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Have you heard of 'deep ecology' ? It is one of the more all-encompassing environmental philosophies, founded by Arne Naess. According to wikipedia, deep ecology is "the philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the biosphere. It provides a foundation for the environmental, ecology and green movements and has fostered a new system of environmental ethics."
"Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that, like humanity, the living environment as a whole has the same right to live and flourish."
Last summer I bought a book called Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings which is a compilation of readings, poems, meditiations etc. While I have only skimmed it, and I'm sure what it has to say is not for everyone, it is still enlightening and a flip through its pages will open your eyes to a very different perspective of the world.
Here is the poem that opens the book:
Spirit of love
That flows against our flesh
Sets it trembling
Moves across it as across grass
Erasing every boundary that we accept
And swings the doors of our lives wide -
This is a prayer I sing:
Save our perishing earth
Spirit that cracks our single selves -
Eyes fall down eyes,
Hearts escape through the bars of our ribs
To dart into other bodies -
Save this earth!
The earth is perishing.
This is a prayer I sing.
Spirit that hears each one of us,
Hears all that is -
Listens, listens, hears us out -
Inspire us now!
Our own pulse beats in every stranger's throat,
And also there within the flowered ground beneath
our feet,
And - teach us to listen! -
We can hear it in water, in wood, and even in stone.
We are earth of this earth, and we are bone of its
bone.
This is a prayer I sing, for we have forgotten this
and so
The earth is perishing
That flows against our flesh
Sets it trembling
Moves across it as across grass
Erasing every boundary that we accept
And swings the doors of our lives wide -
This is a prayer I sing:
Save our perishing earth
Spirit that cracks our single selves -
Eyes fall down eyes,
Hearts escape through the bars of our ribs
To dart into other bodies -
Save this earth!
The earth is perishing.
This is a prayer I sing.
Spirit that hears each one of us,
Hears all that is -
Listens, listens, hears us out -
Inspire us now!
Our own pulse beats in every stranger's throat,
And also there within the flowered ground beneath
our feet,
And - teach us to listen! -
We can hear it in water, in wood, and even in stone.
We are earth of this earth, and we are bone of its
bone.
This is a prayer I sing, for we have forgotten this
and so
The earth is perishing
- Barbara Deming
This book was published in 1988. That's 23 years ago. This poem is still appropriate today, which is sad. Perhaps a deeper, more spiritual outlook is needed, in which humans see and treat the earth as equal to them rather than something insignificant to be taken advantage of.
p.s. Did you know that 2011 is 'The Year of Forests' as declared by the United Nations?
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