Concepts in Ecology
"Ecology" derives from the Greek oikos meaning a household. It views "the world as an integrated whole rather than a dissociated collection of parts. Deep ecological awareness recognizes the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and the fact that, as individuals and societies, we are all embedded in the cyclical processes of nature." (Capra F. The web of life. New York, Anchor Books, 1996, p.6)
"A holistic view of, say, a bicycle means to see the bicycle as a functional whole and to understand the interdependence of its parts accordingly. An ecological view of the bicycle includes that, but it adds to it the perception of how the bicycle is embedded in its natural and social environment – where the raw materials that went into it came from, ... how its use affects the natural environment and the community ... This distinction between "holistic" and "ecological" is even more important when we talk about living systems, for which the connections with the environment are much more vital." (Capra, p.7)
"Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centered. It views humans as above or outside of nature, as the source of all value and ascribes only instrumental, or "use" value to nature. Deep ecology does not separate humans–or anything else–from the natural environment. It sees the world not as a collection of isolated objects, but as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all living beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life." (Capra, p.7)
Many of our social and economic relations are fundamentally anti-ecological. Imperialism, capitalism, sexism, ageism and racism all represent exploitative dominations. The ecological shift is one from structures of domination to structures of integration: networks rather than hierarchies. Capra drew the following table to illustrate some of the paradigm shifts involved in assuming an ecological viewpoint:
|
Thinking |
Values |
||
|
Self-Assertive |
Integrative |
Self-Assertive |
Integrative |
|
rational |
intuitive |
expansion |
conservation |
|
analysis |
synthesis |
competition |
cooperation |
|
reductionist |
holistic |
quantity |
quality |
|
linear |
nonlinear |
domination |
partnership |
(From Capra F. The web of life. New York, Anchor Books, 1996, p.10)
- From an ecological perspective, richer countries achieve longer life and better health, but do so at the expense of placing a greater burden on the planet. The "ecological footprint" estimates the land area required to support one person living the typical lifestyle of different countries. In Canada, our footprint is large because we consume lots of energy, water, etc. Here is a graph that shows the link between life expectancy (it has been adjusted to reflect the average health of people during their lives) and ecological footprint. (Note the footprint uses a log scale, so the countries to the right of the figure are consuming far more than those to the left)
Link to Deep Ecology
Some Readings...
Green LW, Potvin RL. Ecological foundations of health promotion. Am J Health Promotion 1996; 10: 270-81
Stokols, D. Translating social ecological theory into guidelines for community health promotion. Am J Health Promotion 1996; 10: 282-98.
Stokols, D. Bridging the theoretical and applied facets of environmental psychology. Am Psychologist. 1996; 51: 1188-1189.
Stokols, D. Establishing and maintaining healthy environments. Am Psychologist 1992;
World Health Organization. Ecosystems and human well-being: health synthesis. WHO, Geneva, 2005.
Course Outline || Index of Course Notes || Reading List