Tenets of Deep Ecology – part 1

As it should be clear, Deep Ecology has had a profound impact on my views regarding the environment, ecology, economics, philosophy, and policy decisions. In order to explore this a little deeper, I’ve decided to write a few posts going over the eight main tenets of Deep Ecology as expressed by Arne Naess. Let’s start with number 1:

The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves (synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.

There is a reason that this is the first tenet. It is certainly the most important. The underlying basis for Deep Ecology is that our value system is skewed in a direction that is completely unsustainable, is in dis-harmony with our environment, and will lead to ours and our planet’s destruction. While this was developed in the 70’s and 80’s, we’ve now become what I like to refer to as a “throw-away” culture. We value things less because they generally have less value. We’ve invented plastic eating utensils and paper plates that we just throw away in a landfill somewhere. Nothing is repairable anymore. Furniture doesn’t last and often is unable to be repaired for most consumers. Electronics and (especially) children’s toys are generally single-use items, made to be thrown away once they’ve become damaged or broken. Everything just gets thrown away and replaced from our big-box retailers.

Unfortunately, this “throw-away” mentality has permeated nearly every aspect of our lives and become a great economic achievement in the eyes of many. What this has led to is the devaluation of the entirety of nature in the minds of consumers. It isn’t easy to place that blame squarely on the shoulders of consumers though. Everything in our lives has become externalized. I’m not just talking about economic costs (which I will be posting about soon enough) but the whole process of consuming. Everything comes to us in neat, plastic-wrapped brand name packaging on nice clean shelves. Our meat is dyed a certain color so that it looks more attractive in our grocery stores. Death happens away in a hospital; birth behind a closed door in a hospital room. Our energy is produced in some far away plant, and our garbage goes away in a truck, never to be seen again. We lack value because we lack the experience associated with our consumption and our culture.

Alder forrest near the Stillaguamish River – typically this area floods a bit during the rainy season, and is frequently home to creatures big (bears, cougars) and small (beavers, frogs, pygmy owls).

Deep ecology then, asks us to experience these things for ourselves. It asks us to be dependent upon local sources of materials and energy. It asks us to be engaged in the communities we live in. It asks us to value nature the same way we do the homes we live in. It is primarily a shift in values that will bring about the change that deep ecology seeks. It begs us to ask questions like “Do I need this?” “What happens when this thing will break or my children outgrow it?” “Where was this food grown and how far has it traveled” “Who made this, and how was it made and brought to me?” “Is it sensible to fill up a recreational swimming pool when I live close to rivers, streams, lakes and the ocean?”

Asking such questions is just the first step. Shifting your world view is the goal here, and asking the tough, deep questions will help get you there. Where “there” is, is when we can come to view our forests, top soil, coral reefs, and rainforests as being at least (but likely more) valuable than television, urban sprawl, cheap plastic everything. Trees are valuable because they are trees. Not just because they give us oxygen or because they are a source of building material. Here in the Pacific Northwest, trees form their own tiny ecosystems. Ferns grow on branches where a sort of tree-soil has formed with moss. In the Redwoods, this is even more developed as there can be inches of soil on top of branches, which provides a tiny ecosystem for small plants, bugs and critters. Trees keep soil intact and prevent erosion. When they die and fall over, they actually are home to more life/pound than they were once alive. They become “nurse logs” which are home to an amazing array of life. Current Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has said that he doesn’t know what wilderness areas are for, or how they are valuable other than the oil/gas/timer deposits they have there. Mr. Romney, wild areas are valuable because they are wild. They have value in and of themselves, not to mention that large wilderness areas are the only hope for speciation and evolution to continue to work, along with the only possible way to preserve biodiversity. Humans are valuable because they are humans. Not because of their economic output, or their place in society.

I’ve written more than intended here, so I’ll pick up with some of the other tenets soon. Cheers.

Making a dent

For the past year or so, I’ve been volunteering with a local non-profit, Sound Salmon Solutions. It’s an organization that works on salmon habitat restoration in the river basin where I live here in Snohomish County, WA.They work with local volunteers, land owners, local municipalities, Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and the tribes to accomplish all of this. A lot of what they do is removing invasive species like Himalayan Blackberry and Japanese Knotweed, and then planting native plants to restore habitat. They also do lots of educational outreach with schools and at public events. When I go to help out, it’s mostly been planting, but I’ve also volunteered my services as a photographer to snap some photos for their website.

Yesterday I went out to a private landowner’s property, and 25 or so of use planted 750 native plants like cedar, ash, alder, pine, willow, and some bushes like salmon berry and rose. It was all along the side of a creek that runs into the Stilly river (pictured below, the spot we were at is by the red star) that had previously been overgrown and choked out with invasive blackberry bushes. This was just part of the process that started a year ago and will continue with more maintenance over the next few years.

The yellow star denotes the area where I live, and it’s also right next to a confluence where the North and South forks of the Stillaguamish River meet before the river winds its way out into the Puget Sound. As you can see, the river feeds quite a bit of local agriculture (including the CSA we subsrcibe to, the Klesikc Family Farm). The river is also home to a large population of bald eagles, which feed upon the coho, chinook, steelhead, and other salmon.

The reason I included this in a post here is because part of adopting a more ecocentric world-view involves a focus on bioregions, and bioregional governance/stewardship. Rather than putting effort into say, protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, it would be more prudent and productive to put real work into improving the river where I live, and protecting the wilderness in the mountains I’m surrounded by. This is deep conservatism in action, because it relies heavily upon the people that live here in these watersheds and have a vested interest in seeing them thrive, as opposed to some far away, centralized entity with no real connection to this land.

It is important to note that much of the work has no direct human benefit. The work done this weekend will create forest to border the landowner’s property on the creek-side. Previous plantings have been for the sole benefit of salmon themselves. Will fishermen benefit? Sure, eventually they will. But at stake here is the reintroduction of the wild into parts of this land that have been manicured, distorted and destroyed for over a century.When planting, I was speaking with the landowner Leon, I believe. He was telling about how the land had been homesteaded as 160 acres in the 1870′s or 1880′s by his great-great grandfather. He talked about how much the land had changed in his 70+ years there due to some of the major floods and logging that takes place across the road from where he is. But he often recalled those childhood memories of running in the streams and creeks on the property and wading with the juvenile salmon by the dozens. That is it right there, the contact with the wild that fills us up and connects us to the world we live in. But, he said he hadn’t but a couple of salmon in the past decade or so swimming in those creeks and streams. Our work there will hopefully change that. I was planting side-by-side with some of his grandsons that were talking about how cool it would be to see the trees all grown up and to have a forest there in a few years. Hopefully the family stewardship of the land there will be a lasting legacy.

Later this year (I believe), in a river not too far south, they will be breaching a levy in order to restore an expanse of estuary that was taken over by agriculture and housing developments decades ago. I’ll post more on that when it happens.