The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy (Athabasca University)

Medler, Michael J.

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
Paying for Wilderness
Michael J. Medler
University of Arizona
Paying for Wilderness 2
MICHAEL J. MEDLER is completing a Ph.D. in geography at
the University of Arizona. He is also teaching biogeography at
the University of Oregon.
Had real wilderness in the U.S. finally succumbed? The news on the radio
sounded like a final admission that wilderness areas were nothing more than
government sponsored theme parks. Some wilderness areas were going to start
charging admission. The report even hinted that many people see wilderness as
a luxury that should be paid for by wilderness users. I understood how shrinking
federal budgets made this new policy inevitable. I also knew this might control
overcrowding. Still, I wondered would this apply to all wilderness areas? Would
some people be priced out of wilderness? Would less popular wilderness areas
advertise to increase revenue? Would anyone, like my children, ever again just
wander unintentionally into a wilderness area?
The eternal cheapskate in me didn’t want to pay for something I knew was
a right, perhaps even a necessity. Why weren’t wilderness areas being paid
for by all the industries that were profiting from wilderness destruction? In
fact maybe the government shouldn’t be doing anything that costs money in
wilderness areas anyway. The idea of wilderness being inexorably connected to
commerce gave me a headache.
I was driving my family over the Mckenzie pass in the Oregon Cascades, the
radio report continued to explain how Congress had authorized entrance fees
for federal lands, such as wilderness areas. My wife was from San Diego and our
children were born in Tucson, but after years of living in the Arizona desert,
we were visiting my ”home” in the rain-forest. The road was passing the Three
Sisters Wilderness area. The wet smell of the rain forest precipitated a flow of
memories that must have been stowed away in the forest. Like a box of forgotten
photos, the smells and dark green sunlight combined with the radio report to
start a flow of thoughts that had been submerged.
Memories came floating back. I grew up and went to college in this part of
Oregon. I worked for the Forest Service in this ranger district. The glacier
covered peaks of the Three Sisters were my sanctuary. The mossy old forests
that flanked the peaks were a place to be comfortably alone. I climbed into these
peaks many times without the slightest understanding of the administrative
uniqueness of wilderness. I used to head into these peaks alone for days without
tents, stoves, or plans. Other times, groups of us would head to the peaks
with only a few minutes of coffee shop planning. Some of my best friendships
were cemented by these adventures. How different would it all have been with
entrance fees?
I used to wander in the Three Sisters, often sleeping on the summits of the peaks
to escape the ubiquitous mosquitoes in the meadows below. One of the best
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Paying for Wilderness 3
aspects of these trips was the lack of planning, never knowing where I would go
or how long I would be there. It was liberating that no one knew where I was.
I would have broken the law if it had been necessary to fill out an itinerary and
pay for specific days. I would have stayed too long, or gone up the wrong peak,
or followed an elk herd to the wrong official campsite. I would have learned that
the kind of freedom I needed was illegal.
As we drove to the crest of the pass we caught a glimpse of the North Sister’s
steep, intimidating snowfields. I suddenly remembered having the naive idea
that wilderness was merely something the Forest Service pointed out, like a
scenic view. I must have thought that wilderness areas were the remains of
unsettled frontier. These places seemed too rough to be settled. The ”entering
wilderness” signs seemed to be posted like warnings of the end of the known
world, ”Caution, lions, tigers and bears.”
In the past, the craggy peaks and snowfields seemed so inaccessible. I never
wondered how they had escaped development. I had not yet seen how a mine can
destroy an entire mountain. I had not yet learned where a stubborn logging road
can be built. In my young mind, wilderness had existed as the background which
surrounded civilization. Maybe I had misunderstood how time had changed the
Northwest. Perhaps I thought wilderness and frontier were the same thing. I
probably believed we were still carving civilization from the big Douglas-fir of
the Northwest. That was what we were taught by film strips in the second
grade.
Working for the forest service, I surveyed roads into roadless areas, and worked
in hundreds of clear-cuts. Wilderness was something wild, we were surrounding
with roads and clear-cuts so it could not escape. We didn’t want it to grow
and swallow up more merchable timber. It was like an animal that had to be
confined. As I grew cynical it became very clear that these sorts of wilderness
areas were not only surrounded by civilization. In fact, wilderness has to serve
people to exist, and it only exists because people design it into civilization
like another mall or park. The Forest Service had to clean up the popular
wilderness campsites and rope off areas to protect them from hikers. We were
always improving the parking. Wilderness was a park that had to be tailored
to the visitors.
Listening to the radio I once again felt young and naive. Wilderness access
was not free because of the inalienable right of citizens to visit their national
lands. Wilderness was free because the agencies lacked the legal authority to
charge admission. Since the federal government was getting out of funding
wilderness management, money had to come from somewhere. Phrases like
”privatization,” and ”states rights,” took on a new significance as I pictured the
”Three Sisters Volcanic Amusement Park” complete with gondolas, casinos and
summit espresso shops.
My wife listened patiently as I tried to explain why wilderness entrance fees
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
upset me. I rambled incoherently that ”paying for a wilderness” is an oxymoron.
It’s like ”wildlife management,” or ”military intelligence.” If wilderness areas
are truly wild, then managing them is absurd. It’s like giving parking tickets
to sleeping lions. Wilderness is a place to drop the pretense of civilization, and
understand that humanity is not everything. Without the artifacts of civilization
it is a lot easier to notice that we are just like all other organisms. Add entrance
fees, and we are no longer residents of the natural world. We are paying guests,
with the right to be entertained and the expectation of services. Wilderness
becomes a purchased commodity. People are no longer at home, they are tourists
separated from their own environment. I went on to conclude that the planet
cannot afford people who are more alienated from nature.
My wife forced me to admit I was talking about the concept of wilderness,
not any actual wilderness area. The reality is that most wilderness areas are
highly managed. Fire has been controlled for years. Trail systems are built
and maintained. Plant and animal species have been introduced, while others
have been forced to extinction. Large predators have been mostly eliminated.
Most of all, wilderness areas are too small to be ”wild.” They are surrounded by
humanity. I admitted, the wilderness I was talking about was something else. I
was talking about ”wildness,” and I was repulsed by the idea of paying money
to maintain a human relationship with wildness.
We stopped the car as the road crossed a huge lava field, where we could see
into wilderness areas on each side of the road. We carried our two little girls
to the top of an old stone observation tower and pointed out the scenic view.
They were unimpressed by the mile high volcanoes with blue ice spilling off
purple cliffs, but for a few seconds we all looked into the mountainous hearts of
Oregon’s biggest wilderness areas. Then we returned to the immediate concerns
of yucky diapers, stinky bathrooms, and who hit who.
Our 2 year old would not pee in the stinky outhouse. The rocks outside were
a better place for that. Then she went looking for bugs. Her little sister just
wanted to eat the bugs. Neither of them would wear any warm clothes in the
cold mountain air. We walked down a short nature trail looking for lions, tigers
and bears. My cynicism eroded as the little girls played. It is so obvious they
are still a wild part of the world. Getting them back into the car seats was like
wrestling anacondas. Everyone tells us they are little wildthings. Still, I wonder
what paying for wilderness will mean to them. How much harder will it be for
them to remember we are all wild animals.
Citation Format
Medler, Michael J. (1997) Paying for Wilderness Trumpeter: 14, 4.
http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.4.11
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Paying for Wilderness

