Center 1

Archive for the ‘Earth Ethics Quarterly’ Category

Green Grace, by Jay McDaniel. Ecological spirituality as a binding force in the community is the key to a sustainable future.Developing Sustainable Communities, by Richard Clugston. Ideas about what it means to live sustainably.

EcoCommunities: The Re-Inventing of America, by John Cobb, Jr. Recognizing the social costs of growth and challenging this ideology must begin with EcoCommunities. Read the rest of this entry »

What is Education For? by David Orr. A discussion about the myths that drive modern education and a presentation of a set of principles that might replace them in order to develop a stronger earth ethic.Higher Education’s Ecological Mission, by Richard Clugston. A list of critical steps that can be taken to refocus the academic mission towards a commitment to the earth. Read the rest of this entry »

Nature’s Laws and Human Ethics, by Rosemary Radford Ruether. A leading writer in the ecofeminist movement offers her version of basic ecological principles and their implications for the ordering of human society. Excerpted from Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing.

Worldviews, Ethics, and Environment, by G. Tyler Miller, Jr. A discussion of three human-centered levels of environmental awareness, contrasted to a Sustainable Earth, life centered view, in which we recognize ourselves as just one particular strand in a web of life. Read the rest of this entry »

The Constitution and the Land, by Donald Worster. An environmental historian comments on the Constitution’s lack of attention to the land out of which this nation’s wealth arose, and suggests an important constitutional revision.

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave: Iroquois Democracy, by Oren Lyons. The author, speaker for the Onondaga nation, discusses the history and structure of the Grand Council of the Iroquois Indians, and calls for the recognition of the influence of the council on the form of government created by the U.S. Constitution. Read the rest of this entry »

Dancing with Nature: An Emerging Ethic for Sustainable Agriculture, by Fred Kirschenmann. The author, president of the Organic Food Producers Association of North America and Farm Verified Organic, describes the ethics and practice of sustainable agriculture on his family’s biodynamic wheat and cattle farm.

The Owl’s Call, by Elizabeth Lawrence. Cultural and scientific roots of the “wise old owl” metaphor, and its relationship to the present-day battle to save the spotted owl. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ethics of Genetic Engineering. The comments of Thomas Berry, Michael Fox, Dieter Hessel, Stephanie Kaza, and Robert Welborn, selected from a CRLE-sponsored symposium that explored the ethical ramifications of genetic engineering.

Sustainable Livelihoods: Redefining the Global Social Crisis, by David Korten. Korten proposes that solutions to the growing social crises need to be approached in terms of jobs: providing meaningful, productive activities that meet communities’ real needs in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner. Read the rest of this entry »

Homeless in the Global Village, by Vandana Shiva. The author argues that traditional models of sustainable development measured by gross domestic products and per capita incomes inevitably uproot peoples from their ancestral lands and destroy the “economies” that sustained these lands. She argues for sustainable development that is instead based on enhancement of local cultures and on economies responsive to the ecology of local place.

The Crisis of Development, by Bruce Rich. Excerpted from the author’s book Mortgaging the Earth, the author describes why conservation of ancient cultures is a “foundational act of freedom” for the present. [Or, how the most important elements of local knowledge are lost when attempts are made to generalize them to a global level. Read the rest of this entry »

The Reenchantment of Art, By Suzi Gablik. Discusses the central role of the arts in creating the images and inspiration for an earth community.

“Seeing” Poems, by Robert Bly. With examples from poets such as Rilke, the true sight of art separates itself from the narcissism of popular culture.

The Dead Seal Near McClure’s Beach, by Robert Bly. Poem excerpted from News of the Universe. Read the rest of this entry »

Eco-psychology, by Theodore Roszak. Examines an emerging psychology that frees the human psyche as a particular mode of reflection of earth processes, interconnected psychically with all life, and that diagnoses and treats with the earth as context. Excerpted from the author’s book Voice of the Earth.

Psychotherapy and Aesthetic Justice, by James Hillman. Examines the role of the Earth in maintaining psychological health. Read the rest of this entry »

Awakening Academia , by Mary E. Clark. Likening current academic thinking to dwarves going into their own mines each day, U.S. academia is suffering from “a surfeit of specialized ‘knowledge’ and a dearth of wisdom and vision.” Wakening these academic “slumbering giants” to the connections among our ecological, social, scientific and economic disciplines is essential to facing current challenge.

The Universe and the University, by Thomas Berry. CRLE cofounder Thomas Berry proposes that all academic disciplines need to reshape their language and world view to reflect the new vision of an interconnected and interdependent creation. Read the rest of this entry »