Concept

Deep ecology

Also known as: Deep ecological perspective

A philosophical and ethical framework articulated by Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss in 1973, asserting the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their utility to human ends. Distinguished from 'shallow ecology' (which treats environmental problems as engineering challenges to be solved within the dominant industrial worldview) by its insistence that the dominant worldview itself must change. Foundational philosophical substrate for the bioregional movement, the rights-of-nature legal movement, and ecologically-grounded spiritual traditions — including Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects.

Origin

Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss (1912–2009) introduced the term in a 1973 lecture and subsequent paper. He distinguished between:

Shallow ecology — concerned with pollution, resource depletion, and [[extinction|species extinction]] primarily as threats to human health, prosperity, and aesthetic enjoyment. Solutions are within the existing industrial-economic framework.
Deep ecology — asserts that all living beings have inherent worth, independent of human use. Solutions require changing the worldview that produced the crisis, not merely the technologies operating within it.

The eight points (Næss & Sessions, 1984)

Næss and George Sessions formulated a platform of eight principles intended as a working consensus across deep-ecology adherents:

The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life have value in themselves, independent of usefulness to humans.
Richness and diversity of life forms have intrinsic value.
Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.
The flourishing of nonhuman life requires a substantial decrease in human population.
Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive and worsening.
Policies must therefore be changed.
The ideological change is mainly in appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of inherent worth) rather than higher standards of living.
Those who subscribe to the foregoing have an obligation to attempt to implement the necessary changes.

Lineages and influence

Deep ecology drew on Spinoza’s philosophy, Buddhist thought (especially through Næss’s mountaineering and meditation practices), [[aldo-leopold|Aldo Leopold]]‘s land ethic, and Næss’s own decades in the Norwegian mountains.

It influenced:

The bioregional movement — see [[bioregion]] — Peter Berg, Raymond Dasmann, and others
Earth First! and the radical-environmental movement of the 1980s
[[joanna-macy|Joanna Macy]]‘s Work That Reconnects — see [[joanna-macy]]
The rights-of-nature legal movement — Ecuador’s 2008 constitution; New Zealand’s Whanganui River legal personhood (2017); the Universal Declaration of the Rights of [[mother-earth|Mother Earth]]
Ecological-spirituality traditions — Christian ecotheology, Buddhist environmentalism, neo-pagan reverence for the more-than-human world

Sources

Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, Arne Næss (1989, Cambridge University Press)
“The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement” (Næss, 1973, Inquiry)
Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered, Bill Devall and George Sessions (1985)

Rooted in life.

What links here, and how

Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.

Spiritual

shares approach with

Forest bathing forest bathing operationalizes the deep-ecology insight that immersion in non-human ecosystems supports human flourishing
Spirituality deep ecology's intrinsic-value claim and the spiritual recognition of kinship across species are the same recognition arrived at from different starting points

Cultural

shares approach with

Animism animism and deep ecology arrive at related conclusions through different paths — Indigenous traditional ontology vs. Western philosophical articulation
Kincentric ecology kincentric ecology and deep ecology arrive at related conclusions through different paths — Indigenous traditional knowledge vs. Western philosophical articulation
Rights of Nature rights-of-nature is the legal-philosophical operationalization of deep-ecology principles — inherent worth of non-human life, not merely instrumental value

General

parallels

Dependent Origination the recognition that phenomena exist only in dependence on conditions — that nothing stands alone — has been a substantial point of contact between Buddhism and the ecological tradition; Joanna Macy's work has been the principal vehicle of that conversation

6 inbound links · 3 outbound