Sweeney, Sandra

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
The Gestalt of Plenty
Sandra Sweeney
Palacky University
The Gestalt of Plenty 2
SANDRA SWEENEY is a Faculty member of the Department
of Ecology, Palacky University, Czech Republic. Her principle
research interest is the way in which complete actor systems differ
across cultures, tying them to landscapes, and ultimately creating
holistic interactions between the land upon which people live and
the spirit that sustains them.
Covenenant1
Culture may be defined as a dynamic system of human communication which
governs interactions between people and their environment which are in turn de-
pendent on and influenced by that environment. Rooted in the physical environ-
ment is the symbiotic relationship between humanity, its cultures and economies
and nature, her diversity and resources. Life is ordered by traditional beliefs
that articulate a conceptual environment giving structure and predictability to
the physical environment in which social and cultural development is identified
within the rhythms and productivity of nature.
However, humans inhabit two seemingly non-communicating worlds, the empir-
ical and the conceptual. Myth, ritual and taboo characterize the conceptual
environment, tying it to the physical world and identifying humans’ relation to
their specific ecosystem. Yet, it is the dialectic created by these twin streams
of physical and metaphysical that weave a cybernetic pattern of self-regulation
and self-maintenance.
But, what has all this got to do with eating?
Joseph Campbell writes ”early societies learned that the essence of life is that it
lives by killing and eating; that’s the great mystery that the myths have to deal
with. The hunt became a ritual of sacrifice, and the hunters in turn performed
acts of atonement to the departed spirits of the animals, hoping to coax them
into being sacrificed again.”2 It is in killing and eating that an active paradigm
originates which reinforces humans’ relationship to one another and to their
land.
The gestalt of plenty.
Kiviaktitaktok. Inuit hunting beluga and apportioning it throughout the com-
munity, each according to his needs. Zabijacka. Czechs slaughtering the family
pig and all sharing in the feast. I went on my first beluga hunt when I was in
mother’s amautiq.3
In the season of upingoa, when the sea-ice retreats, in the Inuit Hamlet of
Pangnirtung, in Canada’s Eastern Arctic, men hunt beluga for muktuk, a thin
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
The Gestalt of Plenty 3
layer of fat which lies between a whale’s blubber and its meat. Women slaughter
the animal, stripping its hide in such a way that it can be used to make a plethora
of useful items from floats to dogsled traces. A mother cups the blood in her
hands so her son might drink and the life of the whale becomes the life of the
man.
Seven Inuit stand at Pangnirtung’s airport terminal awaiting permission to
board. They each carry a green garbage bag half full of muktuk. They are
travelling to other remote communities to deliver their special cargo to relatives
forced to move in search of work. Intersettlement trade in beluga parts is illegal.
But, the RCMP constable who has lived in the community for years doesn’t say
anything because he knows that the natural lives and habits of the people make
them happy.
Taleelayooq, Inuit progenitress of marine mammals sends the soul of the beluga
to the Inuit and receives it back in her underwater abode for that which comes
from the sea must be returned to the sea. Beluga bones and scraps are thrown
into the sea to be washed away with the tides.
Yet, according to Canadian government researchers, nutritionally Inuit food
needs may be met by consuming domesticated meats such as beef and chicken
flown in from the south. And in the wake of the frozen burgers and soft drinks
for sale at the local Hudson Bay Company store comes a decline in the use of
country meats characterized by a nutritional erosion evident in anemia in women
and children, increased dental disease and cardiovascular disorders.4 Increased
restrictions on marine mammal hunting affect the community’s cultural and
physical health.
I dreamed of a golden pig and presents for my brothers and sisters.5
At the time of the harvest moon Czech families re-unite in their villages for
Zabijacka. Special recipes, spices and cereals grown for this occasion cover the
kitchen table and counter. The family pig is washed and slaughtered. Blood
soup, jelito, is made immediately to sustain the laborers throughout the day’s
hard work of slaughtering and preserving the pig.
Choice parts are preserved to celebrate the birth of Christ. Special tidbits are
set aside for the animals that live in the house, cats and dogs. At the day’s end,
jitrnice, intestines stuffed with blood products, are carried away to friends and
family who couldn’t return to the village because of work commitments. Lastly,
at sunset, blood and bone are buried in the garden for that which comes from
the land must be returned to the land.
Habits developed over the past forty years, from state ownership of land to
state-run kitchens, has meant the common dining hall in which Czechs were,
and in most cases, continue to be fed, at work and at school, has simplified
cuisine. Meals have lost an important social and cultural function through the
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
introduction of common boarding and common canteens. Quality has been
given over to quantity so that meals which were simple to prepare continue to
be given priority and portions simply made larger. The Czech food pyramid
is heavily influenced by the price of food, not only the health associated with
eating certain foods.6
The continuing institutionalization of meals begun under the communist regime
means that the same menu and the same smell and the same taste routinize in-
stead of ritualize the meal. But, at autumn’s end the communists were like
everyone else, returning to their village and their families to eat jelita and
jitrinice.7
Amidst the state-run factory farms and anti-whaling campaigns the central
theme continues, a covenant between god and goddess, humanity and land;
shared generosity throughout hamlets and villages, families and friends; thanks
proffered to land and the sea; blood of whale, blood of pig, blood of man. To
sup on the blood of the whale and the pig is to live within the promise of plenty.
Notes
1 For the purposes of this narrative, covenant should be interpreted as having
the spiritual sense of a mutual agreement either to do or to forbear something.
2 Campbell, J. with B. Moyers. 1988. The Power of Myth. Edited by B.S.
Flowers. Toronto: Doubleday.
3 personal communication, Hunter F, field notes 1990.
4 International Whaling Commission Annual Report, 1986.
5 personal communication, Subject D, field notes 1994.
6 personal communication, Tomas Zidek, 1996.
7 personal communication, Subject H, 1996.
Citation Format
Sweeney, Sandra (1997) The Gestalt of Plenty Trumpeter: 14, 4.
http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.4.4
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The Gestalt of Plenty

