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is radical in a way and to a degree that does not apply elsewhere in ideological thought. Deep ecology calls for a change in consciousness, specifically the adoption of ‘ecological consciousness’, or ‘cosmological consciousness’. At the heart of this is an ‘inter-subjective’ model of selfhood that allows for no distinction between the self and the ‘other’, thereby collapsing the distinction between humankind and nature. ARNE NAESS (1912–2008) A Norwegian philosopher, writer and mountaineer, Naess has been described as the ‘father’ of deep ecology. His philosophy, Ecosophy T (the ‘T’ is for the Tvergastein hut in which he lived in solitude high on a Norwegian mountain), which was influenced by the ideas of Spinoza, Gandhi’s ethic of non-violence and Taoist thought, was based on the assertion that ‘the Earth does not belong to human beings’, as all creatures have an equal right to live and bloom.
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Deep ecology is also associated with a distinctive analysis of environmental degradation and how it should be tackled. Instead of linking the environmental crisis to particular policies or a specific political, social or economic system (be it industrialization, capitalism, patriarchy or whatever), deep ecologists argue that it has more profound cultural and intellectual roots. The problem lies in the mechanistic world-view that has dominated the thinking of Western societies since about the seventeenth century, and which subsequently came to affect most of the globe. Above all, this dominant paradigm is dualistic: it understands the world in terms of distinctions (self/other, humankind/nature, individual/society, mind/matter, reason/emotion and so on) and thus allows nature to be thought of as inert and valueless in itself, a mere resource for satisfying human ends. In this light, nothing less than a paradigm change – a change in how we approach and think about the world – will properly address the challenge of environmental degradation. In addition to its moral and philosophical orientation, deep ecology has been associated with a wider set of goals and concerns. These include: z z Wilderness preservation . Deep ecologists seek to preserve nature ‘wild and free’, based on the belief that the natural world, unspoilt by human intervention, is a repository of wisdomandmorality. Preservationism is nevertheless different fromconservationism, in that the latter is usually taken to imply protecting nature in order to satisfy long- term human ends. The ‘wilderness ethic’ of deep ecology is often linked to the ideas of Henry David Thoreau (see p. 119), whose quest for spiritual truth and self-reliance led him to flee from civilized life and live for two years in virtual solitude, close to nature, an experience described in Walden ([1854] 1983).
z z Population control . Although greens from many traditions have shown a concern about the exponential rise in the human population, deep ecologists have placed a particular emphasis on this issue, often arguing that a substantial decrease in the human population is the only way of ensuring the flourishing of non-human life. To this end, some deep ecologists have rejected aid to the developing world; called for a reduction
Preservationism: The disposition to protect natural systems, often implying keeping things ‘just as they are’ and restricting the impact of humans on the environment.
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