A DEEP ECOLOGY FUTURE: Part 13 Deep Ecology for the 21st Century
Guest: George Sessions Program 2728
Host: Michael Toms Interview Date: 10/1/1998 Program Length: 1 Hour
Media:
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Program Description: "We can keep nature at arm's length if we just look at it as 'scenery,'" says George Sessions. "But there's something much deeper there." Deep ecology attempts to awaken us out of the superficial assumption that nature is for our pleasure and consumption, stressing the inherent value and rights of other species, and the responsibility of humans not to abuse our power for selfish ends. Sessions describes the influence of several great thinkers and activists on current efforts to preserve what is left of wildness in the world-and why this is crucial to our spiritual well-being and to human survival itself: "The old political categories of left, right, conservative and liberal are irrelevant when it comes to the kind of ecology that needs to be put into practice." Included in Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. 1 hour
Sessions is co-author, with Bill Devall, of Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered, editor of Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, and co-editor of Environmental Philosophy.
Topics explored in this dialogue:
Being a young climber and garbageman in Yosemite Park
The influence of Gary Snyder, Paul Shepard and David Brower
How Thoreau and Muir influenced the rise of deep ecology
The trouble with liberals who focus on social justice issues
John Muir's argument with the concept of "Lord Man"
Why ecology is actually a spiritual issue
The shortfall of the environmental summit in Rio
Why ecology transcends political categories
Shifting emphasis on issues within the Sierra Club
The disastrous effects of Christian denigration of nature and the body
St. Francis and the need for a pagan revolution in Christianity