Pivnik, Janet

Speaking From the Deep: The Problem of Language in Deep Ecology Education

Furth, Alan

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky
Mountain National Park
Alan Furth
Trumpeter
False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky Mountain National
Park 2
ALAN FURTH is Senior Faculty Associate with the Audubon
Expedition Institute (AEI). The position allows him the opportu-
nity to teach for one semester and work administratively with the
school’s Education Division, in their Belfast office, during the oth-
er half of the year. He holds a BS in Child Development from the
University of Maine and an MS in Experiential Education from
Lesley College. In the span of his nineteen years in education
he has taught at every level, from preschool through Elderhostels
including eight years in a public middle school and nine years at
the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels with AEI. He
is generally an optimistic person and he reminds readers of the
this essay to find, create and sing the songs of hope and strength
along with those of protest and identification of unacceptable con-
ditions, and to find those places where vital breezes swirl and stir
passion and reverence for life. He and his family live in Lubec,
Maine, the easternmost town in the continental United States.
False Fronts
(Sung and played to the tune of Banks of the Ohio)
C G
1. I sit here in the graying light
C
As winter cloaks the empty night
C7 F
And barren mountains wail and sigh
. C G C
Lamenting days now long gone by
\textbf{Refrain:}
Gone the red wolves, gone the vision
Gone the truths of our condition
Free us from false fronted lies
Give us strength, no alibis
2. A pale moon lights this tortured scene
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky Mountain National
Park 3
Of wolfless wolves ripped from their sleep
These hounded dead are forced to keep
Alive our hope - our conscience clean
3. Within the bounds of this zoo park
This futile fragment - hopeless ark
Reign rules relentless as storm tossed seas
Remain confined, believe you’re free
4. One step too far, you’re bound and gagged
A bullet through your mortal hide
Or bring you back for show and tell
A puppet’s life, a one wolf’s hell
5. I see no reason to believe
This land will get its just reprieve
The human tide can’t be held down
The sunset glows through acrid gown
6. On hilltops now the bones are bleached
Of trees where once their branches reached
Toward heaven and the trusted peach
Of good clean air, but life’s a beach
\textbf{Talking blues:}
Ain’t that the truth
I can hear those poor beasts now
Howling from their prison walls
Tagged, tattooed, caught and caged,
Anaesthetized, delupinized,
Inspected inside and out.
Photo ID’ed, collared and monitored.
Try to break free and they’ll triangulate
on you. Its all over then. I can
hear that low flying helicopter now,
slicing through the nicotine-stained
skyline that looks more deadly than
any pool hall haze I’ve seen,
tracking a wild wannabe.
7. We’re farming reindeer, elk and salmon,
Forests, deer, red wolves and bison
Snow white ermine for their skins
Please forgive us for our sins...
False Fronts is not a very uplifting song, but I believe it is an important one. I
was feeling pretty angry and discouraged the day I wrote it. Here’s the reason
why.
This past fall I travelled with an Audubon Expedition Institute (AEI) group of
graduate and undergraduate students and my co-faculty though three distinct
regions of North America: the western coast of Newfoundland, Pennsylvania’s
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky Mountain National
Park 4
Lancaster County and Eastern Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountain National
Park. We ended the semester of intensive field study in Tennessee, the region
where, in 1972, I started my undergraduate studies. I have taught with AEI
for a period which spans eighteen years. Environmental conditions, issues and
concerns has been one focus throughout the journeying. This year the conditions
in each place we explored struck a hard chord.
In Newfoundland, as readers of this journal probably know (it is not new news)
the cod fishery has collapsed. We listened to a fishery specialist point an ac-
cusatory finger at the traditional fishing folk and justify proposal of practices
which are sure to drive small boat fishermen out of business - once it gets started
up again. The mayor of the small town spoke to deaf ears as he tried to point
out the obvious results. His strong voice echoed as nothing in the system. In
Lancaster County, traditional heart of the Amish and Mennonite Plain People,
fertile farmland tracts are being lost at auction to urban sprawl developers and
townhouses march across fields which had known nothing in recent centuries
but horse hooves and plowshares. Pressure to make the absolute most of every
acre of remaining farmland has forced sustaining practices to yield to the new.
Pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers guarantee monocrops and cash re-
turns. Black plastic rolls out acre upon acre, and in one short decade the old
ways are lost. And the first night of our stay in the beautiful jewel of Great
Smoky Mountain National Park we heard the Red Wolves howl.
How does the splendor of the wolves’ existence twine with the dismal report?
Through research done by one of our students we got the inside scoop on the
status of the wolf reintroduction. There are wolves who now roam the park
lands, but hidden not far from the campground is a fenced enclosure of way-
ward wolves. ”The free ones seem to like to get the penned ones going,” our
student was told about the nightly chorus by the researcher who welcomed his
questions. Details beyond that are contained in my song. I felt duped by the
location of the penned wolves that ensured the nightly chorus close to the great-
est concentration of park visitors. The fact that the wolves who carried on wolf
lives on the other side of the park boundary would be identified as ”problems”
and ”dealt with” to ensure the comfort and confidence of surrounding human
populations made the park suddenly seem very small. It took on a human
serving air for the first time for me and I didn’t like it.
I wrote ”False Fronts” during a seven day backpack in the National Park. It
was the day after a long strenuous climb had brought the group I was with
up to the 5,000 foot summit of Gregory Bald, one of the curious mountain
top fields that exist uniquely within this mountain range. The bald offered
a striking panoramic view in every direction. Northeast to southwest ran the
great crest of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. To the southeast the clear,
late afternoon sky invited the eyes to explore the intricate and boundless sea
of mountains. The stark winter clad hillside silhouettes displayed the classic
distance distinguishing characteristic of dark foreground yielding through every
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
shade of gray until the pale, pale blue of sky blended with the most distant
ripples of ridge line.
It was the westward gaze, toward my old almamatre Maryville College that
unnerved me. Maryville sits at the leading edge of the mighty Great Smoky
Mountain thrust fault, where the thinning overburden of ancient rock runs out
across the eastern edge of the Mississippi Valley like a shore spent wave upon a
beach. I have not gazed out from Gregory Bald for twenty-five years and I don’t
recall the burnt orange scar that now courses the horizon. It was a clear, cool
late fall day with none of the mechanics to precipitate such a dreaded haze, yet
there it lay, inextricably part of the valley, as true as day, or death, or a coal
tattoo.
The toxic swath was more than a stain. Its substance displaced the lower column
of clean air. It is quantifiable: You could measure it by the vessel it fills. This
hydrocarbon haze fills the entire Tennessee Valley to a depth of one thousand
feet. I imagine this thick, heavy mass of contaminated air flows, glacier-like, into
other toxic basins that mark high concentrations of North American consumers
who flank the industrial belts of the United States heartland.
The margins are getting thin. In Florida, the site of other explorations with
AEI, our freshwater aquifers are pumped away to fuel industry, agriculture and
outrageous population densities, and salt water domes move in to fill the void.
Salt water is more dense than fresh and cannot be displaced. The freshwater car-
rying capacity of the land is irreparably diminished. On Gregory Bald I looked
out and wondered, where is our clean air? How opaque does the proverbial
writing on the wall need to be? What does it take to turn the tide?
False fronts and smoke screens need to be torn down. We build them and fool
ourselves. The week before the hike I lay in a field on the Maryville College
campus and never considered the poisons carried on the gently stirring breezes.
I had to return to the familiar vantage of Gregory Bald, seeking solitude in
wilderness, in order to realize once again, the stark reality of our condition and
imagine the scope of the work to be done.
I did not come to the backcountry looking for this. I sought wholeness and
encounters with self and Black Bear, Nuthatch and Great Horned Owl, Red
Wolf and the night sky. I envisioned myself nestled in a Rhododendron bald or
sitting with my back pressed against the trunk of a towering Hemlock with its
soft flowing branches fanning like gills above my head as I savored the mountain
chorus of wind through trees and steep valleys twined with the chortle of all sizes
of cascading streams.
But, last night I heard one lone wolf and the hair on the back of my neck did not
go up. I felt no awe and no reverence. Instead I grew angry. I felt manipulated
and confined. The red wolf is dead. We killed it and are not about to let its
resurrection become more than a parkland attraction. It is so hard to wade
False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky Mountain National
Park 6
through the mazes of political, environmental, social and commercial facades,
but that is the first work to do. That is our work here: to tear down the false
fronts of our existence and deal with what is.
Citation Format
Furth, Alan (1997) False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky Mountain
National Park Trumpeter: 14, 2. http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.2.6
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Copyright 1999 Trumpeter


False Fronts: The View from Gregory Bald, Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Naess, Arne

