The Roots of the Environmental Crisis
Lecture #15
Reading: Northcott: The Environment and Christian Ethics, Chapter 2
Recap:
In Chapter 1, you have read Michael Northcott=s account of the indications that the
Earth is in an environmental crisis. According to his thesis, the Aroot cause@ is the
loss of spiritual, moral, and cosmological awareness of our place in the natural
order...@ In Chapter 2, Northcott gives us his view of how these unfortunate losses
came about.
Outline:
I.
Introduction
A. Proposed causes B over-population (Ehrlich), bad economics, pursuit of progress,
mechanistic/naturalistic worldview, dominion (as domination) mandate (White),
Platonic and (later) Cartesian Amind-body dualism@ (the mind alone is morally
significant, not body or material world), male domination.
B. Northcott=s overview of the rise of modernity:
II.
1.
Industrial/agricultural transformations altered manufacturing, economic, and
consumption patterns
2.
Humanity=s place in the cosmos:
a. Increasingly devoid of moral significance and purpose
b. Focus on self as seat of moral significance; pursuit of comfort
c. Disembodied self B free from social constraints B> utilitarian individualism
(1) Quest for material fulfillment B> ecologically damaging consumerism
(2) Community B interpersonal relations and human-land relations
diminished
Agricultural Revolution B first Aroot@
A. Hunter-Gatherer predated agriculture for most of history (?)
1.
2.
3.
Humans close to natural world B intimate knowledge of plants and animals
Native Americans did hunt some species to extinction
Sustainable hunting and/or swidden farming B low waste, regrowth, future generations
a. Low input and low yield
b. More leisure time
B. Cause of Agricultural Revol.B included increased population, urbanization, military
demands
1.
Overview of historical trends
a. Demand exceeds capacity of land or farmers
b. Depend on territorial gains or trading with other nations
c. Europe grew to depend on colonies (> 1600's) B Aghost acreage@, Ashadow ecology@
(1) Colonial extractions combined with slave labor
(2) Began Third World indebtedness to Western banks (unjust trade policies)
(3) Ecological imperialism B spread of weeds, animals, microbes, peoples
15.2
2.
III.
Pre-Modern Agricultural Communities B before 1640
a. Monastic B Hebrew and Christian vision of sustainable land stewardship
(1) Monks led communities -- self-sufficient and self-governing
(2) Nature and land viewed spiritually as a gift from God
(3) ALaw of Nature@ invoked as a moral restraint on economic self-interest
(4) Fear of Awilderness@ and urge to tame it
b. Existed through Along century@ 1450-1640
(1) Small units shared in common or neighborhood tenure (man with nature)
(2) Barter or exchange B little cash economy or marketing
(3) Conservation B fields fallowed, crops rotated, animal manure applied
(4) Peasant may have had better emotional and physical health than moderns
Commodification of Nature B second Aroot@ of crisis
A. Demise of traditional land tenure systems B progressed as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Growth of bureaucracies and armies; over-consumption by minority
Demand exceeded feudal production and substitution of cash-economy
Enforced depopulation of the land B Aenclosures@ for aristocractic=s sheep and sport
Broken relationships among kinship and place (nature)
Transport of products of the land B markets, cash, roads and vehicles
B. Result: Separation of human social structure from the limitations of the land
1. Loss of awareness of relationality between man and nature
2. Demise of virtue in human relations and with nature
3. Church for awhile was a source of ethical restraint but succumbed ~ Reformation
4. John Locke B role of state is only to protect property rights; not redistribute wealth
a. Rise of capitalism without social/economic justice
b. Eviction of many from land B landless peasant population in Britain as in 3rd world
C. Protestant Theological Teaching
1. View of Nature B fallen, to be feared, resource entirely for human use
2. Sacred places in nature replaced by AGod=s activity in the human self@
3. Luther B salvation by grace alone; emphasis on individual salvation
a. Creation merely a Arepository of goods@ for man (instrumental value)
