ECOLOGICAL STRATEGIES MUST BE SOCIAL AND NOT SINGLE-ISSUE

ECOLOGICAL STRATEGIES MUST BE SOCIAL AND NOT SINGLE-ISSUE

1. ONLY SOCIAL ECOLOGY COMBATS ALL HIERARCHIES

Murry Bookchin, Philosopher, former Professor at many Universities, Director Emeritus of the Institute for Social Ecology, DEFENDING THE EARTH, 1991, page 97.

Women, poor folks, and people of color are tight, I think, to be very wary of a philosophy which interprets vital questions of human solidarity, democracy and liberation as optional and secondary concerns, at best, and evidence of “anti-ecological “ or “anthropocentric “selfishness, at worst. Ecological philosophy, if it is to provide a solid base for alliance-building, must be a social ecology that critiques and challenges all forms of hierarchy and domination, not just our civilization’s attempt to dominate and plunder the natural world. It must be set as its overarching goal, the creation of a non-hierarchical society if we are to live in harmony with nature.

Murray Bookchin, Philosopher, former Professor at many Universities, Director Emeritus of the Institute for Social Ecology, DEFENDING THE EARTH, 1991, page 97-8.

Social ecology provides a better foundation for alliance-building and a respectful unity-in-diversity because it understands that the very concept of dominating nature stems from the domination of human by human, indeed, of the young by their elders, of women by men, of one ethnic or racial group by another, of society by the state, of one economic class by another, and of colonized people by a colonial power. It thus stresses all the social issues that most deep ecologists or reform environmentalists tend to ignore, often downplay, or badly misunderstand. From this perspective, the fight against racism is not just a mere political item that can be added to “defending the Earth; “it is actually a vital and essential part of establishing a truly free and ecological society. The difficult work of building alliances across ethnic lines is thus seen, as Jim correctly says, as a moral as well as a strategic imperative for the ecology movement.
3. SOCIAL ECOLOGY AVOIDS RACISM, SEXISM, MISANTHROPY, AND ECO-WOES

Murray Bookchin, Philosopher, former Professor at many Universities, Director Emeritus of the Institute for Social Ecology, DEFENDING THE EARTH, 1991, page 62.

A clear, creative, and reflective left green perspective can help us avoid this fate. It can provide a coherent philosophical framework or context that can avoid the moral insensitivity, racism, sexism, misanthropy, authoritarianism, and social illiteracy that has sometimes surfaced within deep ecology circles. It can also provide a coherent alternative to the traditional left’s neglect of ecology or its more recent, purely utilitarian commitment to reformist environmentalism.
4. AS LONG AS HIERARCHIES EXIST, WE WILL BE AT THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION

Murray Bookchin, Philosopher, former Professor at many Universities, Director Emeritus of the Institute for Social Ecology, DEFENDING THE EARTH, 1991, page 97.

Our present society has a definite hierarchical character. It is a propertied society that concentrates economic power in corporate elites. It is a bureaucratic and militaristic society that concentrates political and military power in centralized state institutions. It is a patriarchal society that allocates authority to men to varying degrees. And it is a racist society that places a minority of whites in a self-deceptive sovereignty over a vast worldwide majority of peoples of color. While it is theoretically possible that a hierarchical society can biologically sustain itself, at least for a time, through draconian environmental controls, it is absolutely inconceivable that present-day hierarchical and particularly capitalist society could establish a non­domineering and ethically symbiotic relationship between itself and the natural world. As long as hierarchy persists, as long as domination organizes humanity around a system of elites, the project of domination nature will remain a predominant ideology and inevitably lead our planet to the brink, if not into the abyss, of ecological extinction.

DECENTRALIZATION IS NECESSARY TO SOLVE

1. BOOKCHIN PROVES THAT DECENTRALIZATION IS BEST

David Levine, The Learning Alliance, a non-profit grassroots environmental organization, DEFENDING THE EARTH, 1991, page 13.

According to Bookchin, decentralized forms of production and food cultivation tailored to the carrying capacities of particular bioregions are not only more efficient and ecologically sustainable, they also restore humanity’s intimate contact with the soil, plant and animal life, sun and wind. This, he believes, is the only way to fully anchor and sustain a widespread ecological sensibility within our culture. Furthermore, he maintains that only by challenging the profit-seeking, “grow or die” dynamic of the corporate capitalist economy and creating an alternative economy oriented to ecologically sustainable production to meet vital human needs can we genuinely protect the planet from the ravages of acid rain, global warming, and ozone destruction.

Murray Bookchin, Philosopher, former Professor at many Universities, Director Emeritus of the Institute for Social Ecology, DEFENDING THE EARTH, 1991, page 61.

By decentralizing our communities, we would also be able to eliminate society’s horribly destructive addiction to fossil fuels and nuclear energy. One of the fundamental reasons that giant urban areas and industries are unsustainable is because of their inherent dependency on huge quantities of dangerous and nonrenewable energy resources. To maintain a large, densely populated city requires immense quantities of coal, petroleum, or nuclear energy. It seems likely that safe and renewable energy sources such as wind, water, and solar power can probably not fully meet the needs of giant urban areas, even if careful energy conservation is practiced and automobile use and socially unnecessary production is curtailed. In contrast to coal, oil, and nuclear energy, solar, wind, and other “alternative” energy sources reach us mainly in small ‘packets,” as it were. Yet while solar devices, wind turbines, and hydroelectric resources can probably not provide enough electricity to illuminate Manhattan Island today, such energy sources, pieced together in an organic energy pattern developed from the potentialities of a particular region, could amply meet the vital needs of small, decentralized cities and towns.