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology
Arne Naess
University of Oslo
Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology 2
ARNE NAESS is at the Center for Development and Environment
at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of many books
and articles. He coined the word ecosophy and articulated the
principles of the deep ecology movement.
The above title is from a chapter in the book Contesting Earth’s Future: Radical
Ecology and Postmodernity by Michael Zimmerman, University of California
Press 1994. The last 28 pages of the chapter are headed ”Heidegger, Naess,
and Ontological Phenomenalism”. My gestalt ontology is a sort of ontological
realism in the sense that we have direct access to the contents of reality in our
spontaneous experiences. These are not mere appearances or phenomena.
Zimmerman does not mention ”the 8 points of the deep ecology movement”,
and that is all to the good because they are perhaps too often brought into
the discussion. But it is of some importance to immediately observe that the
questions the author painstakingly discusses all belong to ”level 1 of the Apron
Diagram”. That is, they belong to the ultimate premises. At this level the
supporters of the deep ecology movement recognize widely, in part incompatible
views. The 8 points, constituting the second level, are proposed as expressions
of what the supporters have in common on a fairly general and abstract plane.
For instance that it is meaningful to do something for a living being’s own sake,
(cp. ”inherent value”). One supporter may say he does not accept anything
Heidegger seems to say on this level, or that he accepts everything. And Naess
is only one of the 15 or 20 theorists of the movement. Deep ecology has never
been, and will hopefully never be a philosophical sect.
Some of Zimmerman’s formulations I feel need commenting.
”Conservation ecologists like Michael Soul&#233; do seek to draw normative
conclusions from their disciplines, but many scientists feel constrained to sep-
arate their academic research (”fact”) from morality, politics, and their own
original love for living nature.” (P.122). Michael Soul&#233; considers con-
servation biology a crisis science like AIDS research. It may be said to have
normative premises. The sentence ”What follows if we value positively and for
its own sake the diversity and abundance of life on Earth?” contains a strategic
”if”, but the ”we” does actually accept the valuation. During the hours of re-
search they do not partake in politics, and they do not derive political and moral
norms from research. But conclusions based on research may motivate norms.
And a set of research conclusions plus a single norm may have a large field of
derived practical consequences. In some senses spontaneous experiences may be
said to contain inseparable factual and normative components. In verbalizations
it is wise to keep the normative announcements without an ”if‘” separate from
purely declarative statements. A good habit in serious written discussions is to
end the former with an exclamation mark. In that way it is easier for the reader
to understand the intention of the writer.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology 3
According to Zimmerman (and others) there are similarities between Heidegger’s
and my philosophical views, and he places me (too) centrally within the deep
ecology movement. It is the latter point which perhaps makes it useful to look
carefully at what Zimmerman says.
”The visual horizon on which objects appear is not produced by the subject;”
instead, the ”horizon is but the side facing us on an openness which surrounds
us; an openness which is filled with views of the [self-showing, self-luminous]
appearances of what to our re-presenting are objects.” (P.123). Those who are
not acquainted with Heidegger’s strange terminology should not feel worried. It
is part of the tradition to listen to his words and take seriously the associations
we spontaneously experience. Zimmerman adds to the above sentences a piece
of interpretation of Heidegger’s sentences: ”The self luminosity of things and
the openness in which such luminosity occurs are not separate from one another;
they constitute aspects of the same event.”
There are interesting similarities to be noted:
”Naess says that the subject-object distinction is not primary. Fur-
ther, he denies that there are primary qualities, essences, substances,
or even ’things’, if by the latter we mean solid, unchanging, isolat-
ed material objects. Things are useful constructs for dealing with
constantly changing, internally related phenomena, which constitute
’experience’.” (P.123). I trust that Zimmerman has understood what
I have written in certain rather technical papers, but I cannot accept
the way he tries to formulate what he understands. ”Constructs”
reminds me too much of postmodernism and suggests an activity on
the part of us humans which is too pretentious. We do not construct
things. We construct concepts of things - that is remarkable enough
for me.
I say that in spontaneous experiences we have direct access to what is real. We
experience some things as solid, fairly isolatable and closely related to others.
But nothing absolutely isolatable etc. A crystal we may experience as small and
beautiful, the ”primary” quality of smallness, is not more real than the beau-
ty, but certainly important socially and in action. In spontaneous experiences
things appear without ”effort”, perhaps the Heideggerian terminology is helpful:
phenomena are ”self-luminous”. But I like to talk about things or items rather
than ”phenomena” (ontological realism of sorts?).
”If interrelated phenomena lack substance, essence, or self-existence, as suggest-
ed by the Buddhist formula sarvam dharmam nihsvabhavam, there is no ulti-
mate ontological gap between self and not-self, humanity and nature.” (P.123).
This sounds reasonable to me if we exchange ”ultimate” for ”ultimate and ab-
solute”. What we call common sense is roughly right in ontology as long as
we talk loosely and with no philosophical pretensions. I do not feel that I am
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology 4
subjected to something as spectacular as an incessant play of phenomena. On
the simple level of ”the 8 points”, I am sitting in a solid chair and there is no
play going on. But if a graduate student of philosophy appears, I confirm, for
instance, that I am a possibilist: we have absolutely no guarantee what will hap-
pen in the future. This is a kind of absolutism, but it is within the framework
of professional philosophy with some, but not with important consequences for
my life or general outlook.
What I am driving at is the unprofessional sense in which I use the expression
”ultimate philosophical or religious views” when I say that supporters of the
deep ecology movement are supposed to be moved or motivated in their envi-
ronmental activism, in part, by such views. They have value priorities, outlook
on their own lives, what they are and what they seek. They ”problematize” var-
ious aspects of society in the light of their priorities. If they say they feel close to
Buddhism with its teaching about greed and other phenomena of fairly concrete
kinds, it need not imply philosophical knowledge or interest in the theoretical
aspects of nirvana. Zimmerman opens his discourse about Heidegger, Naess and
ontolgoical phenomenalism with this intricate philosophical announcement:
Just as Ecosophy T was influenced in part by the nondualism of
Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, so Heidegger had a long
interest in Western mysticism, as well as in Buddhism and Taoism.
This shared interest in nondualism brings deep ecology into proxim-
ity with two themes in Heidegger’s thought. (P. 122).
Excellent, but it may make readers associate (1) too closely with the deep e-
cology movement and (2) associate too closely the important expression ”philo-
sophical or religious” in describing the relation of deep ecology to the ecology
movement as a whole with contemporary professional (academic) philosophical
debates.
Having expressed my slight uneasiness about the way he brings ”deep ecology”
into the discussion I shall continue here by meeting some of Zimmerman’s views
more squarely.
Philosophers have been a great source of inspiration in 2500 years. Mostly their
sayings, especially those of great fame, can be interpreted in interesting, highly
different ways. Those who accept with eagerness the sayings, or some of the
sayings, tend to believe that their interpretation is the ”correct” one, or at
least they write as if they hold that belief. If one is not primarily interested in
history, I find it better to talk about texts as sources of inspiration. In his article
Zimmerman quotes from texts by Heidegger and Derrida. It is a valuable thing
to consider those texts as possible sources of inspiration for supporters of the
deep ecology movement who have strong philosophical interests. To my great
surprise I find that parts or fragments of the texts written by Derrida may be
such a source. Consider the following quotation from Zimmermann:
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology 5
Deep ecologists agree with Derrida’s deconstruction of anthropocen-
trism, however, they resist this deconstruction of nature, wilderness,
and ecosphere, and they regard ecocentrism as a desirable alterna-
tive to anthropocentrism. For Derrida, however, ecological problems
cannot be solved by turning the ecosystem into yet another meta-
physical absolute, since doing so is motivated by the same control-
impulse that animates all centrisms, including those responsible for
social oppression. He argues that we never encounter nature ei-
ther in itself or as a whole; instead, nature is a social phenomenon,
whose meaning is always contested within particular, local discours-
es. (P.138).
The word ”anthropocentrism” I take to express a sort of theory or a way of
thinking (within ecophilosophy), but words like ”nature”, ”culture”, ”vulture”,
and most others do not. It seems that Derrida guesses we use the term ”ecosys-
tem” as a near synonym to ”nature”, and that both words among deep ecology
theorists are names for one or two metaphysical absolutes. How Derrida has
found out that and what it means is not quite clear to me, but the seriousness
of ”turning something into a ”centrism” - and metaphysical absolutes are ele-
ments of the class of centrisms - is motivated a ”control-impulse”. To this class
belongs some or all those centrisms which are responsible for social oppressions.
There is an escape from this demonic evil which has ”generated crusades and
political systems that has wreaked havoc for centuries.” In the lamentable case
of deep ecology it is important to realize that ”nature is a social phenomenon”.
I have seen convincing arguments against the usual terminology within the eco-
logical movement that every conception of nature is made within society. But I
see no possible way from this to declaring nature to be socially created.
The views of Derrida cannot adequately be stated in such a few words, and his
criteria for adequacy are probably different from mine, but some students who
accept what they think Derrida basically means, also accept the 8 points of the
deep ecology movement. Because of the richness of interpretations of assertions
in postmodern philosophical literature, this is not very astonishing. One of my
conclusions is (again) that the level 1 norms and descriptions from which the
8 points may be and actually are derived reveal a great richness. Why not try
to derive the 8 points from a set of views which includes those we guess are
expressed by Umberto Eco’s following sentence:
... there is no Being that speaks. There is a language that speaks
Being...Language comes first... Being is only an effect of meaning.
Meaning is an effect of cultures. The cultural universe is a labyrinth.
(Quotation from Zimmerman, p. 140).
But could we possibly derive the 8 points from texts which includes sentences
like ”reality is a text” or ”Everything is a ’text’” (Derrida)? Why not? I guess
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology 6
Dave Foreman and others would feel uncomfortable to hear that ”being human
means existing within a linguistic play”. (P.138). In seminars with academic
philosophers who are classed as influenced by, and highly positive towards, Der-
rida, it is my experience that his sentences regularly can be transformed into
more familiar ones. After all, the slogan to deconstruct is fairly general and is
intended also to apply to postmodern texts when they seem to assert something.
We could if we, like Derrida, define this text as an ”openness without limits to
the differential referral” and then define ”differential referral” in certain ways.
Zimmerman belongs to those supporters of the deep ecology movement who
seriously study and look for important help from the works of philosophers
who most philosophically concerned supporters do not expect can be of much
help. I belong to this majority but am grateful that Zimmerman continues his
endeavors. I have asked the editors of Encyclopedia Brittanica to give me a
chance to revise my Heidegger article in the 14th edition of that work. When
writing the article I considered the late works of Heidegger to belong rather to
a new kind of poetry than to philosophy.
Radical versions of Kant’s ”Ding an sich” philosophy are still influential, espe-
cially in postmodernism, and will presumably continue to inspire people in the
future. According to this doctrine whatever we say about nature, it does not
apply to nature strictly in itself. There is an eternal ignoramus, a ”we don’t
know” to be considered. From this it follows that humans as part of nature will
never be known. We will never be able to say something about humans in them-
selves. But there is a world in itself, close to us, we can only conceive shadows
of ourselves, features completely determined by our senses and our intellect. To-
day’s prevalent version substitutes society for senses and intellect. Everything
is socially determined. Interestingly enough social anthropologists who adopt
some of the concepts of postmodern literature (Fredrik Barth and others) tend
to ”deconstruct” the idea of society, insisting that human interaction is much
more complex than is usually thought in social anthropology. Strictly speaking
there are no societies as usually defined in social anthropology.
Then I shall talk about something quite different:
Unhappily, all-embracing systems like that of Spinoza are taken to be dogmatic.
Texts like those of Heidegger are taken more seriously. The expectation is that
the creator or interpreter of such a system is rigid and does not easily change
opinions. This is not a tenable generalization. Historically, philosophers have
gone through stages of development whatever their kind of philosophy. Sextus
Empiricus holds that Pyrhonnic sceptics had a certain tendency to develop into
Heraclitans, turning into ”dogmatism”, believing to have found at least one
truth.
Dogmatists have changed into sceptics.
Those who try to integrate their views about life and the cosmos do not neces-
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
sarily show stagnation or ossification, not more than philosophers who focus on
a small number of themes. Some start in young years with firm general views,
but tend later to give them up or soften them. It is often said that they under-
stand better the overwhelming complexity of what they try to bring into a kind
of order, however tentatively. So they give up.
The importance of Spinoza and other systemsbuilders is that they present
Lebens und Weltanschauungslehre at its best. I have recently lectured on this
in Germany where they say they are still somewhat reluctant about L & W
because of Hitler, or, because in Germany L & W is shown to be producing
monstrous Anschauungen. I hope next century will not be so preoccupied with
language, and philosophical research more than postmodern, small narratives
and cultural conversations.
Citation Format
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Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology

