Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered

As advertised, long sought out, slow, going read.... but worth it, and should be read by anyone thinking about doing more for the planet

As a long time environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy I found the book wonderfully comprehensive in its analysis and explanation of deep ecology. The book delves nicely into the sources of deep ecology and its response to other perspectives on environmental issues. I found it a quick read (I read it at the gym, but then, I read Heidegger for fun) and well put together.It will not, however, make someone who is coming from a perspective far from deep ecology change their mind. For that I would recommend Muir or Jeffers or better yet, spend some time in the real wilderness yourself. What it does is provide extensive background material and elucidation of the philosophy to someone who already believes in the importance of wilderness preservation.

For me, this book is well worth buying for one article: On The Dire Destiny of Human Lemmings by William Cotton, Jr. This 16-page article nicely summarizes Catton's 1980 book, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. Both writings are about carrying capacity, i.e., the maximum population of a given species which a particular habitat can support indefinitely (under specified technology and organization, in the case of human species). Catton uses the simple example of how lemmings predictably and periodically overshoot the carrying capacity of their simple habitat. Though the principles of carrying capacity are easy to observe and understand for the lemming, those same principles apply to much more complicated habitats, including the whole earth. The principles apply to all species, including humans. Hence, the title of Catton's article in the book, Deep Ecology.Cotton explains the Take Over method of increasing the earth's carrying capacity for humans, the method of using technological advances (fire, stone tools, etc.) to gradually expand their population and territories, though this has been at the expense of other species. The Take Over method, however, is generally sustainable.This is contrasted with the Draw Down method in which humans draw down finite supplies of natural resources at a rate which is faster than the resources can be replenished. Thus, expanding earth's carrying capicity for humans using draw down is not sustainable, and is seem by the author as stealing from future generations. Furthermore, continued use of draw down to expand human population will lead to a population crash. Catton is not Malthus nor Erlich , and has a much more sophisticated understanding of carrying capacity as it applies to human cultural and population growth. His 2009 book, Bottleneck, expands on Overshoot buy describing various techniques used by humans to sustainably increased population, as well as, describing clever, but unwise methods by which humans attempt to avoid limits of carrying capacity and continue their unsustainable economic and population growth.You have to read his stuff because it's not easy to explain in a book review. I read a lot of environmental books about the history of different scientific disciplines and the new scientific findings in science. My main concern is climate science. I am continually trying to gain an accurate understanding of how the earth many systems function and how humans function within the host Earth. Catton's work influenced me more than any other single author.

This book is a quirky classic, a veritable cornucopia of 60s countercultural buzz words, utopianism, and mystical mush. Drawing on an eclectic range of sources (Thoreau, Muir, Naess, Eastern spirituality, Native American earth wisdom, anarchist social ecology, Gandhian nonviolence, 60s environmental radicalism, etc.), Devall and Sessions argue against human-centered "reformist" environmentalism and for a radical deep ecology that calls for profound and far-reaching changes in how humans live and relate to nature. It is anti-capitalism, anti-technology, anti-urban, anti-big-government, and anti-anthropocentrism. Deep ecology, in their view, is based on two major value commitments: (1) self-realization and (2) biocentric egalitarianism. Following Naess, by self-realization they don't mean pursuit of egoistic gratifications, but identification with the Whole of nature/reality and a commitment to the blossoming of all forms of life. By biocentric egalitarianism they mean a recognition that all living things (and even some nonliving ecological wholes such as rivers, mountains, etc.) have equal intrinsic value and deserve equal moral respect and consideration. Oddly, neither of these two central normative principles are included in the famous eight-point "Platform" of basic principles of deep ecology (p. 70) they endorse. In practical terms, the vision of deep ecology they favor involves a drastic reduction in human population, a rewilding of much of the globe, a rejection of "the dominant worldview" and modern technocratic-industrial civilization, and a return to what they call "the minority tradition" of small, self-regulating communities living in close harmony with nature, much as primal peoples once lived.If this sounds like crackpot, pastoral utopianism, it is. Not a shadow of practicality or realism ever darkens their sunshiny dream of a re-greened Earth sprinkled with a few happy "mixed communities of humans, rivers, deer, wolves, insects and trees" (p. 205). It's Thoreau on acid. Charming in its way, but badly dated and wholly impractical.

Way to deep and dated for me.

This is one of those books that would have been better left in the trees. There's nothing in it that wasn't said better before, and its pretension of being "more deeply ecological than thou" makes its "movement" a ready target for influential anti-ecologists like Joan Didion, as when she's demonizing Robinson Jeffers (his poetry "pretentious, his postures ugly") in her Where I Was From: "He called himself an 'Inhumanist.' (As in, from a posting on the Jeffers studies web site, 'I'm interested in the relationship between Inhumanism and Deep Ecology and would welcome any thoughts or comments.')"

Arrived in the condition as described. Very good book.

excellent - exactly as advertised

Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered Another great service from Amazon. This book was ordered from America, it was in excellent condition for second hand and an amazingly cheap price and delivered when it was planned. Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered