Dealing with the Environmental Crisis: a Case for Cultural Approaches
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Corso di Laurea magistrale (ordinamento ex D.M. 270/2004) in Filosofia della società, dell’arte e della comunicazione Tesi di Laurea Dealing with the environmental crisis: a case for cultural approaches Relatore Ch. Prof. Fiorino Tessaro Laureando Catia Squarcia Matricola 843235 Anno Accademico 2014 / 2015 Acknowledgements I would like to thank several persons and subjects whose contribution or support allowed the realization of this work. I thank the Venice International University, through which I could access the environmental topics, otherwise too difficult to study given the nature of the academic curriculum of my course, and I could conduct my research at RCC. Thanks to the Rachel Carson Centre in Munich, where most part of my research could develop, in a great environment, a source of enrichment, precious inputs and human warmth. Thanks to my supervisor, Professor Fiorino Tessaro, who embraced my project although it was unusual and linked to other institutions and projects in its realization. Thanks to Wega Association and the staff of Filofest, for the positive energy and the friendship that gave me the sprint to start my research. Thanks to my parents, who supported me in the choices that I made, even when they seemed more difficult or not linear as usual plans expected. Thanks to my brother and my sister, Marco and Chiara, because they are unique friends and I can always count on them. Thanks to my friends, those who are there every Christmas, although every one took his own way. Thanks to the persons I keep with me from the time of the University, in Bologna and in Venice, because I can still share my way with them and therefore they are part of my research, in particular Fabio, Salvo, Marco, Sari, Marti, Giuli e Vale. Thanks to Valentina, for being there with her loyalty. Thanks to Alice and Giada for supporting me in my emotional crisis and for the connection that we’ve never lost, even though we lose ourselves from time to time. Finally, thanks to Martin, whose support has always been incomparable and without whom my way would have been different. Summary 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 7 2. Part One: Environmental Crisis and Technical Approach ....................... 10 3. Chapter I - Understanding the background: the Environmental Situation and the current responses. ............................................................................. 10 The Environmental Crisis .................................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Climate Change ............................................................................................................................. 12 1.2 Fossil Fuels Combustion ................................................................................................................ 14 1.3 Oceans’ acidification and pollution .............................................................................................. 15 1.4 Deforestation ................................................................................................................................ 16 1.5 Biodiversity loss ............................................................................................................................ 18 1.6 Overpopulation and global Feeding ............................................................................................. 19 Current responses .............................................................................................................................................. 21 Sustainable Development and Ecological Economics ......................................................................... 21 Technical approach in economy: Green Economy, its limits and its strategies ................................. 24 Technical approach in Politic: ‘Green Parties’, Environmental Law and Environmental Policy Instruments......................................................................................................................................... 27 Limits of technical approach in Politics .............................................................................................. 38 4. Chapter II – Technical or cultural approach to the ecological crisis ........ 41 The technical orientation and its reductionism ................................................................................................. 41 The effects of the market ideology and its invasion of improper fields in the last decades ............................. 44 The dangerous faith in the technological efficiency and Jonas’ “Imperative of responsibility” ........................ 47 Cultural approaches beyond the reductionism of technical solutions: a culture of sustainability .................... 50 5. Part two: Cultural Approach and how to realize it .................................... 53 6. Chapter III - The domain of environmental issues: global actors and the need to “think globally and act locally” ....................................................... 53 Globalization and Glocalization .......................................................................................................................... 53 The world as an interconnected system ............................................................................................................ 56 From the Nation-states to a Global Citizenship ................................................................................................. 58 What does Citizenship mean and the possibility to conceive a Global Citizenship ............................................ 61 Political Activism from bottom: Global Civil Society and its role ....................................................................... 64 3 7. Chapter IV – Towards Cultural approaches: reflecting on the relationship between Humankind and Nature ............................................ 69 Anthropocentrism and learning to love the nature ........................................................................................... 69 The need of a cultural revolution in the relationship between human and nature: four inspiring voices. ....... 71 James Lovelock and the Gaya hypothesis ............................................................................... 71 Felix Guattari and The three ecologies .................................................................................... 72 Raimon Panikkar, Ecosophy and Earth’s spirituality ................................................................ 75 Arne Naess’s ecosophy and the Deep Ecology ........................................................................ 76 New consciousness, new culture: Aesthetics, Spirituality and “Deep Ecology” ................................................ 78 The role of Aesthetics in reawakening Spirituality ............................................................................. 79 The prospect of Deep Ecology and the controversies of the movement ........................................... 80 8. Chapter V - Education to sustainability ...................................................... 86 Consumerism and its unsustainable education to “consume” the Nature. ....................................................... 87 Institutional pathway of education to sustainability: the goals according to the international frameworks ... 91 Focus on Philosophy as strategic instrument towards sustainability: the potential of “Philosophy for Children” ........................................................................................................................................................... 107 Education and awareness from bottom: civil society movements. ................................................................. 108 The introduction of policies needs to be accompanied by the civil society’s cultural change ........ 108 Social movements: mainstream environmentalism and grassroots social innovations .................. 111 Focus on Social Innovations: four levels of actions and some examples for each ........................... 116 9. Chapter VI - Transdisciplinarity and the role of Humanities in Environmental Studies ................................................................................ 131 The need of an integrated paradigm ................................................................................................................ 131 The role of the Humanities and the relation with the Nature in the Western cultural history towards the Anthropocene ................................................................................................................................................... 133 Humanities and social sciences to avoid the reductionism of the technical approach ................................... 135 Environmental Humanities ............................................................................................................................... 136 Fragmented Knowledge and Transdisciplinarity .............................................................................................. 138 10. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 144 11. Bibliography ................................................................................................. 146 12. Filmography .................................................................................................