Horwood, Bert

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on
the Great River
Bert Horwood
Trumpeter
May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great River 2
BERT HORWOOD: I was raised in Canada’s Ottawa Valley. In
those days self reliance was part of life. We heated with wood,
and my days were dominated by the woodpile each fall. This let
me know my father in special ways. I was expected to pull one
end of a cross-cut saw with him. The rhythm and partnership of
a two-person saw is superb training for life.
I was lucky that my female side was not neglected. Our self-
reliance extended to storing the plenty of summer for winter. It
was not beyond the dignity of this young Valley lad to help mother
with the preserves and sauerkraut. At times like these I learned
the art of story telling. Outside home, I met powerful teachers.
A nun, a United Church Organist and a fiddler helped me make
music. A Sunday school teacher and a wolf-cub mistress taught
me to run a business meeting. A war-time pilot taught me the
meaning of science and an Algonquin man taught me to be one
with a canoe and to be at home in the bush.
On the surface I had a career, through University, high school
teaching and finally a professorship up to retirement. But what
abides is the continual growth of my connection with the Earth
from interest to identity and kinship. Becoming a grandfather and
an elder in the outdoor education community has sharpened my
gratitude for a wonderful breeding and has increased my commit-
ment to contribute the same to those who are following.
In the summer of 1991, I and seven companions paddled open canoes down a wild
river in the northern part of the Canadian Arctic. In addition to the customary
events of wilderness travel by canoe, members of the party had rich encounters
with wildlife and with the land. Douglas Le Pan’s poem ”Canoe Trip” had
been read as a kind of theme piece during the trip. In particular, for me, the
experience of muskox, of sleeping in old tent rings and the unsporting death of a
lake trout had power to stimulate me to write these reflections, intertwined with
excerpts of the poem. The original version, slightly edited here, was written for
my companions as a way to celebrate a transforming experience.
Imagine that you, too, have completed a moving wilderness journey and have
returned safe, but changed in some inexpressible way. One of your companions
has written you a letter telling you how he feels. ¡POEM¿”What of this fabulous
country Now that we have reduced it to a few hot hours And sun-burn on our
backs?”
On the scheduled flight out, one of our party sat beside Ovide Mercredi, Grand
Chief of the Council of First Nations. They chatted about our canoe trip and,
on parting, Mr. Mercredi said, ”May the spirits go with you.” I believe this
kind wish came true.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great River 3
It was a canoe trip with everything. There was the frustrating and interminable
delay of the bush flight to reach the river. The continual daylight, the cold
howling winds, the cloud patterns all signalled the high latitude. There was the
excitement of new plants and animals, the prospect of good angling, the risks
of self-propelled travel in remote terrain. The land was raw, new but ancient,
the home of marvellous creatures. The river was swift, changeable, never to be
taken for granted. We were blanketed in a kind of vibrant silence.
Close encounters were common. Some of us got close to Muskox, usually on our
own terms, but not always. One canoe got uncomfortably close to extremely
dangerous water. But for late night vigilance, we were close to losing canoes
when the river rose unexpectedly. Anglers came close to satisfying their itch
to catch char. We paddled in the light of the Arctic summer night, were wind
bound, tasted raw char, felt Muskox horn. There were moments of supreme
action and periods of dismal waiting. The sun was hot, the wind was cold.
There were times for long hikes, good conversations, intervals of solitude. The
portages were hard enough, but few in number. Living was smooth, with it’s
own kind of urgency. Muscles grew more taut.
The pick-up was on schedule. Helpful people made reentry into human habi-
tation pleasant. Once home, familiar objects and persons welcomed us but we
saw them with the gift of new eyes.
It was the ideal canoe trip.
We Make a Community
¡POEM¿”But here are crooked nerves made straight, The fracture cured no
doctor could correct.”
But this canoe trip did something else for me. It triggered an almost continuous
period of deep reflection which is only now, days after our fellowship disbanded,
ripe enough to be expressed. These are things it would have been good to have
talked over with companions on the river, but the ideas weren’t ready in time.
Some features of the group interested me. Leadership was never an issue, yet
decisions got made in ways that had full support. It seemed to me that I
was very free, and so were others, to exercise private interests, to join any
combination of people for any particular event. It was all right to go off alone.
At the same time there was a common will and a common pulling together to
accomplish whatever labor was before us. Certainly, the relatively easy pace
contributed to this satisfying state of affairs. But I believe that friendship,
patience, tolerance, generosity, communication, and skill in wilderness travel on
the part of all contributed greatly to generally happy decision making. Perhaps
these qualities were among the spirits which Ovide Mercredi had in mind.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great River 4
Of course, there were awkward moments when it was unclear what the group’s
wish and intent was to be. One could have wished, then, for a strong lead
position to be taken. But why should any one of us have to carry that burden?
Better to patiently wait it out until the common will is clear.
Another feature of group life was the tendency for us to synchronize activities
spontaneously. This became more noticeable as the trip went on. For example,
a single person rarely went to bed early. Usually several settled down at once,
if not the whole group. No one had to be wakened. Once one person was up,
the others either woke up or were already awake. When one person experienced
sleeplessness, usually others did, too. Another example became obvious, late
in the trip, when almost everyone hiked off, white roll in hand, within about 5
minutes of each other. I fancy that it must be like that whenever small isolated
groups live and travel together over sustained periods.
Snoring deserves special mention. It is true that we have in our number some
loud and virtuoso snorers. Forte, fortissimo. But snoring was sometimes syn-
chronised to the extent that there were occasions when no one snored and oc-
casions when everyone snored. A double quartet.
Another point about group life I especially appreciated was the fact that each
person did not have to do the same thing to the same degree. There was no
cooking or dish washing roster. Yet we always ate well, off clean dishes. A spirit
of generous helpfulness was present, not only in the kitchen, but in pitching
tents and humping packs. Maybe that is one of the greatest spirits which Ovide
Mercredi wished for us.
Group life is different, I think, without darkness and a campfire. There was more
hiking than there otherwise would have been, and perhaps less conversation. All
the same, we had good talks covering most of the dilemmas of humanity: welfare,
the law, architecture, education, forests and the land. We enjoyed poetry, jokes
and stories in camp and on the move. Even without fires, the rich contrasts
of our different ideas and values was evident. ¡POEM¿”Into this reservoir we
dipped and pulled out lakes and rivers, We strung them together and made our
circuit. Now what shall be our word as we return, What word of this curious
country?”
A meteorologist in the group interpreted the clouds for us and a geologist ex-
plained the pictures at our feet. The ”word of this curious country” is the word
of volcanic action, ancient tropical seas laying down sediments, new upheavals
