than the individual beings contained in it." She contrasted ecocentrism with "anthropocentrism," the view that "humans alone have an irreducible value because they are made in the image of God and have an immortal destiny." According to Gardiner, deep ecology is "a wholesale revolution" that would give preference to "rivers, watersheds, landscapes, and ecosystems" rather than human beings.[12]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Context Institute, "Introduction To Deep Ecology," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Foundation for Deep Ecology, "Some Thought on the Deep Ecology Movement," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Schumacher College, "What is Deep Ecology?" accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ Foundation for Deep Ecology, "The Deep Ecology Platform," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pitzer College Archives, "Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology: A Challenge for the Ecology Movement (by Murray Bookchin)," accessed March 17, 2015
- ↑ Foundation for Deep Ecology, "History: Ideas and Action," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Space and Motion, "Deep ecology movement," accessed March 30, 2015
- ↑ Foundation for Deep Ecology, "Platform," accessed March 20, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Alamut.com, "The Shallow and the Deep (by Arne Naess)," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Anarchist Library, "Basic Principles of Deep Ecology," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 University Faculty for Life, "Deep Ecology and the Culture of Death - Anne Barbeau Gardiner," accessed October 19, 2016
- ↑ Natural Resources Defense Council, "The Story of Silent Spring," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ Tompkins Conservation, "About Kris and Doug Tompkins," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ The Atlantic, "The Entrepreneur Who Wants to Save Paradise," September 15, 2014
- ↑ Foundation for Deep Ecology, "Our Mission," accessed March 17, 2015
- ↑ Foundation for Deep Ecology, "Intellectual Infrastructure," accessed March 16, 2015
