Shallow and deep ecologism

Subject :Environment

Section : Ecosystem

Context:

Heat waves are known to have been a reality for hundreds of years. But the long-term effects of climate change have exacerbated them, making the waves more extreme, frequent and prolonged.
As India continues to grapple with the unrelenting waves, it becomes pertinent to unpack two strands of environmental philosophy that reinvent the relationship between nature and humans — shallow and deep ecologism.

Shallow ecologism:

The fashionable fight against pollution and resource depletion is shallow ecologism.
Exponents of this philosophy believe in continuing our present lifestyle, but with specific tweaks aimed at minimising the damage to the environment.

Deep ecologism:

Deep ecologism believes that humans should radically change their relationship with nature.
Its proponents reject shallow ecologism for prioritising humans above other forms of life, and subsequently preserving the environmentally destructive way of life in modern societies.

Two styles of ecologism:

The concepts emerged in the 1970s, when Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess sought to look beyond the popular pollution and conservation movements of his milieu to address environmental degradation.
In his study of ecological concerns, Næss is more preoccupied with the role of the individual in nature.
He believes that owing to increased anthropocentrism, humans have cut themselves oﬀ from nature, viewing nature and themselves as competing entities and establishing a master-slave dynamic.

Concerns with shallow ecologism

Deep ecologism maintains that by sustaining this lifestyle, shallow ecologism further widens the inequalities between countries. For instance, despite constituting only five per cent of the world’s population, the U.S. accounts for 17% of the world’s energy consumption and is the second largest consumer of electricity after China.
Similarly, while low and middle-income countries have recorded lower cumulative and per capita carbon dioxide emissions over the past two centuries, it is the wealthier countries which are most responsible for a majority of carbon emissions.

Objectives of deep ecologism:

Deep ecologism advocates that humans should radically change their relationship with nature.
Deep ecologism aspires to sustain nature by making large-scale changes to our lifestyle.
These may include limiting the commercial farming of meat to preserve forest areas and reduce the artificial fattening of animals, or the reshaping of transport systems which involve the use of internal combustion engines.

Policy-making must be aided by the reorientation of technical skills and inventions in new directions that are ecologically responsible