and the grinding blender of glaciers long time come and lately gone. Geological
minds have built a magnificent story to account for the colours, the cliffs, the
buttes and mesas, the whole landscape.
In my contrary way, I couldn’t help thinking that my northern ancestors had
told other stories as their ”word of this curious country.” It was the land of trolls
and giants, titans, the gods themselves. Did we not see their profiles and images
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great River 5
carved in the rocks and pillars, highlighted by the low set sun? Weren’t their
figures and faces visible in the sand stone hills, frozen into stony immobility by
daylight?
I was sure that some of the high pillared cliffs were the columned porches of
great halls and valhallas. Boulder fields, it seemed to me, were abandoned sand
boxes of troll children and broad stretches of rolling, greening tundra surely
were titanic golf courses. Did we not slide our canoes down ”the slipway where
titans sent splashing the last great glaciers?” It is easy to understand how the
Nordic myths and stories came into being. Perhaps, these, too, were part of Mr.
Mercredi’s blessing.
Of course it’s all nonsense. Or is it? My own experience with volcanoes and
glaciers is no more real than is my experience with trolls. A good story is always
to be appreciated whatever its source. So is a good wish.
Reflections on Rights and Respect
¡POEM¿”And skies that roll all day with cloud-chimeras To baﬄe the eye with
portents and unwritten myths,”
Our trip had events which moved my being. I was impelled to think and feel
differently about the ethics of wilderness travel and of my own relationship to
the land. This is somewhat personal, but since so many contributed to me in so
many ways, I would like to share it. The main issue is about rights and respect.
Rights and respect as they relate to the river, the land, the plants and animals
who live there. (By animals, I include ourselves and the local people.)
The great sweep of natural landscape, largely unchanged by humans, made me
think, in general, about the landscape at home; logged over, fished out, tun-
nelled, groomed and paved. It made me think that I have received undeserved
benefits at a great price to the Earth. Some of those benefits include the ABS
of our canoes, the aviation fuel to move us about, indeed the whole structure
of materials industry that ensures a luxurious standard of comfort and safety.
And since I have those advantages, how can I deny the same to others, who,
having nearly exhausted the easy pickings in the south are now turning their
eyes northward?
Yet it must be done. Coming close to screwing up in the south, it troubles
me that I and my kind are so ready to screw up this land. Having had the
feel of virtually virgin territory, it seems to me that the rightness of growth,
development and what we call progress is highly questionable. I start to think
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great River 6
that these things, the driving ideals of our culture, are not ethically supportable.
In short, they are wrong. I have no idea what, if anything, I can do about it
without hypocrisy. Maybe I should never have slept in that tent ring!
The trip also marked the end of my pleasure in sport fishing. The river offered
a number of deep holes where lake trout eked out a precarious living in the
unproductive water. One such hole gave us a glory hour when everyone was
catching trout. Once the needs of the kitchen were met, it was catch and release
all the way. Alone, at my stand on a flat rock which sloped steeply into the
depths, I struck a fine 5-pounder. The ravenous, lean, beautiful creature took
only a few minutes to tire, even on light tackle. Sliding it up to my feet, I saw
that it was deeply hooked in the heart region and bleeding. Returning the freed
fish to the water, the blood cloud flowed and in my attempts to resuscitate,
my hungry, unwilling partner in sport slipped from my hands down into the
depths from which she had come. The body and being of that creature is on
my conscience in a way that no other fish has ever been. I saw myself as a sport
fisherman in a different light and no longer liked what I saw. I collapsed my rod
and stowed my lures resolving that future angling would be strictly for food.
There is no room here for pride, fun, or even shame; the only proper emotions
on making a kill have to be humility and gratitude; the only proper action is
the sacrament of eating.
On a more public level, there were many incidents, from casual, minor litter to
collecting artifacts which gave me further cause for thought. But three events
stand out as examples. In one, our party killed at least 10 Arctic char and left
them to rot. In another, our party needlessly broke into a locked cabin. In the
third, our legacy, as Bill put it, to the great river is the establishment of an
operation to make future journeys easy for people.
Well, why not? For one, it is absolutely essential for me to kill to eat; either I
do it myself, or it’s done for me. For another, wilderness travellers have always
made careful use of other people’s resources in need. For the third, someone’s
going to do it anyway. We have rights to do these things, haven’t we?
I’ve thought considerably about the monofilament tangle of rights involved in
these questions. I think that there is a fundamental lack of respect in my
relationship to my own place and to the great river. I don’t think I approached
Muskox as respectfully as I should. No, nor lake trout nor yellow drabas either.
I looked at ancient tent rings and Inuit huts with the eyes of curiosity rather
than with wonder or understanding. Beetles were for the alcohol bottle more
than for appreciation of the remarkable talents which allow them to live in this
”tartan of river and rocks.”
This boils down to a conviction that the spirit of respect for the land and its
inhabitants did not go with us, at least not with me. And it leads to a proposal
for a future trip.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Food and shelter are critical elements for survival. Shelter, as we do it, doesn’t
seem to have much ethical problem. But food does have a problem for me, now.
The problem is that fishing yields food in addition to the ample provisions we
carry. To be blunt, I don’t like to kill fish for fun, nor for unwanted food. I
don’t think I have the right to kill anything beyond my need to live. But I sure
like killing when I’m hungry. This is a personal conviction and not one that I
urge anyone else to hold.
How about a trip where we carry only half of our caloric needs, as survival food?
For the rest, we rely on the land to provide; roots, berries, leaves, fish, whatever
is edible and in season. If game is seasonable and legal, let’s hunt for our food.
We would leave behind just the same as the local inhabitants do: our scat, our
tracks, and if need be, our bones.
In this way, we’d truly put ourselves on the land and enter into a much more
genuine, less transient relationship with it. Then endurance, strength, skill,
stamina and success would have enhanced meaning and I (at least) would dis-
cover more deeply the spirit of respect that seemed weak in my tourist mind.
What do you think?
These ideas may seem weird. They come from being one quarter mystic. They
also come from close encounters with Muskox and a powerful feeling of being
owned by the land rather than owning it. It would be good to talk about
thoughts like these, not so much to convince one another, but to understand
and appreciate each other’s values. ¡POEM¿”And yet the marvels we have seen
remain. We think of the eagles, of the fawns at the river bend, The storms,
the sudden sun, the clouds sheered downwards. O so to move! With such
immaculate decision! O proudly as waterfalls curling like cumulus!”
(All quotes from Douglas Le Pan’s poem ”Canoe Trip.”)
Citation Format
Horwood, Bert (1997) May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great
River Trumpeter: 14, 2. http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.2.5
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May the Spirits Go with You: False Face Reflections on the Great River

