CULTURAL MODELS of
NATURE
5 September 2001
RD300
Henry D. Thoreau (1817-1862)
Naturalist, social reformer,
author and philosopher.
He wrote about the meaning
of nature, about the need for
wildness as a tonic for the
spirit, and about individual
rights and responsibilities.
Most influential book: Walden, about the cycle of his life at
Walden Pond, a lake about two miles from the center of Concord
where he lived from 1845 until 1847.
Learn more at http://www.walden.org/thoreau/Default.asp
Theodore Roosevelt’s Conservation Ideal:
Optimal use: management of natural resources
for the greatest good of the greatest number
of people. A new ethic called “conservation”.
John Muir’s competing ideal:
Nature should be preserved for its own
sake (late 19th century).
"Hetch Hetchy Valley is a grand landscape garden,
one of Nature's rarest and most precious mountain
temples." - John Muir
Source: http://www.hetchhetchy.org/
The argument continues
http://www.hetchhetchy.org/index.html
O’Shaughnessy Dam –
Tuolumne River
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
American forester and conservationist.
A Sand County Almanac (1949).
“The land ethic simply enlarges the
boundaries of the community to
include soils, waters, plants, and
animals, or collectively: the land.”
Learn more: http://www.aldoleopold.org/
Man does not exist apart from nature, but
is himself a part of it.
Author of Silent Spring
(1962)
http://www.rachelcarson.org/
 Late 1960s and 1970s - proliferation of
environmental groups.
 Environmental litigation flourished.
 EPA created, Clean Air Act (1970), Clean
Water Act (1972)
Love Canal - 1978
Love Canal, a neighborhood in the City of Niagara Falls, New York.
http://web.globalserve.net/~spinc
/atomcc/today.htm
 The Third Wave - focus on being solutionoriented.
 Mediation between industry and
environmental interests.
 Critics accuse Third Wavers of compromising
their principles.
Die Grünen
The German Greens put
green politics on the
European political agenda in
the early 1980s.
In 1983 they won 28 seats in
the Bundestag.
Petra Kelly, 1947-1992
Our Common Future
a.k.a. The Brundtland Report (1987)
Defined sustainable development
as:
development that meets the needs
of the present without
compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their
own needs.
Three fundamental components to
sustainable development:
environmental protection, economic
growth, and social equity.
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
Conservation versus Preservation
 Conservationism - dominant environmental
philosophy.
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Linked closely with sustainable development.
Pragmatic approach.
 Preservationism 
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Muir - religious overtones.
Psychological and biological value of nature.
Intrinsic value of nature.
Kempton, Boster & Hartley (1995)
Environmental Values in American Culture
 What is a cultural model of nature?
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Broad models about the interaction of nature
and humanity.
Conceptual underpinnings of our thinking about
the environment.
They reinforce and justify our environmental
values.
The basis for reasoning about environmental
issues.
Three sets of general environmental models:
 Models of nature as a limited resource upon
which we rely.
 Models of nature as balanced and
interdependent.
 Models of the causes of environmental
concern.
Human Reliance on a Limited World
 Common theme of many study interviews.
 Humans are part of the environment and
depend upon it.
 The earth is viewed as a ‘closed system’.
 Respondents speak using metaphors (e.g.,
earth as a bacterial colony).
Human Reliance on a Limited World
 Spaceship earth (i.e. limited room and
resources).
 Humans must live in harmony with nature in
order to survive.
 Destroying the environment is like burning
down your home. “Ecology” is derived from
the Greek word for “home”.
 The natural environment is a limited resource
meeting our physical and psychological needs.
Three sets of general environmental models:
 Models of nature as a limited resource upon
which we rely.
 Models of nature as balanced and
interdependent.
 Models of the causes of environmental
concern.
Nature as Interdependent, Balanced,
and Unpredictable
 Models about interactions within nature.
 The different parts of nature (e.g. species) are so
interdependent that changing one can result in
chain reactions and ripple effects. The balance of
nature.
 The interdependencies within nature are too
complex for humans to predict the effects of
human interventions.
 If we cannot predict these interactions then
humans should not create disturbance. Don’t
fool with nature. Noninterventionist model.
 Some human interventions (e.g. agriculture)
are so familiar that they seem more like
second nature than human disturbance.
 Critics of non-interventionists believe that
humanity could actively manage nature.