b. A>All things= were made principally for the benefit and pleasure of man@
4. Protestant Awork ethic@ B work out salvation in part through restoring fallen creation
D. Private Property and Monetary Economy
1. More than religion, this caused the break between man and nature (e.g. Marx, Thomas)
2. Gospel of prosperity B money Aset to work@ B Luther and Calvin, later N.Am.
Puritans
3. Vices of avarice, greed were praised as virtues
a. Means of producing good for whole society B Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin
b. Transformation of nature from Arude forests@ to Afertile plains@
4. Abandoned moral, ethical controls on handling of animals B cruelty, unfair hunting
15.3
IV. Science and Technology
A. Two views of natural world
1. Divinely ordered, purposeful (teleology); therefore rationally predictable
2. Governed by accident, contingency; alchemy=s Amagical quest@ assumes irrational
matter
B. Kant (Critique of Pure Reason) declares natural world is not teleological and, in effect,
directs source of telos in nature from God to the rational human (enlightened mind)
1. No progressive order in nature B Aunfinished material@ for man and science
2. Atheistic naturalism B from merger of
a. Nature as mechanism (machine) B Descartes
b. Nature as purposeless (ateleological) B Kant
C. Applications to Modern Science
1. Origin of life B abiogenesis possible from Achaotic matter@
2. Animals as Amachines@ B therefore no rationality (or moral standing)
3. Reductionism B focus on Aparts@ (e.g. atoms, molecules, populations) while also...
a. underestimating complexity of the whole (e.g. ecosystems) as in holism
b. denying moral responsibility for consequences of acts upon Aparts@
4. Rationality over morality in science B from AKants divorce@ (B. above)
5. Disrupted views of humans and nature
a. Hierarchical B from Darwinism
(1) justifies competition and domination over nature and the weak
(2) as opposed to cooperation and mutual aid among species
b. Dualism B from Descarte (and Plato)
(1) mind < > body
(2) observer < > observed
(3) rational science < > nature
(4) purposeful (mind) < > purposeless (nature)
6. Human Goal B rearrange matter C> for purpose and good
a. Overcome even human aging/death C> artificial intelligence (machine)
b. Progress (a myth) B more technology is better
c. Measure progress and happiness B economic utilitarianism; Acost-benefit@
V.
Moral Climate of Modernity
A. Utilitarianism B primary moral framework for decision-making in modern society
1.
Quantitative equation of happiness
a. Narrow measure of human good
b. Cost-benefit analysis, economic efficiency
15.4
2.
Utilitarianism sees no rationality, moral significance, or purpose in nature
a. Thanks to AKant=s divorce@
b. Moral values
(1) Aconceived as human projections on the world@
(2) not Aanchored in the real@ B Charles Taylor
(3) instead, anchored in human feelings and preference
c. Materialism thus replaces belief in a transcendent life
3.
Basis for Consumerism
a. Materialism in a Anature as machine@ world
b. Utilitarian pursuit of self-interest, individualism
c. Appeal of advertising B e.g. Afashion@; appeal to happiness
B. Costs of the Modern Culture
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Affluence doesn=t bring happiness (vs. meaningful relationships, satisfying work,
leisure)
Unemployment B machine replaces human
Loss of relationality B community, family instability, divorce
Undermining of virtues and shared social goals
Utilitarianism is Aparasitic on moral goods, virtues and habits...from religious
tradition@
VI. Modernity and Ecology in Conflict
A. Rise in Enlightenment thinking and modernity involved changes that were
1. Metaphysical B (kinds of things that exist) existence and place of God in universe
2. Theological B understanding relationships of humans with God, man, and creation
3. Morality B ethical implications; human valuing and behavior
B. Changes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
God removed from worldview of time and spac
Economic B Exchange and barter C> market and cash
Community B loss of relationality (II.B.); Aabstraction of human relationships@
Natural and Revealed Law was displaced; and, with it
a. Loss of Asabbath@, Arecreation@, cycles of time
b. Acceptance of usury B debt becomes factor in human relationships
Money
a. Disembodies human social life from naturally ordered space and time
b. Dissolves traditional sources of authority, moral constraint
c. Disembodies human labor and exchange from local community
d. Displaces God and relationality (idolatry)
e.
Dissolves ethical obligation B neighborliness, justice, mutual concern
15.5
6.
Monetary economy ignores natural law
a. Industrialism B commodifies nature; ecosystems as resource banks, sinks for
pollutants, productivity zones
b. Urbanization B built landscapes replace natural order and cycles
c. Counterfeit Agood@ in place of Aquality of life@ B human community, ecological
richness, and local knowledge
C. Status of our search for Aroots of environmental crisis@
1.
2.
3.
Displacement of God and morality is underlying cause B still, there is hope in religion
Lynn White and other contemporary environmentalists blame Christianity
> Christianity has contributed but is not the cause
Romantic Aturn to nature@ (Ch. 3) is source of modern environmental movement, but
is not the ultimate answer to the crisis (Northcott)