Duenkel, Nicky

Henderson, Bob

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibili-
ties
Nicky Duenkel
Trumpeter
Bob Henderson
Trumpeter
Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities 2
NICKY: To wander and to wonder are fitting descriptors of my
life. My wandering has led me from the east to the west and
back again, several times over; exploring both the inner and outer
realms of wilderness. I have journeyed through steep canyon walls
that have humbled me and enabled me to grasp my insignificance
in the greater scheme of things. I have paddled on lakes and rivers
in the mountains, prairies, on the Canadian Shield, and amongst
desert sands that have all taught me to move in accordance with
the flow of life rather than countering our own nature and that of
the surrounding world. I have hiked on trails travelled by thou-
sands as well as on barrens and streambeds likely untouched by
direct human presence, both of which have helped me to dispel
the myth of dualism and inspired feelings of being a part of, rather
than apart from, the natural world. I recognize and celebrate the
fact that my wandering has enabled me to become grounded in a
deeply felt and profoundly experienced sense of relationship with
the Earth. My wandering reflects a deep sense of devotion to an
ongoing journey of discovering self and place.
As I wander, I also wonder... I wonder how I can empower others
to assume greater responsibility for their own learning and person-
al development. I wonder how I can help folks achieve a greater
sense of harmony with themselves, others and the natural world. I
wonder how to enhance creativity and nurture divergent thought.
I wonder why playing music and singing are always so uplifting.
I wonder why I don’t play more and work less. I wonder about
the ebb and flow inherently present in all of life’s relationship-
s. I wonder about and thrive in life’s mysteries. I often wonder,
and wander, in what appear to be fuzzy grey areas between the
distinctive black and white.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities 3
My latest journey has led me to the Gulf of Maine bioregion,
where I join students and co-faculty of the Audubon Expedition
Institute as we seek to co-create a more environmentally and so-
cially just world. Much wandering and wondering remain to be
done...
BOB: I enjoyed early years at children’s summer camps as camper,
counsellor and travel guide. Thanks to these formative experi-
ences, I learned early on to suspect the soundness of my cultural
map rather than to suspect the soundness of my perceptions (as
E.F. Schumacher put it). I have been involved in Outdoor E-
duction pretty much full time all the time as I see it. I try to
teach in classrooms and institutional settings as a travel guide
might. By this I mean, I try to engage students in a disorienta-
tion from individual, competitive, consumptive schooling towards
a co-investigative community of learners. I try to ensure a healthy
amount of time for inquiry that brings us directly down to earth,
”with” the Earth. I see this task as cultural work much more than
school work. This effort has led to many pedagogical explorations
”with” students. Working at McMaster University, Hamilton, On-
tario, in a Kinesiology and the Arts and Science program has led
to a winter love affair with our local marsh, Cootes Paradise, and
its skiff of snow and ice and the same regard for the Dundas Val-
ley in the autumn. I split my time between the valley town of
Dundas, Ontario, and Algonquin Park where I cut my teeth with
paddle in hand. I hope to continue to explore these areas with my
partner Kathleen, young family, and student groups.
We are very excited by this opportunity to serve as editors for a theme issue
of The Trumpeter entitled, ”Educating towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities.”
While there are many who would suggest that the aims of the deep ecology move-
ment, ecosophy and the like are unattainable, wild eyed idealistic visions for the
relationship of humans to the earth, trapped in a comforting but marginalizing
discourse etc. etc. We, on the other hand, have as individuals and friends (many
of these writers are so) maintained that deep ecocentric actions are ”out there”
and being practiced in the name of education. Ideas, concepts, theories bent on
cultivating ecological consciousness that have surfaced to educators have been
useful to many. They are being acted upon with long term visionary passion
for moral agency, reality based viability and a celebratory joy of doing what is
worth doing.
Approaches that consciously and intentionally work within a curricular structure
and sets of aspirations that support the deep ecology movement are many and
varied. There exist also many perspectives that are rich in potential, although
unconscious or ignorant of deep ecology, are nevertheless actively furthering the
deep ecology movement. People, educators - young and old - are gaining the
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities 4
insight that we must, as Theodore Roszak (1972)once put it, have the honesty to
confront our culture. We must bring ourselves to question cultural assumptions
and practices and of equal importance we need to act upon this reflective process.
As noted by Chuck Chamberlin within these pages, the eighth principle of deep
ecology platform (see p. 83) is what makes the other seven revolutionary in
character rather than a merely rebellious muse.
The writers in this volume of The Trumpeter come from diverse educational
settings. Perspectives within include eco-theatre, a naturalists’ view, activism,
classroom teaching, travel guiding, personal lifestyle issues, community initia-
tives and philosophical inquiry. It is certain that all writers approach education
experientially with a strong focus on being, knowing, valuing and connecting
to the out-of-doors. They also share a spirit of experimentation and creativity.
There is much happening/evolving in the name, and in the framing inspiration,
of the deep ecology movement in education for all ages. The key players in
creating educational programs, lifestyle change, recreational offerings, however,
are more than likely working as the innovators themselves, forging their own
ideas into practice. The role models are only now being identified within our
communities of elders and our dynamic youthful leadership. We are presenting
the work of some of these people here. Many here have influenced and supported
our own efforts through word and example.
Moral responsibility is a shared attitude amongst these authors. There is an ex-
ploration of enculturation throughout these writings as the environmental/social
crisis is taken as a given. The hidden curriculum to avoid fundamental change
towards increased social justice and eco-centric practice is strong. Within these
pages, the authors and artists and poets publicly respond to the challenges of
teaching for such change. This responsible agency is a reflection of a revolution-
ary character for change, quite a different notion of change than that furthered
by the rebellious character (Fromm, 1963, p. 113). The revolutionary (a strong
but appropriate word) does not seek to overthrow some structural order so as
to gain power over the order and then perpetuate similar mistakes. This is the
response of the rebel: no vision outside of self gain, the oppressed becoming
the oppressor. The revolutionary character, on the other hand, seeks to change,
to better the existing order in the name of truth, beauty, goodness and adven-
ture.1 The revolutionary character seeks genuine change and is willingly changed
throughout the process. The path is less clear. The vision is long term, what
Michael Harrington calls ”visionary gradualism” (in McLaughlin, 1993, p. 200).
The change is measurable in behavior, in more viable ecological and social con-
sciousness, in a more caring world for all beings. What could be more rewarding
and more difficult? This is why we are excited by this issue of The Trumpeter.
In it there are rewards, difficulties, setbacks and celebrations, throughout the
”adventure” of education moving towards deep ecological territory.
We are faithful Trumpeter readers and we wish to focus on one broad theme.
We are knowledgeable about the Audubon Expedition Institute (A.E.I.) which
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities 5
is presented here as an example of an educational program that consciously
and intentionally works from a deep ecological mission. This exemplary AEI
program in outdoor experiential/environmental (one might add eco-political)
education is not alone. Large and small, there are many educational programs
and lifestyle ways that are consistent with the deep ecology movement. We
do not provide a listing of programs, types and places, but attempt to capture
samples of the thinking and action explored and expressed by members of far
reaching, far thinking, down to earth communities.
Finally, for newcomers to both the deep ecology movement and to education
that is critically pragmatic - that is, education that attempts to actively reshape
our inherited educational structures ”as judgements are made about good/bad,
beautiful/ugly, true/false in the context of our communities and our attempts
to build them anew” (Cherryholmes, 1988, p. 179) - a few definitions serve to
launch this collection of writings. As Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen once
put it, ”and, friluftsliv 2 for your thoughts” (in Reed and Rothenberg, 1993, p.
12).
Helpful Definitions
Definition of experiential education, as approved by the Association for Experi-
ential Education Board of Directors, November 3, 1994. Experiential education
is a process through which a learner constructs knowledge, skill, and value from
direct experiences.
Elements of experiential education: individual learner involvement, education
not classroom bound, education not teacher bound, living in the present, prepa-
ration for a changing world.
All other definitions are from ”An Ecophilosopher’s Dictionary: Basic concepts
for ecocentric exploration.,” by Alan Drengson, 1994, Lightstar Press.
Deep Ecology Movement is a grass roots, world wide, political movement that
is sometimes called radical environmentalism. It is characterized by support for
Naess’ and Sessions’ eight platform principles. Supporters of the Deep Ecology
Movement agree that we cannot go on with business as usual; human numbers
and technology are destroying the ecological systems; we must make fundamen-
tal changes in our values and practices; these require recognizing that there
are values inherent in Nature, and thinking, speaking and acting ecocentrically.
Persons support this platform from a number of different ultimate philosophies
or religions.
Ecocentric refers to a value system and attitude that humans are only part of
larger ecological processes and systems. Natural and human communities are
folded into one another. We cannot avoid participation in these communities.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities 6
Our primary responsibility as Homo sapiens and moral agents is to take re-
sponsibility for ourselves. The environmental crisis is a result of collective and
personal failure in responsibility.
Ecological consciousness is sometimes contrasted with lack of ecological con-
sciousness, that is, behavior and thought which ignores ecological realities and
has no sense of participating the larger context of place. The ultimate aim of
the environmental movement, say many, is to develop ecological consciousness
so that our social and cultural life manifest ecosophy, that is, ecological harmo-
ny and wisdom. Ecological consciousness can take many forms, just as there
are many forms of ecosophy.
Ecosophy literally means the wisdom of the household place. It implies the
wisdom to dwell harmoniously and nondestructively in a place. It involves being
receptive and responsive to the needs of a place and the wisdom that Nature has
enfolded into that place with its many beings, communities, and organizations.
Ecosophy can deepen throughout one’s life, and throughout a culture’s life.
The term was coined by Arne Naess to refer to ultimate philosophies based on
ecocentric values. There are many ecosophies.
Self-realization is a central concept in many philosophies, e.g. Gandhi’s, Spinoza’s
and also Arne Naess’ Ecosophy T. If the idea is understood broadly, it is found
in all major religions as part of the inner core of sacred, spiritual teachings.
Extension of identification is one way to practice expanding our capacity for
care and understanding. Then we spontaneously act in nonviolent ways that
are creative and cooperative, which help others to realize themselves. When we
extend our identification and realize our Ecological Self, we are transcending
identification with a smaller insecure ego self.
Notes
1. Alfred North Whitehead in Adventures of Ideas (1947) refers to the im-
portance of adventure for the promotion and preservation of civilization. He
writes, ”But, given the vigour of adventure, sooner or later the leap of imagina-
tion reaches beyond the safe limits of the epoch, and beyond the safe limits of
learned rules of taste. It then produces the dislocations and confusions marking
the advent of new ideals for civilized effort.” (p. 360).
2. Friluftsliv literally means, a way home to the open air. It denotes a relation-
ship with nature that involves meeting nature on nature’s terms, coming to know
nature as home. For more on this Norwegian phrase, see Reed and Rothenberg
(eds.), and also the article on page 93 in this issue of The Trumpeter.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
References
Cherryholmes, C. 1988. Power and Criticism: Post-structural Investigations in
Education. New York: Teacher’s College Press.
Fromm, E. 1963. The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays. London: Routledge
and Kegan.
McLaughlin, A. 1993. Regarding Nature, Industrialism and Deep Ecology. Al-
bany: State University of New York Press.
Reed, P. and Rothenberg, D. (eds.). 1993. Wisdom in the Open Air. Min-
neapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Roszak, T. 1972. Where the Wasteland Ends: Politics and Transcendence in
Post Industrial Society. New York: Doubleday.
Whitehead, A.N. 1947. Adventures of Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Citation Format
Duenkel, Nicky & Henderson, Bob (1997) Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological
Sensibilities Trumpeter: 14, 2. http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.2.1
Document generated from IXML by ICAAP conversion macros.
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Editorial: Educating Towards Deep Ecological Sensibilities

Jardine, David W.

