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Green Ethics

WHAT IS GOOD AND WHAT IS BAD ABOUT 'DEEP ECOLOGY'?

Introduction

The condition of the planet has clearly worsened over the years especially in the 20th century with the breakthrough of new technologies and the development of modern science fuelled by a natural inclination towards progression which is presently referred to as 'globalisation' or 'economic growth'

Water is said to be on route for becoming a commodity for the rich and is currently no longer a resource that is widely available to everyone. Wars may be fought in the future to control the supply of water which will probably acquire more value than oil or gold. Furthermore, global warming is now a reality causing serious increases in global temperature posing one of the greatest threats in history to mankind and the planet. Yet people continue in their activities and goals despite understanding that there are issues such as the water crisis, global warming and the multitude of other environmental problems placing the planet in the worst state that it has ever been in. Consequently, there is a need for a strong solution to respond to this grave situation and deep ecology may well be the basis for identifying a solution. However, deep ecology has been largely criticised for several reasons which will be examined later. Therefore the purpose of this piece of writing is to provide an overview of the positive and negative aspects of the 'deep ecology' theory.

Origins

Deep ecology is a theory or philosophy that was formulated by a Norwegian Philosopher named Arne Naess in 1972. He coined the term deep ecology and also ecosophy. The deep ecology 'ecosophy' moves away from the stance that green movements and the average environmentalist hold which are described as 'anthropocentric'.

There are two main principles that are maintained by the deep ecology notion. These are the need for self-realisation and the need to understand and respect biospherical equality in the natural world. Self-realisation refers to the experience that will enable humans to identify with the ecosphere. It is an experience that helps humans to realise the interconnectedness with the rest of the natural world.

Biospherical egalitarianism-in principle refers to everything in the ecosystem whether it is people, animals, oceans, trees, mountains and so on and so forth. Bio centric equality means that all things have intrinsic value in themselves independently of the value humans placed on them by humans. (Refer to appendix 1 for Naess's principles).

Positive Aspects

Deep ecology can be seen as an ecological philosophy that makes us really think profoundly about our actions and the impact of these on our environment and discusses the relationship that we should have with the rest of the planet. The idea is that deep ecology should make us reflect on the negative consequences of our activities which in itself is a positive move towards protecting the environment. Humans do not see themselves as part as equal players in the environment which is perhaps the reason philosophers such as Naess and thinkers such as Bill Devall believe that there is a need to understand a meaningful difference between the shallow and the deep ecology movements.

Many would argue that deep ecology is a more finely tuned method of protecting the environment over other methods and theories such as shallow ecology which are considered to be anthropocentric. Anthropocentric means to take a human centred stance towards environmental conservation. This means that the human concern for the environment will always be in view that it is in their best interests to protect the planet so that resources can be preserved be it for food or for materials needed to make things for their own use. Deep ecology advocates that this approach is insufficient in the fight against environmental degradation and therefore calls for a stronger response.

It is clear that we do see ourselves as superior to the rest of the planet, something that the human race has done for a long time. For instance, the human race has always believed that their value is higher than any animal. It could be because we perceive ourselves as having a higher level of intelligence and of certain physical capabilities in comparison to animals and all other creatures. Moreover, even amongst the human race there has always been tension between different races, nationalities, religions and so forth, with many humans seeing themselves as superior to others.

Warwick Fox explains that shallow ecology 'views humans as the source of all value and ascribes only instrumental (or use) value to the non-human world'. Fox then goes on to explain that people have an attitude that says 'we ought to preserve the environment not for its own sake but because of its value to us' (Fox; 1984). In sum, the most significant difference is that deep ecology calls for a self examination in which a person would need to reform their attitudes and behaviour towards nature in order to preserve biodiversity for its own sake rather than for human advancement. Click Here For the continuation of this extensive research!

Comments

Chilean girl says:

I think this young man has a very good point. The younger generation and the government should adopt a more serious attitude in order to contribute to maintain our surroundings. However this will never happen as businessmen and the government are too busy being selfish and getting richer whilst their actions are causing global warming to increase!

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