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These are seven basic points of Deep Ecology. They are derived from many sources, and are general enough to be interpreted in a variety of ways. They are meant to serve as a set of core values, a platform to guide discussion and action.
• All life has intrinsic value.
• Nature, in all its complexity and diversity, results from symbiosis. Diversity means the many different kinds of individuals, species, and ecosystems which the whole of nature contains and in itself implies the idea of ‘many'. But in nature, instead of a multiplicity of detached entities, organisms are bound to each other through threads of symbiosis and depend upon interaction with each other for survival.
Symbiosis with diversity together form the complexity of nature – a vast world of relationships, connections, and possibilities. There is intrinsic value in this crystal web of complexity. Our species is but one strand in the web.
• People are part of nature, but our potential power means that our responsibility toward nature is greater than that of any other species. Individuals of all species have a natural tendency to explore their environment and simultaneously create and fill an ecological niche. In defining our niche we have altered nature more than any other species has done. This imposed change, carried out on a massive scale, detaches us from the earth, and neither furthers our own survival nor the well-being of the planet.
• We have become estranged from the earth because we have interfered with the complexity of nature. Yet our species has more than the ability to destroy: it also has a potential for understanding.
• We should change the basic structure of our society and the policies which uphold it. The idea of growth should be redefined so that it refers to the increase of our understanding and experience of nature. Comprehending should form the basic of our actions. We therefore need to rethink our policies on:
Economics. Economic needs are the factual needs of survival. But only individuals can have such needs, not organizations nor corporations. Present economic ideology tends to value material goods and the flow of goods and services, and industries try to create or increase the needs for products. We should instead identify the needs of people and those of other species, and develop ways of realizing them.
Society and Politics. Our world is largely controlled by massive organizations and it is unrealistic to assume that we could function without them. But to promote growth we must encourage local, participatory structures, based on the principles of self-reliance. Local autonomy does not imply isolation and decentralization does not suggest a lack of cooperation and meeting. The movement towards smaller, more egalitarian and less hierarchical organizations cannot be done in opposition to the dominant system: it must come from within its depths.
Cultures. Different cultures have different needs – cultures must be seen as dynamic patterns, flows of change based on enduring values identified through history. For cultural diversity to survive demands that the basic aims of each culture should be sustained. No culture should impose upon another.
• We must seek quality of personal life rather than higher standards of living, self-realization rather than mere monetary gain. Measuring quantities in our lives is easy, but measuring quality is not. Statistics alone can never be the basic for decisions – underlying values must be considered. It is essential to establish principles of life quality before criticisms and paths for change are mapped out.
Ecological consciousness connects the individual to the larger world. It allows the full realization of the possibilities open to any person in society and nature. No one's self-realization can come about in isolation, however: compassion and altruism must be the foundations of a life that is truly one of quality.
• We need to identify more with nature. Only then will we see our part in it again. Science can help us do this, as the search for basic laws brings us closer to natural values.
The more we learn of nature, the more we see that we cannot accept as inevitable our present dangerously imperfect world. We can direct whatever abilities we possess towards change, both immediate action and the achievement of long-term goals.
Four broad ways of involving oneself in change can be identified:
I Living according to ecological ideals of self-reliance, as an individual or in a small group. To do this at present requires some detachment from the dominant system.
II Encouraging compromise between the present and the ideal: a mix of centralized and local technologies and institutions, providing a realistic path of transition.
III Trying to change the system directly. This means talking to people, including ‘experts' and decision-makers.
IV Artistic and philosophical reflection on the closeness of man and nature for its own sake.
out of ‘The Green Alternative' by Peter Bunyard and Fern Morgan-Grenville, published by Methuen London Ltd in 1987 and by Mandarin Paperbacks in 1990
for more info check the web/thought/deep ecology wiki
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