Cultural vs Scientific Models of Ecology
 American cultural models draw on older
ecological concepts now in scientific
disfavor.
 Ecologists do not believe that all species
interrelationships are fragile
interdependencies.
 The cultural models are selective
simplifications of ecological models.
Three sets of general environmental models:
 Models of nature as a limited resource upon
which we rely.
 Models of nature as balanced and
interdependent.
 Models of the causes of environmental
concern.
Models of the Causes of
Environmental Concern
 Perception that our market-driven economic
system is at odds with the environment.
 Perceived relationship between contact with and
appreciation of nature and level of
environmentalism.
 Perception that indigenous and older small-scale
societies were more environmentally aware and
lived in balance with their environment.
What are the origins of our
cultural models of nature?
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Popular writings of science.
Schooling.
Media.
Environmental advocacy organizations.
Authors such as Thoreau, Muir and Carson.
Dr. Seuss.
VALUES
 Values are central attitudes about what is
desirable or what is right or wrong.
 They provide an abstract frame of reference
for perceiving and organizing experience
and for choosing among courses of action.
 Attitudes and values can be measured.
INFLUENCES ON VALUES
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Religion
Education
Family
Economics
Friends
Media
Experiences
Ethnicity
Gender
Culture
WORLDVIEW
 General conception of the nature of the
world, particularly as containing or
implying a system of values.
 Sometimes known by the German word
“Weltanschauung”.
ANTHROPOCENTRIC WORLDVIEW
 Dominant western perspective of the world.
 Humans have a different status in the world.
 The non-human world is valued in terms of
its economic value to humans.
 Focus is on the short-term and reliance on
“technological fixes”.
 Concern for future generations is a strong
value.
GENESIS
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth……...
…….. and God said upon them, be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it;
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth.
Is the Judeo-Christian view of
nature intrinsically
anthropocentric?
BIOCENTRIC WORLDVIEW
 Nature is respected for its own sake,
above and beyond its usefulness or
relationship to mankind.
 Nature itself has rights.
 Also known as “ecocentric” worldview.
How far should rights be
extended to non-humans?
O’Riordan’s Continuum of
Environmentalism
Ecocentrism
Deep
ecologists
Self-reliance
soft technologists
Technocentrism
Environmental
managers
Cornucopians
TECHNOCENTRISM
 Economic and scientific rationality.
 Expert driven decision making.
 Support efficient environmental
management.
 Technological optimists.
Technocentrism
 Form of anthropocentrism.
 Two types:
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cornucopians
environmental managers
Cornucopians
 Optimism about man’s ability to improve the lot of
the world’s people.
 Faith in scientific and technological expertise to
provide the answers.
 All impediments can be overcome given a will,
ingenuity and sufficient resources arising out of
growth.
 Pro-growth goals define the rationality of project
appraisal and policy formulation.
Environmental Managers
 Economic growth and resource exploitation
can continue assuming:
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suitable economic adjustments to taxes, etc.
improvements in the legal rights to a minimum
level of environmental quality.
compensation to those who experience adverse
environmental and/or social effects.
 Supports multi-stakeholder decision making
and consensus building.
ECOCENTRISM
 Similar to biocentric worldview.
 Reverses the hierarchy in the human-nature
relationship.
 Two types:
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self-reliance soft technologists
deep ecologists
Self-reliance soft technologists:
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Emphasis on smallness of scale.
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Lack of faith in large scale technology.
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Local rather than centralized decision
making.
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Materialism for its own sake is wrong.
Deep ecologists:
 Intrinsic importance of nature for the humanity of
man.
 Ecological and other natural laws dictate human
morality.
 All things have intrinsic value. Biorights.
 Originated with the Norwegian philosopher Arne
Naess (1980s).
Where do you fall on the
environmentalism continuum?
Cornucopian
Environmental manager
Soft technologist
Deep ecologist
1.
The weather has been more variable and
unpredictable recently around here.
SMW
LP
SC
DC
EF
74%
79%
52%
73%
93%
GROUP COMPARISONS
How are the following pairs of groups similar and
dissimilar?
 G1: Sierra Club versus Sawmill Workers
 G2: Sierra Club versus Drycleaners
 G3: Sierra Club versus Earth First
 G4: Lay Public versus Drycleaners
 G5: Lay public versus Earth First
 G6: Earth First versus Sawmill Workers
 G7: Lay public versus Sierra Club
 G8: Lay public versus Sawmill Workers