Deep Ecology/Ecosophy The ideas behind deep ecology have major implications today. They allow people to think more profoundly about the environment and possibly come to a better understanding of their own meaning. People are intensely concerned about the world’s technological adolescence, massive consumerism, and overpopulation. A man named Arne Naess, former head of the philosophy department at the University of Oslo founded an idea that can direct people’s anxiety away from their "shallow" notion of the problem to one that is much "deeper." "Deep ecology goes beyond the limited piecemeal shallow approach to environmental problems and attempts to articulate a comprehensive religious and philosophical worldview." (EE
Action needs to take place beyond the "think globally act locally" mentality and move around the world. Most Third World countries neglect ecological ideas. There is success among nongovernmental organizations (Greenpeace?) because they are less imposing and not affiliated with anything. Technology needs to be developed to promote the education of these governments. The next principle states that we need to learn to appreciate life quality and get away from an ever-increasing standard of living. This notion is left relatively uncharacterized because they feel quality of life is too hard to quantify. They seem to know however, that something is inherently wrong with our present quality of life. The final principle simply indicates that is you believe in what deep ecology preaches, then you should try to help implement the changes. Scientific ecology is the not necessarily the basis for deep ecology, in fact it is more of a tool. Ecological information specifically demonstrates just how close our dependency is to the environment. In the last half century, this has been an important tangible development. Ecological knowledge has empowered people to have much more identification with animals, plants, and landscapes because they see their own meaning more readily. It became more scientifically sound to see man as part of nature as opposed to something outside of it. Naess gives the