The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement
Brooks Lowell / PHIL 340
10/17/2019
Background Information
Background
In this article, Arne Naess summarizes the Shallow Ecology Movement and the Deep Ecology Movement including the seven points of survey associated with it.
The Shallow Ecology Movement
Shallow Ecology Movement
"Fight against pollution and resource depletion.
Central objective:
the health and affluence of people in the developed countries"
The Deep Ecology Movement
Based in the belief that humans need to change their relationship with nature to one that sees its inherent value rather than its instrumental.
- Relational, Total-Field Image - rejection of the man-in-environment view, for organisms as knots in the biospherical net or field of intrinsic relations.
- Biospherical Egalitarianism - the equal right to live and blossom for all forms of life.
- Principles of Diversity and of Symbiosis - the so-called struggle of life, and survival of the fittest, should be interpreted in the sense of ability to coexist and cooperate in complex relationships, rather than ability to kill, exploit, and suppress.
- Anti-Class Posture - exploitation and suppression of one class to another causes both groups to be adversely affected in their potentialities of self-realization.
- Pollution and Resource Depletion - Ecologists and their supporters fight against pollution and resource depletion.
- Complexity, Not Complication - Organisms, ways of life, and interactions in the biosphere in general, exhibit complexity of such an astoundingly high level as to colour the general outlook of ecologists. Such complexity makes thinking in terms of vast systems inevitable. It also makes for a keen, steady perception of the profound human ignorance of biospherical relationships and therefore of the effect of disturbances.
- Local Autonomy and Decentralization - The vulnerability of a form of life is roughly proportional to the weight of influences from afar, from outside the local region in which that form has obtained an ecological equilibrium. Even if a decision follows majority rules at each step, many local interests may be dropped along the line.
Conclusions
It is not until the end of the article that Naess provides any of his own commentary on the two movements and their tenets.
Naess' Thoughts
Naess states that the tenets for the Deep Ecology movement are forcefully normative. This means that they may not always appply to individual scenarios, but should still be used and inerperated in ways that will help. He also argues that the global approach is essential, but regional differences must largely determine policies in the coming years.