Thinking Like a Mountain

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Thinking Like a Mountain

• Movement towards ecological consciousness.

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The discipline of environmental ethics
is a loose guild that encompasses a wide and wild
variety of proposals, all of them calling for
something new a new way of reading history,
a new way of thinking, a new religious
consciousness or a new interpretation of the old
one, and finally, a new consciousness
altogether.-Martha Ellen Stortz
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Ich-Du Ich-Es

• Ich-Du I- Thou, In an I-Thou encounter,
  infinity and universality are made actual (rather
  than being merely concepts).
• Ich-Es - The Ich-Es ("I-It") relationship is
  nearly the opposite of Ich-Du. There becomes an
  isolation between two objects.

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History

• Modern Worlds biggest impact on Ecology
• The Vertical Plow
• Scientific and Industrial Revolution
• In Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis,
  Lynn White examines the links between our
  environmental crisis and traditional
  Judeo-Christian practices and attitudes.

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Changing thoughts towards Ecology

• Bridging gaps between life by viewing creation as
  a continuous process
• Whites essay seeks to retrieve a minority voice
  within religious sects.

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Religious attitudes towards Ecology

• Traditional Anglo religions viewed Man as the
  master of this world.
• Though recent changes has seen religious leaders
  refer to their people as stewards that protect
  Gods land.

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Religious leaders impact

• Father Serrini
• That dominion (Mans) cannot be anything
  other then a stewardship in symbiosis with all
  creatures
• Rabbi Hertzberg
• It is our Jewish responsibility to put the
  defense of the whole world of nature at the very
  center of our concern

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Environmental Activism

• Many people seek to increase ecological awareness
  through group or individual activism.
• Greenpeace Global Organization that approaches
  environmental activism on different topics and
  strategies
• Jane Goodall spawned her research of primate
  into a campaign for their existence and
  protection
• Environmental Protection Agency Government
  organization that charged with protecting human
  health and the natural environment

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Developing a new Consciousness

• Arne Ness describes this from a view point that
  all things hang together.
• As the deer is afraid of the wolf, so is the
  mountain afraid of the deer.
• All things do indeed hang together in Ich-Du.

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References

• Thinking like a Mountain A survey of
  Environmental Ethics by Martha Ellen Stortz
• I and Thou by Martin Buber
• Thinking like a Mountain by Aldo Leopold
• A Sensible Land Ethic by Julia Ahlers