Environmentalism: Values and Philosophy

• Views of Society, Environmentalists and Environmentalism • Environmental Ideologies & Link to Environmental Management

Session Objectives

1. Understand the different classifications for environmentalism – Technocentrism – Ecocentrism 2. Identify some of the leading environmental thinkers and activists associated with each of the above typologies

Views of Society

•

Society

- the social organisation and associated institutions that shape human behaviour • • Typically societies have rules of behaviour, division of roles and punishments, dependent on – Gender – Age – Knowledge and skills – Control over means of production – Place of origin – Background

Citizenship

each other” - “social and moral responsibility to

Societal Rules

Many forms of control vital to societal functioning • Religion and creation mythologies • Political Laws - social consensus • Culture, customs and fashions Usually controlled at national level by Institutions State, church, market and business, education, police etc.

For individual / communities culture and social values more important

Society - Environment Links

• • How we perceive and behave towards the environment is closely linked to societal norms -

Religion

– Creation story of one God creating the earth and universe and then humans in his image (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) => Envt to use and exploit – Bhuddism & Hinduism - holistic view that sees humankind as part of, & inseparable from the wider envt - have animal and plant deities and sacred rivers … – Indigenous cultures - often have plant and animal deities and a feeling of ‘belonging’ to the land

Indigenous Philosophies & Knowledge

• Inter-relationships between different env systems and appreciation of processes central - “

an appreciation of the whole

” • Now recognised as having great env management potential - offer insights lost due to the split between academic disciplines and the search for ‘objective’ scientific facts

Environmentalist/ism

• A specialist in the maintenance of ecological balance and the conservation of the environment – Collins Concise English Dictionary Definition • The ‘green’ ideas about the relationship between society and nature – David Pepper, 1996

Many modern environmentalist would prefer to believe that …

• The environmental crisis is obvious • Scientific evidence objectively shows this to be the case • Provided enough of us realise this and see the evidence we must and will recognise the need to act differently • Thus avoiding a messy ideological debate

Why ideologies are important

“

Ideologies are sets of ideas that form the basis of a personal or group ‘world view’: a particular perspective on how the world is, and ought to be

” Pepper, 1996, p.2.

They tell us about a person’s (individual) or an organisation’s (collective) values, ethic, morals, principles, beliefs & thus decisions and actions

Task

• In groups of 3-4 • Take the environmental issue of biodiversity • List as many reasons as you can for why whales should be saved • Can any of these reasons be classified into themes or typologies?

Environmentalism has multiple meanings

– Many ways of perceiving humankinds relationship to the planet – Many ways of understanding the problems – Many competing solutions “

the environmental issue mean such different things that in aggregate it quite literally encompasses everything

” David Harvey

Theocentric

• God centred argument • Based on Judeo-Christian and Islamic Faiths • Nature and living species are divine creations • The human species has a stewardship duty to protect and respect nature (Genesis 1:26 God grants man dominion ….)

Technocentrism

• Anthropocentric • Based on scientific reductionism • Human intervention and development can enhance and improve nature • Nature – Is benign ‘capable of quick recovery from human interference’ – Objectified – There to serve human interests – Only has instrumental value

Cornucopians

• Optimistic faith in human ingenuity • Pro-growth (economic) • Faith in science and technology • Suspicious of widening public participation • Believe the economy will self-correct

Environmental Managers

• Pro-growth, but interventions necessary to control & compensation the worst excesses • Allowance for wider consultation in decision-making process

Ecocentrism

• Philosophical roots – Romanticism: Thoreau, Whitman, Ruskin – Eastern thinking: Buddhism, Taoism • Nature – has intrinsic value in its own right – is a community not a commodity – respect the utility and beauty of nature – we should try to live in harmony with the natural world

Self-Reliance / Soft Technologies

• Bioregionalism, small-scale local solutions • Communitarian; linking of work and leisure • Importance of participation, recognition of minority rights • Appropriate Technology • Materialism for its own sake is wrong

Deep Ecology

• Bio-ethics • Ecological laws should underpin human morality • Biorights • Distrust of large-scale technology, elites, central state authority • Materialism for its own sake is wrong

Task outside of the today’s session

• Read in greater depth about some of the individuals that represent the technocentric and ecocentric environmentalism • Begin to understand the beliefs and values that influences the way they frame the environmental crisis and their preferred solutions

Key References

Gandy, M. (1996) Crumbling land: the Post-modernity Debate and the Analysis of Environmental Problems,

Progress in Human Geography

, 20(1) pp.23-40.

Guha, R. (2000)

Environmentalism: A Global History

, Longman, New York.

Huxham, D. (2000) ‘Why conserve wild species?’ in Huxham, M. and Sumner, D.

Science and Environmental Decision making

, Prentice-hall, Harlow.

O’Riordan, T. (1983)

An Annotated Reader in Environmental Planning and Management

, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

Palmer, J. (2001)

Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment

, Routledge, London.

Pepper, D. (1996)

Modern Environmentalism

, Routledge, London.