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Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: a Third World Critique by Ramachandra Guha Terms

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Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: a Third World Critique by Ramachandra Guha Terms Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique by Ramachandra Guha terms. I make two main arguments: first, that deep This essay is from Environmental Ethics, Vol. 11, No.1 (Spring ecology is uniquely American, and despite superficial 1989), 71-83. Guha is an ecologist at the Centre for Ecological similarities in rhetorical style, the social and political Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India. He goals of radical environmentalism in other cultural wrote the essay during a visiting lecturership at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. contexts (e.g., West Germany and India) are quite different; second, that the social consequences of putting deep ecology into practice on a worldwide I. Introduction basis (what its practitioners are aiming for) are very grave indeed. The respected radical journalist Kirkpatrick Sale recently celebrated “the passion of a new and growing II. The Tenets of Deep Ecology movement that has become disenchanted with the environmental establishment and has in recent years While I am aware that the term deep ecology was coined by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, this mounted a serious and sweeping attack on it—style, 2 substance, systems, sensibilities and all.”l The vision article refers specifically to the American variant. of those whom Sale calls the “New Ecologists”—and Adherents of the deep ecological perspective in this what I refer to in this article as deep ecology—is a country, while arguing intensely among themselves compelling one. Decrying the narrowly economic over its political and philosophical implications, share goals of mainstream environmentalism, this new some fundamental premises about human-nature movement aims at nothing less than a philosophical interactions. As I see it, the defining characteristics of and cultural revolution in human attitudes toward deep ecology are fourfold. nature. In contrast to the conventional lobbying efforts First, deep ecology argues that the environmental of environmental professionals based in Washington, movement must shift from an “anthropocentric” to a it proposes a militant defence of “Mother Earth,” an “biocentric” perspective. In many respects, an unflinching opposition to human attacks on acceptance of the primacy of this distinction undisturbed wilderness. With their goals ranging from constitutes the litmus test of deep ecology. A the spiritual to the political, the adherents of deep considerable effort is expended by deep ecologists in ecology span a wide spectrum of the American showing that the dominant motif in Western environmental movement. As Sale correctly notes, this philosophy has been anthropocentric—i.e., the belief emerging strand has in a matter of a few years made that man and his works are the center of the its presence felt in a number of fields: from academic universe—and conversely, in identifying those lonely philosophy (as in the journal Environmental Ethics) to thinkers (Leopold, Thoreau, Muir, Aldous Huxley, popular environmentalism (for example, the group Santayana, etc.) who, in assigning man a more humble Earth First!). place in the natural order, anticipated deep ecological In this article I develop a critique of deep ecology thinking. In the political realm, meanwhile, from the perspective of a sympathetic outsider. I establishment environmentalism (shallow ecology) is critique deep ecology not as a general (or even a foot chided for casting its arguments in human-centered soldier) in the continuing struggle between the ghosts terms. Preserving nature, the deep ecologists say, has of Gifford Pinchot and John Muir over control of the an intrinsic worth quite apart from any benefits U.S. environmental movement, but as an outsider to preservation may convey to future human generations. these battles. I speak admittedly as a partisan, but of The anthropocentric-biocentric distinction is accepted the environmental movement in India, a country with as axiomatic by deep ecologists, it structures their an ecological diversity comparable to the U.S., but discourse, and much of the present discussions with a radically dissimilar cultural and social history. remains mired within it. My treatment of deep ecology is primarily historical The second characteristic of deep ecology is its focus and sociological, rather than philosophical, in nature. on the preservation of unspoilt wilderness and the Specifically, I examine the cultural rootedness of a restoration of degraded areas to a more pristine philosophy that likes to present itself in universalistic condition—to the relative (and sometimes absolute) 1 neglect of other issues on the environmental agenda. I (humans as only one element in the ecosystem) view later identify the cultural roots and portentous in both religious and scientific traditions is only to be consequences of this obsession with wilderness. For welcomed.4 What is unacceptable are the radical the moment, let me indicate three distinct sources conclusions drawn by deep ecology, in particular, that from which it springs. Historically, it represents a intervention in nature should be guided primarily by playing out of the preservationist (read radical) and the need to preserve biotic integrity rather than by the utilitarian (read reformist) dichotomy that has plagued needs of humans. The latter for deep ecologists is American environmentalism since the turn of the anthropocentric, the former biocentric. This century. Morally, it is an imperative that follows from dichotomy is, however, of very little use in the biocentric perspective; other species of plants and understanding the dynamics of environmental animals, and nature itself, have an intrinsic right to degradation. The two fundamental ecological exist. And finally, the preservation of wilderness also problems facing the globe are (i) overconsumption by turns on a scientific argument—viz., the value of the industrialized world and by urban elites in the biological diversity in stabilizing ecological regimes Third World and (ii) growing militarization, both in a and in retaining a gene pool for future generations. short-term sense (i.e., ongoing regional wars) and in a Truly radical policy proposals have been put forward long-term sense (i.e., the arms race and the prospect of by deep ecologists on the basis of these arguments. nuclear annihilation). Neither of these problems has The influential poet Gary Snyder, for example, would any tangible connection to the anthropocentric- like to see a 90 percent reduction in human biocentric distinction. Indeed, the agents of these populations to allow a restoration of pristine processes would barely comprehend this philosophical environments, while others have argued forcefully that dichotomy. The proximate causes of the ecologically a large portion of the globe must be immediately wasteful characteristics of industrial society and of cordoned off from human beings.3 militarization are far more mundane: at an aggregate level, the dialectic of economic and political Third, there is a widespread invocation of Eastern structures, and at a micro-level, the life-style choices spiritual traditions as forerunners of deep ecology. of individuals. These causes cannot be reduced, Deep ecology, it is suggested, was practiced both by whatever the level of analysis, to a deeper major religious traditions and at a more popular level anthropocentric attitude toward nature; on the by “primal” peoples in non-Western settings. This contrary, by constituting a grave threat to human complements the search for an authentic lineage in survival, the ecological degradation they cause does Western thought. At one level, the task is to recover not even serve the best interests of human beings! If those dissenting voices within the Judeo-Christian my identification of the major dangers to the integrity tradition; at another, to suggest that religious traditions of the natural world is correct, invoking the bogy of in other cultures are, in contrast, dominantly if not anthropocentricism is at best irrelevant and at worst a exclusively “biocentric” in their orientation. This dangerous obfuscation. coupling of (ancient) Eastern and (modern) ecological wisdom seemingly helps consolidate the claim that (2) If the above dichotomy is irrelevant, the emphasis deep ecology is a philosophy of universal significance. on wilderness is positively harmful when applied to the Third World. If in the U.S. the preservationist / Fourth, deep ecologists, whatever their internal utilitarian division is seen as mirroring the conflict differences, share the belief that they are the “leading between “people” and “interests,” in countries such as edge” of the environmental movement. As the polarity India the situation is very nearly the reverse. Because of the shallow / deep and anthropocentric / biocentric India is a long settled and densely populated country distinctions makes clear, they see themselves as the in which agrarian populations have a finely balanced spiritual, philosophical, and political vanguard of relationship with nature, the setting aside of American and world environmentalism. wilderness areas has resulted in a direct transfer of resources from the poor to the rich. Thus, Project III. Toward a Critique Tiger, a network of parks hailed by the international Although I analyze each of these tenets independently, conservation community as an outstanding success, it is important to recognize, as deep ecologists are sharply posits the interests of the tiger
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