
this is life....
Joanna Macy, in her book Coming Back To Life, says: "Our interdependance with all life of Earth has profound implications for our attitudes
and actions. To clarify these implications and free us from behaviors based on outmoded notions of our
separateness from nature, deep ecology arose, both as a philosophy and a movement. The term was coined in the 1970's by Norwegian philosopher
Arne Naess, a mountain climber and scholar of Gandhi.
In contrast to reform environmentalism,
which treats the symptoms of ecological degradation --clean up a river here or a dump there for human
well being -- deep ecology questions fundamental premises of the Industrial Growth Society. It challenges the assumtions,
embedded in much Judeo-Christian and Marxist thought, that humans are the crown of creation and the ultimate measure of value.
It offers us a broader and more sustainable sense of our own worth, as viable members of the great evolving community of Earth.
It holds that we can break free from the species arrogance which threatens not only ourselves but
all complex life forms within reach...
...When we make common cause on behalf of the Earth community,
we open not only to the needs of others, but also to their abilities and gifts. It is a good thing that power-with
is not a personal property, because, frankly, none of us possesses all the courage and intelligence, strength and
endurance required for the Great Turning. And none of us needs to possess them, or dredge them up out of some private
storehouse. All the resources we will need arise out of our interactions, as we commit ourselves to a common
intent for our common fate. This is the nature of synergy, the first property of living systems. As parts self-organize into a larger whole, capacities emerge
which could never have been predicted, and which the individual parts did not possess. The weaving of new connections brings new responses and new possibilities
into play. In the process, one can feel sustained -- and is sustained -- by currents of power larger than one's own.
...Grace happens when we act with others on behalf or our world. "
(Joanna Macy: Coming Back To Life).
Click on Photo to read Conversations between regions on conservancy....
site in process...
|
|
|
|
|