By Arne Naess Here, Naess tries to make the case why even the more modest aims of what he calls “shallow environmentalism” have a need for deep ecology. The Eight Basic Principles of Deep Ecology are presented and carefully elaborated in this text from 1986. On basis of a number of key terms and [...]
By Arne Naess In this article from 1979, Naess carefully dissects how the different interests of species can still be met in a concrete case where they are clearly antagonistic. With that he throws himself in the often heated debate in many Nordic countries, about how much space humans, in their self-chosen role of managers [...]
By Arne Naess In the early 1970s, Naess identified an important new development. To him, the emergence of ecologists from their former relative obscurity marked a turning point in our scientific communities. He saw that their message got twisted and misused. A shallow, but rather powerful movement and a deep, but less influential movement [...]
By Arne Naess When developers make a road through a forest, the amount of square meters that is taken for this might be small. Naess, however, would argue that such a road may well go through the heart of this forest. When one gets deeper and deeper into a forest, he suggests in this [...]
By Arne Naess In efforts to counteract the current ecological crisis, Naess looks for actions that may be politically more effective than those depending on a sense of ethical obligation to act in ecologically responsible ways. One could also encourage – perhaps with more chance of having a lasting impact – the performance of what [...]
By Arne Naess In this article from 1992, Naess describes how Tvergastein, the mountain hut at which he wrote many of his books and articles, came to be his “home,” a place where he developed a strong bond and internal relation to the environment. Here he learned deep lessons which encouraged him to articulate [...]
By Arne Naess The deep ecology movement did not appear like a bolt out of the blue. In this article from 1991, Arne Naess traces its history, mentioning the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1963 as a defining moment. Forerunners can also be found much earlier, for example in Romanticism from the [...]
By Arne Naess Throughout his life, Naess felt a mythopoetic connection with the space that opens up, when one moves beyond the treeline. Naess contrasts subordinate gestalts, that is, lesser forms of what is real, with higher-order gestalts such as the contrast between high and low, and dark and light. Movement towards treeline – [...]
By Arne Naess By attributing intrinsic value to nonhuman beings, supporters of the deep ecology movement accept the maxim that no living being should be treated merely as a means. For them, it is the ecosphere, the whole planet, Gaia, that is the basic unit. In this text from 1985, Arne Naess argues that [...]