Ecocentrism

Within environmental philosophy, ethics, politics, and activism, a general perception pervades that human beings are the direct cause of the ecological crisis that our planet faces. Ecocentrism underscores the notion that the worldviews that humans hold profoundly contribute to their misuse and abuse of the natural world. One of the most important belief systems or worldviews supporting forms of environmentalism that are dedicated to taking full account of human contributions to ecological degradation, ecocentrism reconceives nature and the planet Earth as primary and humankind secondary. Ecocentrism offers a strong critique of any worldview modeled upon a view of the nonhuman natural world as having less intrinsic value because it is an object to be controlled and whose purpose resides outside itself. Ecocentrism is thus one ...