Dealing with Ecology and the Inherent Challenges in the Modern World (original) (raw)

THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS – A HUGE CHALLENGE

International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on the Dialogue between Sciences & Arts, Religion & Education, 2019

The survival of the planet Earth in its entire reality is the major problem we face today. Both scientists and all Christians are concerned about the evolution of the ecological crisis. That is why, both at the level of the whole of human society and at the level of the Church, the evolution of life, the slippage of the present ecosystem has become a main point on the agenda. The joint efforts of the competent institutions of the world’s states, Christian Churches, environmental organizations have succeeded, at some points, in the adjustment of pollution and the implementation of policies to protect the environment. In this context, we can say that in some points the human desire and the survival of the earth are similar. In any case, no human desires or desires can be realized as long as the earth no longer exists. On this paper I will try to emphasis some aspects of ecological crisis and how they affect us. Also, I will try to underline the Christian points of view, as the solutions proposed for that.

ENVIRONMENTAL ECOLOGY: PARALYZED THROUGH POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RE-MODIFICATIONS AND FIEFDOM

The modern material mechanized world's political and economic ideology as far as environmental concerns is based on the policy of self-determination and exploration which relies blindly on biodiversity utilization, desertification, deforestation, industrial growth, chemical wastage, poisonous emissions. Moreover the environmental issues function on local and global phenomenon controlled through decision making of hierarchies of power. Hence modernization and development works at multiple levels including the roles, actions and practices of government agents, civil society and individuals. It connects local, national, international and global environmental domain and discourse, which attempts to bring forth the social impacts and climate change due to environmental problems arising out of scientific advancements.This paper attempts to bring together Ecology and Economics-the disparate disciplines of different nature by probing into the sole objectives of both respectively. It aims to investigate how the local sources become the source of subsistence for inhabitants. Thirdly the paper will take up the role and responsibilities of the stakeholders to reconstruct the dysfunctional ecological balance and to recompense the loss that has occurred due to blindness towards global environmental health and harmony.

Against the Environment. Problems in Society/Nature Relations

Frontiers in Sociology

The dominant manners in which environmental issues have been framed by sociology are deeply problematic. Environmental sociology is still firmly rooted in the Cartesian separation of Society and Nature. This separation is one of the epistemic foundations of Western modernity-one which is inextricably linked to its capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal dimensions. This societal model reifies both humanity and nature as entities that exist in an undeniably anthropocentric cosmos in which the former is the only true actor. Anthropos makes himself and the world around him. He conquers, masters, and appropriates the non-human, turning it into the mere environment of his existence, there solely for his use. If sociology remains trapped in this paradigm it continues to be blind to the multiple space-time specific interrelations of life-elements through which heterogeneous and contingent ontologies of humans and extra-humans are enacted. If these processes of interconnection are not given due attention, the socioecological worlds in which we-human as well as others-live cannot be adequately understood. But misunderstandings are not the only issue at stake. When dealing with life-or-death phenomena such as climate change, to remain trapped inside the Society/Nature divide is to be fundamentally unable to contribute to world reenactments that do not oppress-or, potentially, extinguish-life, both human and extra-human. From the inside of Anthropos' relation to his environment the only way of conceiving current socioecological problems is by framing them in terms of an environmental crisis which could, hypothetically, be solved by the very same societal model that created it. But if the transformation of some of the world(s)' life-elements into the environment of the Human is part of the problem, then, socioecological issues cannot be adequately understood or addressed if they are framed as an environmental crisis. Instead, these problems need to be conceived as a crisis of Western modernity itself and of the kind of worlds that are possible and impossible to build within it.

