A2 Sample Essay Start

Socially Deep Ecology

            The fundamental premise of both Bookchin and Bradford’s arguments against deep ecology is that the environmental crisis is rooted in social conflict, and that deep ecologists fail to commune nature with society. Therefore, deep ecologists disregard the very forces of domination and manipulation that are common in social interaction and directly correlate with environmental degradation. Bradford and Bookchin also elaborate upon the subject of humanism, referring to the dualism of deep ecology as contradictory and naïve. They denounce deep ecology’s ironic sensitivity to the ideal of anthropocentricism even though deep ecology emphasizes humanity’s justified polarity with the environment. The excerpts of Davis and Dideon only confirm Bookchin and Bradford’s critique of deep ecology. Davis’s firefighters and Dideon’s lifeguards compliment the argument that deep ecology is avowedly un-humanistic. As well, the presence of an inherent social hierarchy seen in the tenement and mansion fires in Davis and the symbolism of the greenhouse in Dideon show the obvious underlying social influences that refute the ideologies of deep ecology.

            Leopold and Berry talk of deep ecology as an ecological philosophy that recognizes the interdependence of the living environment, and emphasizes the inherent value of all organisms aside from their utility to human beings. Leopold states that, “an ethical relation to land can(not) exist without love, respect, and admiration for land and a high regard for its value (…) far broader than mere economic value” (Leopold 20). They attempt to look at nature holistically, and empathetically, stressing the “cosmic oneness” of our environment and our ever-growing reliance towards its resources. And in the respect that the ideological change that they fight for is mainly that of appreciating quality of life rather than standard of living, deep ecology makes a fair point.

However, Bookchin and Bradford realize the utopian aspect of this ideology and thus disregard it, commentating that society in actuality consists of power struggles that neglect sympathy. Bradford states that deep ecological thought is “blind to the actual organization of power, as well as to the operational characteristics of what is fundamentally an exterminist civilization” (Bradford 421). Thus, contrary to deep ecology’s vision, the sources of our ecological crisis are rooted in a class-based, hierarchical society. This is easily seen in the vast amount of fires throughout Los Angeles County that Davis describe in his “Ecology of Fear”. Davis emphasizes an obvious social problem that arises in the midst of firestorms that ravage both inter-Los Angeles and Malibu county. He recognizes the clear economic differences between the “overcrowded tenements of the Westlake district” compared to the perfection of the mansions that line the Malibu coast.