What Is Deep Ecology

Deep Ecology is the ancient idea that man is a part of the world, not the owner and master of the world. The globe used to populated entirely by cultures who possessed this vision. They weren't perfect and they weren't particularly noble but their way of life worked. They didn't overrun and threaten to destroy the world.

10,000 years ago a new culture emerged. This was a culture that believed man owned the world and it was his right to exploit it for his own benefit. Armed with this vision these people were not content to allow their food supply to be at nature's whim. So they began an intense form of agriculture, one whose vision was the single minded production of human food at the expense of other life forms.

With all the extra food came extra people. With all the extra people came geographical expansion. The balance had been thrown out, this culture began to expand exponentially. It took only 10,000 years for them to spread out across the entire globe, wiping out or absorbing all of the original cultures that stood in their way. The world stands bleeding at their feet.

Now 99.8% of the world's population believe in the new idea that the world exists purely as a resource for man's benefit. Those who hold onto the old idea that man belongs to the community of life are very few and their numbers are shrinking.

Deep Ecology is the reintroduction of this old idea into current environmental thinking. Mainstream environmentalism seeks to save the world but only for human benefit. Only so we can continue to own and exploit the earth for future generations.

Deep Ecology is trying to shift this thinking. The world has value for its own sake. Man is a part of it but it certainly wasn't created just for us. There are millions of other species that share this ecosystem with us and they also have a right to life. The more humankind expands and the more resources he puts under his control, the less there is for everyone else. At present it is estimated that 200 species a day are becoming extinct. If we continue to destroy biodiversity in this fashion then our way of life is most certainly going to crumble.

All of humankind's flourishing over the last 10,000 years has come at the expense of the rest of creation. Soon there will be nothing left for us to take advantage of.

Deep Ecology advocates a return to the old idea that man belongs to the world. Shallow actions like recycling and hybrid cars are not going to save us. We need to ask deeper questions and get the very root of our assumptions about who we are and what we are doing on this planet.

It is a radical call, but these are radical times and radical actions need to take place.

By: Thomas M

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About the Author

Thomas writes about the environment, culture and the way forward for people. He has free articles about Deep Ecology as well as videos and links to free books.