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The Eight Tenets Of Deep Ecology

Arne Naess, the man who coined the term "Deep Ecology" came up with eight guiding principles. Personally I believe that it is more important what an individual thinks and feels rather than necessarily adhering to a fixed set of principles.

As such these eight tenets are a useful guide and do represent the ideas of Deep Ecology. However they shouldn't be treated as doctrine or as anything more than guiding ideas.

1. The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves (synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.

2. Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values and are also values in themselves.

3. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital human needs.

4. The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.

5. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.

6. Policies must therefore be changed. These policies affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present.

7. The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of inherent value) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great.

8. Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to try to implement the necessary changes.

It is useful to compare these points to what our human centered culture would say:

1. Non-human life is merely a resource for human use; its value can only be measured in its usefulness to us.

2. There is a hierachy of importance when it comes to living creatures; humans are the most important.

3. The world exists as a resource for humans. It is our right to use it to our economic and material advantage.

4. The human population can increase without regard for non-human life.

5. Humans have not yet gained mastery of the earth. In order to solve our problems we need to increase our influence over the planet.

6. Our policies are working effectively for the benefit of humanity. We just need to pursue them with more vigour to achieve better results.

7. We must work to ensure that the standard of living is increasing for all people.

8. Change is implemented from the government. Best leave problematic issues to the experts.

Related Articles From Deep Ecology Hub:

• The Story Of Civilization
• The Global Vision Of Deep Ecology
• The Power Of Changed Minds
• The Ecophilosophy Of Deep Ecology
• The Problem With Environmentalism