Spirituality of the Environment

1. Spirituality of the Environment Susan Baker Professor, Environmental Social Science, Cardiff University Talk presented to ‘The Spirituality of Organisations Programme, 2007-2008’, Telos Group of the Church in Wales, Cardiff, January 11, 2008.

2. Outline of Presentation • What is spirituality? • What is ‘nature’ & the environment? • What is spirituality of the environment? • Environmentally motivated spirituality • Spiritually motivated environmentalism • Developing an action agenda

3. Attributes of Spirituality • Belief & faith • Connectedness • Self-transcendence • Inner strength and peace

4. Lived Spirituality • Awareness of self • Consideration of impact on others • Feeling of universal connectedness

5. Spirituality of the Environment Environmentally Motivated Spirituality - people whose experiences in nature transcend the scientific, material environment Spiritually Motivated Environmentalism - where spirituality provides guidance & motivation to work on environmental causes

6. Awareness of Self Ideas of Nature • Wilderness • Countryside or garden • Urban environment • Global environment

7. Contrasting Positions • Anthropocentric view • Eco-centric view - Deep Ecology

8. Deep Ecology • Attributing equal value to all life forms • Seeking identification with non-human natural entities & systems • Advocating development of policies that stress non interference and harmony of human life and nature (Arne Naess, 1989).

9. Transactional View • The self does not exist apart from its relations with both the social & natural environments. • Social environments have no reality apart from either the individuals that comprise them or the natural environments that sustain them. • Natural environments both make certain forms of life & society possible, while in turn being modified by the forms of life and society that are actually created. From a transactional perspective it is impossible to dichotomize the relationship between humans and nature.

10. Impact on Others • Intra-generational equity • equity within our own generation • Inter-generational equity • equity between generations, i.e including the needs of future generations in design & implementation of current policies

11. Universal Connectedness

12. Deep Ecology Principles Guiding Action • The wellbeing & flourishing of human and non-human life on Earth have value in themselves. • These values are independent of the usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes. • Richness & diversity of life forms contribute to the realisation of these values and are also values in themselves. • Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs. • Present human interference with the non-human world is excessive, & the situation is rapidly worsening. • The flourishing of human life & cultures is compatible with substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of non-human life requires such a decrease. • Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies affect basic economic, technological structures. • The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. • Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.

13. Principle of Ecological Integrity • The individual is a subset of society and society is a subset of nature. • While nature can exist in the absence of individuals or societies, individuals and societies cannot exist in the absence of nature. There is a hierarchical interdependency between humans and nature.

14. Spiritually Motivated Environmentalism environmentally motivated spirituality grounds spiritually motivated environmentalism

15. Rejected Behaviour • The practice and policy of temporal displacement - passing the risks and problems of modernity down to future generations. • The practice and policy of spatial displacement - passing the negative environmental consequences of our development over to others, especially in the Third World. • Equating human progress with the domination of nature • Prioritisation of economic growth. • The assumption that consumption is the most important contributor to human welfare. • The exploitation not only of our own natural resource base but that of the Third World.

16. A New Model of Development • Accepts limits to economic growth • Calls for a reductions in resource intensive lifestyles • Allows all other life forms their own unfolding • Promotes forms of social change that protect the natural resource base upon which future development depends • Replaces consumerism and shifts focus from ‘standard of living’ to ‘quality of life’ and ‘human flourishing’ • Seeks environmental justice, i.e. a more equitable distribution of existing resources, - by reducing over consumption in the west and thus enabling basic human needs to be met on a universal basis. • Requires levels of population that do not threaten ecological systems • Places restrictions on our consumption choices • Links acceptance of the outer limits of the earth’s environment with a new awareness of the need to address the internalorganisation of society • Promotes ‘eco-literacy’ • Promotes ‘eco-design’

17. References • Baker, S. Sustainable Development, London Routledge, 2007 • Sessions, G. Deep Ecology for the 21st century, (Boston, MA: Shambala Press, 1995) • Naess, A. Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).