Category — deep ecology

Continuing our Visions of Ecotopia series, left-biocentrist David Orton describes his rustic lifestyle that many urban ecocentrics might envy. Here’s his description of his life with wife Helga Hoffman-Orton on their wooded acreage in picturesque Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

This is the right time for poets and artists to engage in economics, says Ukrainian poet-translator Victor Postnikov. More than anyone else, artists inject aesthetic satisfaction into their work and are able to prevent systemic collapse by dismantling the Mega-Machine and creating a genuinely sustainable economy.

By Jim Drescher The Great Eastern Forest is gone. Chopped down, chopped up, ground to a pulp so we can read about the global economy while we wipe our asses on the Great Eastern Forest. Flushing it down the toilet bowl watersheds of our setting sun civilization, we barely give a shit; just call for […]

Like the word “green,” “sustainable” or “sustainability” has become the buzzword of the millennia. Corporations and governments of the left or right feel compelled to dress up the most ecologically invasive development proposal or economic activity with assurances that it is “sustainable.” Employed as an adjective it coats the unpalatable with the sweet syrup of delectability rendering the bitter pill of upheaval and damage neutral in flavour. British Columbia ecocentrist Tim Murray debunks the myth.

Wind turbines are sprouting up like industrial mushrooms in many rural regions. Nina Pierpont, a rural physician living in upstate New York, writes about health impacts suffered by people living close to wind turbines. Although it covers an important topic, the book is essentially about human health and does not discuss the deeper aspects of ecosystem health, write Nova Scotia deep ecologists David Orton and Helga Hoffman-Orton.

Nova Scotia deep ecologist and writer David Orton believes that the work of deceased Canadian deep ecologist John Livingston (1923-2006) deserves to be better known in the activist community. Orton suggests that Livingston’s writing forces the reader to face up to what is required for the Earth’s survival and is thus extremely important for today’s rapidly disintegrating ecological and social world. (This article first appeared in Green Web Bulletin #79 )

The complexity and interdependence of ecosystems mean that exclusively human-centric social organizations pose an increasingly grave threat to non-human species and to the environment, as well as to indigenous human societies. Incorrect decisions made by the dominant human power structure can easily propagate and augment their impact. Decentralisation of power and “local” solutions seem to offer the only remedies that can avert us from imminent global destruction, writes Ukrainian eco-centrist Victor Postikov.

Have you ever experienced a situation in which you meditate on an idea for some time and, surprisingly, acquire confirmations from various sources? Such coincidences brought Russian writer Victor Postnikov to the idea of ‘lost tactility,’ and the need for us to regain it through poetry and magic.

Alexander Blok (1880–1921) was one of the greatest Russian lyricists of the 20th century. A posthumous collection of his poetry became a constant source of inspiration for writer and translator Victor Postnikov. This small book of verse from his father’s library launched him on his quest to to preserve Russian poetry.

The reason that we are in a climate emergency is that our western culture has been in a ‘cultural trance’ for about 60 years, drunk on oil and living in a delusional bubble. How do you tell someone that their house is on fire? Writer and Buddhist Dharmagaian Suzanne Duarte attempts to do just that.

Newtonian science accepts the Cartesian chasm without critiquing it, writes Italian eco-centrist Guido Dalla Casa. His review of the major philosophical breakthroughs in western scientific thinking of the past century concludes that a new scientific paradigm that includes the natural world must arise.

Global Warming For Dummies can raise a person’s general level of knowledge about climate change. But by offering solutions from an individualist perspective and promoting optimism in fighting climate change, Green Party leader Elizabeth May has chosen to play the Pollyanna, writes David Orton in this critical review.

Norwegian eco-philosopher Arne Naess died on Monday January 12th, 2009 age 96. Naess promoted Deep Ecology, an intimate and all-embracing relationship between the Earth and humans that inspired environ-mentalists and Green political activists around the world. Here is leading left-biocentrist David Orton’s eulogy to him.

Left Biocentrism began with the work of David Orton and his Green Web. It combines Deep Ecology with an equally serious commitment to social justice and contemporary spirtuality. Politically, Left Biocentrists include social democratic, liberal (in the Millsian sense), anarchist and most forms of socialist, as well as feminist thinkers, who believe that any positive ecological change must address collective social and political structures as much as personal, psychological and spiritual ones. Author Patrick Curry traces the roots of this Earth-centric philosophy.