Shallow Ecologism
Keyword- The fashionable fight against pollution and resource depletion is called shallow ecologism. Exponents of this philosophy believe in continuing our present lifestyle, but with specific tweaks aimed at minimizing the damage to the environment.
Objectives-
- To sustain nature by making large-scale changes to our lifestyle.
- Limiting the commercial farming of meat to preserve forest areas.
- Reducing the artificial fattening of animals.
- Reshaping of transport system which involves the use of internal combustion engines.
- Deep ecologism priorities a live and let live instead of either you or me.
Two styles of ecologism- The powerful and fashionable fight against pollution and resource depletion as shallow ecologism or environmentalism. By placing humans at the heart of the environmental crisis, the difference between the two styles of ecologism.
Weak ecologism- It may include the use of vehicles that cause less pollution or air conditioners that do not release chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). This branch of ecologism primarily serves to maintain the lifestyle of those dwelling in developed countries.
Deep Ecologism- It believes that humans should radically change their relationship with nature. Its proponents reject shallow ecologism for prioritizing humans above other forms of life, and subsequently preserving the environmentally destructive way of life in modern societies.
Deep ecologism maintains by sustaining the lifestyle, shallow ecologism further widens the inequalities between countries. For example, despite constituting only 5% of the world population, the US accounts for 17% of the world's energy consumption and is the second largest consumer of electricity after China.
Low and middle-income countries have recorded lower cumulative and per capita carbon dioxide emissions over the past two centuries, it is the wealthier countries which are most responsible for a majority of carbon emissions.
Political Potential of Ecologism-
- The strands of ecologism are drawn from different frameworks like socialism, anarchism, feminism, conservatism, and fascism.
- A narrow focus on pollution and conservation movements is counterproductive.
- When projects are implemented to solve pollution, it generates evils of a different kind. For example, the installation of pollution control devices may increase the cost of living, leading to an increase in class differences.
- The environment may become more vulnerable when decisions are influenced by majority rule, without considering local interests.
- a solution to this can be decentralizing the decision-making process and strengthening local autonomy.
- A holistic perspective of the crisis acknowledges regional differences and disparities between under and over-developed nations.
- The responsibility of solving the climate crisis falls on policy-makers as much as it does on scientists and ecologists.
