1. What do you think about the "8-point Deep Ecology Platform"?
I think this platform is awesome. it covers a lot of ground succinctly and soundly. I, personally, believe all that it states: the inherent worth of all life regardless of the usefulness for human purposes, that our richness relies on the diversity of our planet, that we are acting out excessively and irrationaly if we want to continue to have a planet to flourish on... When I slowed down and sat with each one of the points, i found that they hold a lot. I think it would be very useful for people to at least think about each of the 8-points, since quite often people aren't thinking this way... at all.
2. Can you explain why "ecosystems are both strong and fragile"?
Ecosystems are strong because of their diversity and each unique role that each species plays. They are fragile because they are reliant on the health and propagation of each of these species. So, when one is nurtured, they are all nurtured, and when one is threatened they are all threatened. Like a spider web, an ecosystem's strength is also in its structure, the reliance each strand holds on another to keep it taut. -- remove one strand and the entire web is weakened.
3. How would you assess the "end goals" of Social Ecology?
Social ecology "analyzes the various politcal and social institutions that people use in relationship to nature and its resources." I think that first goal of Social ecology to to assist a dialogue among people that encourages them to reflect on the various tensions that exist within our relationships to nature, ourselves, and technology. The second goal is to point to the contradictions that arise from these relationships (ie between forces of production and local ecological conditions, as well as biological and social reproduction). Social Ecology calls us to look at our government policies, social biases and discrimination, and each country's unique political economy and internal history. The end goal of this theorist movement is for people to look into the complexities wrapped up in the relationships we form to maintain our existences and realize that some are more destructive than not; the movement calls us to make changes on all levels to steer our cultures into more enlightened directions.
1 comment:
wow- I really enjoyed your 2 cents on social ecology-I am glad that you have included technolgy as part another aspect of this issue as more and more our society is growing quite dependent upon it in ways that really throws ourselves and nature off balance. It is quite all of our responsibilty as a species that impact this world quite gravely at times to really look at how we treat this world as a reflection of how we treat ourselves.
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