A Lesson in Deep Ecology

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Deep ecology, a movement launched by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess in 1972, may be contrasted to an environmentalism concerned with the depletion of resources and pollution. For one thing, deep ecology aims at nothing less than a fundamental change in religion, morality, and social institutions. The eight-point platform devised by Naess and his chief American exponent George Sessions in 1984 is “deliberately ambiguous,” according to Eric Katz, so as not to reveal its revolutionary nature. As a result, several of the key principles which Naess laid down in 1972 are not even mentioned there, though they remain the movement’s “core doctrines” and are “crucial features of the deep ecology position as it appears in almost all published discussions.”

Continue Reading »

First Things RSS Feed - Anne Barbeau Gardiner

A Lesson in Deep Ecology