Deep Ecology

Deep ecology is primarily an environmental philosophy—or “ecosophy” as some call it—which holds that there is a pressing need for humans to radically change their relationship to nature and to recognize that nature has an inherent value and is not to be taken as valuable solely for its usefulness and instrumentality to humans. Deep ecology also offers a new definition of the self that differs from traditional notions, and it designates a social movement that sometimes has religious and mystical undertones. This philosophy, taken together with a number of other competing schools of thought and environmental practices such as the science of ecology, conservationism, and protectionism, among others, comprises the general idea of environmentalism. But taken as an ecosophy, deep ecology distinguishes itself by making ...