Ecologism

Ecologism by Mark Smith ISBN:0816633029, http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/S/smith_ecologism.html

Michael Quinion says Many greens distinguish between Ecologism and Environmentalism. The former is a fundamentalist philosophy of deep greenness - some would argue a political ideology, though not aligned anywhere along the traditional right versus left, capitalism versus socialism axis - with a strong spiritual component that seeks to preserve the environment in absolute terms without concern for the place of human beings within it and in particular without making allowance for the potential needs of future generations. To those holding such views, environmentalism is no more than a form of engineering which treats the environment as a resource to be manipulated or consumed while seeking to minimise pollution and other adverse effects; those espousing that approach are sometimes pejoratively described as shallow greens.

A class intro The strength of Ecologism as a term is that it stresses the central importance of ecology. i.e. It is an approach to political understanding that is fundamentally different to all others... Ecologism has taken a more rationalist form and has been seen in some ways as a measured response to the crises of the modern world. The belief is that continued economic growth poses a threat to our very existence... It works from a vision of nature as a network of precious, fragile relationships between all living human species. We are but one part of an organic whole. The problem as ecologists see it is that if we do not see this, we are on the road to destroying that whole beyond repair.


Beyond Civilization: The End of the Hierarchical Imagination by James S Cochran: ISBN:9023224566

James S Cochran is a lawyer from Austin Tx.

  • I think this is him.

Intro by Richard P Schaedel, Anthropology prof at U Tex@Austin

Labels his philosophy as "Ecologism" - but I don't think it goes with the Michael Quinion description.

changes over time in: views of nature vs view of self: primitive, hierarchical, new

hierarchical: science, state, Instrumentalism

under competitition, many victories are pyrrhic

ecology demands a more cooperative approach


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