Introduction to 'The Ecological Future' Special Volume of Text Matters

Text Matters 12, 2022

BACK to the stone Age? This volume grew out of a collaboration between a literature scholar and a social scientist who discovered a rich common ground of concern about our planetary future and our terrestrial present. The specific topic was sparked by something that may seem trivial on the surface, but that rests on a bedrock of cultural assumptions that this volume aims at least in part to examine and dismantle-namely, the assumptions that generate the common reaction which greets almost any concrete proposal for changing today's society along ecological principles: "You want to take us back to the Stone Age!" The underlying fear, it seems, is that ecological concerns will lead to people being asked or forced to "give up" civilization itself, or at least "modernity." Thus, environmentalists are frequently described and dismissed as antimodern, naïve, and wanting to go "backward" in time, like adults wishing to be children once more. To those who react in this way, it feels as if the very meaning of being "human" is under siege; they seem to believe that a desolate future of returning to cave dwellings and bloodthirsty pagan rites is always lurking behind any talk of sustainability and ecological transition. This volume-starting with this Introductionintends to delve into these assumptions, fantasies and fears about socalled modernity, to contest and demystify them and to show how in response to the ecological crisis a range of artists, writers, philosophers and social scientists have been rethinking modernity's temporality, its deeply ingrained dualisms and the human/non-human split that lies at its very heart. While the initial impetus for the volume came from our perplexity about the assumption that thinking and acting ecologically necessarily implied some sort of historical regression or retreat, it is also true that the entire field of contemporary environmental humanities is shot through

THE COMING ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION Pt 1 The Emerging Ecological Consciousness

The Emerging Ecological Consciousness This part connects the contemporary environmental crisis with the wider societal crisis. The environmental crisis is considered to be the product of a wider system failure. The perspective taken is that one civilisation is in the process of decay and another in the process of emerging. A fundamental critical self-examination of ourselves and our communities of struggle is necessary to locate and situate the choices, possibilities and strategies with respect to the circumscribed options within the system and the feasible alternatives to that system. This part examines the nature of the environmental crisis, paying particular attention to climate change and global poverty and inequality. Social and environmental justice are shown to be mutually supportive, the low-carbon economy which is a condition of the survival of civilised life also being socially just, egalitarian and democratic. The emergence of an ecological consciousness is shown to be part of the process of revolutionizing society, restructuring power, changing culture and emphasising the quality of individual lives over the quantity of material accumulation and possession.

Between Ecology and Environmentalism

This article defends the thesis of a complementary relationship between ecology and environmentalism. Ecology concerns above all theory and environmentalism practice. Theory must be viable, but practice should avoid the anthropocentric drift. Political ecology is the meeting point between theory and practice of protection of nature, but not all versions of it are acceptable. The final section discusses the problem of commons as a recent example of a possible reconciliation between nature protection and use of natural resources for human wellbeing.

Introduction to No. 1, Part one: Ecophilosophical and Biopolitical Challenges. Past and Future

Ethics in Progress, 2016

Since at least the 1960s, the problem of environmental destruction has become more visible for politicians and the public. The pioneers of these discussions have to deal with prevailing doubts about the destruction of nature and humanity’s influence on the environment. Presently, humanity’s influence is so clear that some scientists have proclaimed this the Anthropocene age, the geological era when the human being has become the dominant influence on climate, the environment, andEarth’s systems. Thus, as in the dusk of the Holocene age, the editors ofEthics in Progress have raised the question about the moral and politicalaspects of our influence on the natural environment. More than fivedecades after the first questions about humanity’s influence on natureand its moral aspect, we ask questions concerning past concepts andfuture directions of ecophilosophy and biopolitics...

THE COMING ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION Pt 5 Ecological Praxis

Ecological Praxis This part goes from principles to practice to examine how the emerging ecological consciousness can be embedded in social practices and institutions. This is a question not only of how the ecological society can be created, but governed and made to work. This part looks at critical political issues and constructive models, identifies key tasks in organising for political change. Particular attention is paid to the political boundaries of change and the changing boundaries of politics.

Human Ecology. An Outline of the Concept and the Relationship between Man and Nature

2013

The concept of human ecology comprises a full and integral, scientific view of the human person and their natural environment. It is a theory which protects the person from various reductionisms. On the other hand, however, it allows perceiving the dangers which result from these incomplete views. We clearly name these threats and point out how to prevent or, in case they exist, counteract them. The theory also allows noticing the natural dependencies which link people to their environment. Besides noticing these, it also points to the way to care for and develop these natural ties. The essential thesis of this concept is to value society as an important element of the natural human environment. This comprises a unique novum in the description of this environment.