deep ecology

A detailed Summary of deep ecology

The ideas behind deep ecology have major implications today. They allow people to think more profoundly about the environment and possibly come to a better understanding of their own meaning. People are intensely concerned about the world's technological adolescence, massive consumerism, and overpopulation. A man named Arne Naess, former head of the philosophy department at the University of Oslo founded an idea that can direct people's anxiety away from their "shallow" notion of the problem to one that is much "deeper." "Deep ecology goes beyond the limited piecemeal shallow approach to environmental problems and attempts to articulate a comprehensive religious and philosophical worldview." (EE p.145) In its most basic form, deep ecology is a wisdom, an ecosophy, which requires humans to see themselves as part of the bigger picture. Naess, Devall, and Sessions outline basic principles of deep ecology in their writing. Furthermore, they address the roles that scientific ecology plays as well as the concept of self-realization. Aside from these ideas, ecosabotage needs to be discussed in terms of how it fits with the practice of deep ecology.

The basic principles of deep ecology as characterized

Ecosabotage is the most controversial issue surrounding deep ecology. Whether or not the philosophy behind deep ecology justifies these actions, is another question. Ecologists are indispensable tools in all societies because they can use their knowledge for political benefit. They can choose what companies they want to work for depending on their policies. Excitingly, the more ecologists there are, the more ignorant companies will suffer. Ecosabotage is when these kinds of principles go 'on steroids.' Ecosaboteurs have been known to put spikes on forest trees, vandalize fur clothing, organize violent protests, and even burn down fancy resorts like the recent attack on Vail. They often feel that the only way to make a difference is too become extreme. These stunts do gain plenty of publicity and most probably influence the way many people think. The downside however, is that these attack can anger companies and make them less respectful of the ecologists, resulting in little progress. Furthermore, the philosophy of deep ecology is peaceful and meditative. In order for things to happen quickly however, action needs to be taken. This century promises all kinds of environmental disasters. Maybe ecosabotage and revolutionary measures are the only way to get a good start on prevention.

Sessions and Naess make it another principle that humans have no right to reduce richness and diversity of life, except to fulfill vital needs. First-world nations are not going to reduce their negative effects on the non-human world in record breaking time. Strategies need to be adopted to bring about change to get rid of human delusion and laziness on these issues. Time is of great importance, considering the longer we wait the greater the problem will become. Richness and diversity face major losses given the extinction rate in our time is exponentially greater than in the past.

The next principle demands a major change in the policies that effect economic, technological, and ideological norms. They admit that it would be a dramatic shift from the present structure. Economics and ideology today revolve around commodity value, which results in impulsive consumerism and mass waste. Action needs to take place beyond the "think globally act locally" mentality and move around the world. Most Third World countries neglect ecological ideas. There is success among nongovernmental organizations (Greenpeace?) because they are less imposing and not affiliated with anything. Technology needs to be developed to promote the education of these governments. The next principle states that we need to learn to appreciate life quality and get away from an ever-increasing standard of living. This notion is left relatively uncharacterized because they feel quality of life is too hard to quantify. They seem to know however, that something is inherentl

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Approximate Word count = 1928
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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