Macy/Esbjörn-Hargens & Zimmerman
Macy
"Working Through Environmental Despair"
Climate change was not recognized as a legitimate problem until relatively recently. Until the late twentieth century, every generation assumed that there would be generations to follow, living on the exact same Earth.
Climate change elicits a sense of guilt since it is brought on by anthropogenic activity. We are leaving the planet in a worse condition for our children.
Earth has limited resources so we must adopt a sustainable way of life for our entire global civilization. Huge corporations, power plants, etc. must stop overproducing and draining our resources. Their greed for money is the root cause of their desire to produce and sell as much as possible.
We have already done irreversible damage to Earth's ecosystems. Climate change is a very time-sensitive issue; we need to stop this path of self-destruction extremely soon so that we can avoid the complete deterioration of all life on Earth.
The few that are rich and in positions of power make sacrifices of their own interests, and shift their focus more to the needs of the whole.
We must think and act together, and to do this we need a "boundless heart."
Power
Power is a process that operates in our lives. We don't own it and we can't measure it.
We experience power when we engage in interactions that produce value (interactions with loved ones and fellow citizens; with music, art and literature; with seeds we plant; or with materials we shape).
These exchanges generate something that was not there before, and that enhances the capacities and well-being of all who are involved; the people involved grow from it.
"Power with" rather than "power over".
"Power with" involves attentive openness to the surrounding physical or mental environment, and alertness to our own and others' responses. It is the capacity to act in ways that increase the sum total of one's conscious participation in life.
Example: relationship to a partner, spouse, or child. As you help them develop their strengths and skills, your own sense of well-being increases. This power enhances the power of others, and it does not originate in you. rather, you have been party to its unfolding.(you are its channel, its midwife, its gardener.
Depriving someone of his or her rights is an exercise of force, not power.
It diminishes the vitality of that person, and the larger system that we are all a part of, which is now deprived of their participation and resources.
Five Principles of Empowerment
Information alone is not enough
Unblocking repressed feelings releases energy and clears the mind
Pain is morbid only if denied
Unblocking our pain for the world reconnects us with the larger web of life
Feelings of pain for our world are natural and healthy
Responses of anguish to global suffering, conflict, and natural disasters are normal and a measure of our humanity. It is a feeling that unites us. We are in grief together about the current state of our planet.
We must acknowledge our pain for the Earth so that we are compelled to mitigate climate change.
We must deal with these realities in a productive manner with action. Catastrophic events can drive us deeper into denial, must we must instead accept these truths and work remedy the issues.
As we let ourselves experience and move through our pain, we can become more present and experience the world.
Distress is a testimony to our inter-connectedness. It shows concern for things that are beyond ourselves and our own self-interests.
The Fears That Hold Us Captive
Fear of Appearing Stupid
Fear of Guilt
Fear of Appearing Morbid
Fear of Causing Distress
Fear of Pain
Fear of Provoking Disaster
Fear of Appearing Unpatriotic
Fear of Religious Doubt
Fear of Appearing Too Emotional
Fear of Feeling Powerless
Macy/Esbjörn-Hargens
An Overview of Integral Ecology
Integral ecology is a comprehensive framework for characterizing ecological dynamics and resolving environmental issues. It provides a theoretical scheme for showing the relations among a variety of different methods, including the natural and social sciences, the arts, and the humanities.
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Integral ecology unites, coordinates, and mutually enriches knowledge from different major disciplines and approaches.
Integral ecology can be:
b) applied as a multidisciplinary approach (e.g., by investigating ecological problems from several disciplines).
c) applied as an interdisciplinary approach (e.g., by using social science methods to shed light on economic or political aspects of environmental values).
d) applied as a transdisciplinary approach (e.g., by helping numerous approaches and their methodologies interface through a well-grounded meta-framework).
a) applied within a discipline (e.g., by integrating various schools of ecology).
Integral ecology can be applied to:
Outdoor schools, urban planning, wilderness trips, policy development, restoration projects, environmental impact assessments, community development, and green business.
Example: The Integral Ecology of Toxic Emissions
Toxic chemicals can harm individual cells, organs, and organisms.
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It is important to understand both how individual behavior, structures, and health are affected by toxins at all levels of ecological organization, and to look closely at how human behaviors in our daily activities contribute to and sustain environmental toxicity.
Organisms are members of and are sustained in part by their ecosystems, (defined as interrelated and interdependent organic communities and their physical environments).
Example: if toxins poison insects that frogs depend on in the food chain, frogs will become sick or die. In turn, frogs form part of the food chain of larger animals, including birds, which will be harmed by ingesting poisoned frogs.
Integral ecologists must also examine the various social, economic, and political structures involved in the production and release of toxic emissions.
Multifaceted: the frog's intentional world, sensory world, cultural world, social world.
Systems are defined as enduring patterns of relationships that help theorists to explain how individuals or groups relate to one another.
Examples: individual experiences, individual behaviors, collective cultures, collective systems.
In addition to highlighting the four perspectives that humans can take when approaching environmental issues, integral ecology asserts that all organisms—by virtue of their sentience—can also take these perspectives.
The capacity to take first-, second-, and third-person perspectives is
not limited to human beings. Many living things can do the same.
Animals can take third-person perspectives through their sense organs (eyes, nose, ears). We are able to compare their perspectives with that of humans.