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology,
Buddhism and Pedagogy
David W. Jardine
University of Calgary
All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology, Buddhism and
Pedagogy 2
DAVID JARDINE is in the Division of Teacher Preparation at
the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.
Transforming according to circumstances, meet all beings as your
ancestors. - Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157)
I
Just spotted a year old black bear crossing HWY. 66 at McLean Creek, heading
north.
From a distance, struggling at first to resolve its colour and lowness and lopey
canter into dog or cat likenesses as it stretched up to the side of the road and
across and suddenly slowed into distinctive roundhumpness...bear!
Stopped and watched him amble up the shalysteep creekedge. Wet. Greenglis-
tening. Breath arriving plumey in the damp and cold after days of heat waves...been
33 degrees C. and more for four days running in the foothills of the Rockies west
of Calgary. Here, roaming in the edge between prairie and forest, between flat-
lands and hills and mountains - here, when summers break, they tend to break
deeply.
Cold rain. Cold.
It is so thrilling to not be accustomed to this sort of experience, to have it
still be so pleasurable. Bear. His presence almost unbelievable, making this
whole place waver and tremble, making my assumptions and presumptions and
thoughts and tales of experiences in this place suddenly wonderfully irrelevant
and so much easier to write because of such irrelevance.
Bear’s making this whole place show its fragility and momentariness and serendip-
ities.
Bear’s making my own fragility and momentariness show.
That is what is most shocking. This unforeseeable happenstance of bear’s arrival
and my own happiness are oddly linked. This ”hap” (Weinsheimer 1987, p. 7-8)
hovering at the heart of the world.
My own life as serendipitous, despite my earnest plans. Giddy sensation, this.
Like little bellybreath tingles on downarcing childgiggle swingsets.
Felt in the tanden (Sekida 1975, p. 18-9, 66-67) in Walking Meditation (Nhat
Hanh 1995).
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology, Buddhism and
Pedagogy 3
Breath’s gutty basement. Nearby, the lowest Chakra tingles with an upspine
burst to whitesparkle brilliance just overhead and out in front of the forehead.
In moments like this, something flutters open. Shifting fields of relations bloom.
Wind stirs nothing. Not just my alertness and sudden attention, but the odd
sensation of knowing that these trees, this creek, this bear, are all already alert
to me in ways proper to each and despite my attention. Something flutters
open, beyond this centered self.
With the presence of this ambly bear, the whole of things arrives, flutteres open.
II
All Beings are your Ancestors. The feary sight of him, teaching me, reminding
me of forgotten shared ancestries, forgotten shared relations to Earth and Air
and Fire and Water. That strange little lesson having to be learned again:
that he has been here all along, cleaving this shared ancestry, cleaving this
shared Earth of ours, making and forming my life beyond my ”wanting and
doing,” (Gadamer 1989, p. xxviii), beyond my wakefulness and beyond my
remembering.
It is not so much that this bear is an ”other” (Shepard 1996), but that it is
a relative, that is most deeply transformative and alarming to my ecological
somnabulence and forgetfulness. It is not just that I might come awake and
start to remember these deep, Earthy relations.
It is also that, even if I don’t, they all still bear witness to my life.
Relations. Who would have thought? Coming across one of us that I had
forgotten.
Coming, therefore, across myself as also one of us. Such a funny thing to be
surprised about again. In the face of this Great Alert Being, I, again, become
one of us!
Great Alert Being, this bear. Great Teacher. His and my meaty bodies both
of the same ”flesh of the [Earth]” (Abrams 1996, p. 66-67), rapt in silent
conversations (p. 49).
Where, my god, have I been? And what have I been saying, betraying of myself
and my distraction?
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology, Buddhism and
Pedagogy 4
III
This bear ambles in the middle of all its Earthly relations to wind and sky and
rain and berries and roadsides and the eons of beings that helped hone that
creek edge to just those small pebbly falls under the weight of his paws:
Even the very tiniest thing, to the extent that it ’is,’ displays in
its act of being the whole web of circuminsessional interpenetration
that links all things together. (Nishitani 1982, p. 150)
The whole Earth conspires to make just these simple events just exactly like
this:
Within each dust mote is vast abundance. (Hongzhi 1991, p. 14).
This is the odd butterfly effect (Glieck 1987, p. 17) fluttering in the stomach.
This, too, is the profound complication of all beings that is part of ecological
mindfulness - that each being is implicated in the whole of things and, if we are
able to experience it from the belly, from each being a deep relatedness to all
beings can be unfolded, can be understood, can be felt, can be adored, can be
praised in prayerful grace, a giving thanks (Snyder 1990, p. 175-185). Lovely
intermingling of thinking and thanksgiving (Heidegger 1968).
So the thrill of seeing this bear is, in part, the exhilarating rush felt in seeing
it explode outwards, emptying itself into all its relations, and then retracting
to just that black bear, now an exquisite still-spot ambling at the center of all
things. And more!
The center is everywhere. Each and every thing becomes the center
of all things and, in that sense, becomes an absolute center. This is
the absolute uniqueness of things, their reality. (Nishitani 1982, p.
146)
Like breath exhaled outwards and then drawn in deep draughts. This inwardness
and outwardness of emptiness (Sanskrit: sunyata; Japanese: ku) - each thing is
its relatedness to all things, reflecting each in each in Indra’s Netted Jewels and
yet each thing is always just itself, irreplaceable. Smells of the forests of mid-
August and the sweetness of late summer wild flowers. Winey bloomy blush.
Intoxicating.
All Beings are your Ancestors.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
IV
Hey, bear!
If we are to meet all beings as our ancestors, we must also meet all those very
same beings as our descendants. This odd, fluid, difficult, shifting edge point
between the ancestors and the descendants is where our humanity lives.
This is ”the empty field” (Hongzhi 1991) that opens and embraces.
It is also the lifespot of teaching and learning and transmission and transforma-
tion.
There are many Great Teachers.
All praise to bear and his subtle gift.
Bragg Creek, Alberta, August 8-10, 1997
References
Gadamer, H. G. (1989). Truth and Method. Second Revised Edition, New
York: Crossroad Books.
Glieck, J. (1987). Chaos: The Making of a New Science. New York: Penguin
Books.
Heidegger, M. (1968). What is Called Thinking?. New York: Harper and Row.
Hongzhi. Z. (1991). Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of
Zen Master Hongzhi. T. D. Leighton & Wu, Y. trans. San Francisco: North
Point Press.
Nhat, H. (1995). The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation.
Berkeley: Parallax Press.
Nishitani, K. (1982). Religion and nothingness. Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press.
Shepard, P. (1996). The Others: How Animals Made Us Human. Washington,
D.C.: Island Press.
Snyder, G. (1990). The Practice of the Wild. San Francisco: North Point Press.
Weinsheimer, J. (1987). Gadamer’s Hermeneutics. New Haven: Yale University
Press.
All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology, Buddhism and
Pedagogy 6
Citation Format
Jardine, David W. (1997) All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology,
Buddhism and Pedagogy Trumpeter: 14, 3. http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.3.4
Document generated from IXML by ICAAP conversion macros.
See the ICAAP web site or software repository for details
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter


All Beings are Your Ancestors: A Bear Sutra on Ecology, Buddhism and Pedagogy

Glasser, Harold

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction /
Arne Naess Biography
Harold Glasser
Trumpeter
Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess Biography 2
Arne Naess is one of the most important contributors to philosophical thought
in the twentieth century. He has received many international prizes for his
contributions, including the Nordic from the Swedish Academy (1996), the Ma-
hatma Gandhi Prize for Non-violent Peace (1994), and the Sonning Prize for
contributions to European culture (1977), yet his work as a whole - because of
its inaccessibility - has remained largely unappreciated outside Scandinavia.
The Selected Works of Arne Naess (SWAN) is a project dedicated to bringing the
full scope of Arne Naess’s philosophical contributions to the English-language
audience. Naess’s work is currently being revised and edited by Harold Glass-
er, who has worked closely with Naess over the last six years and who served
as a visiting Fulbright Professor at Oslo University in 1996. A nine-volume
set, prepared under Glasser’s direction, will be published by Kluwer Academic
Publishers in early 1999.
Arne Dekke Eide Naess was born near the city of Oslo in 1912.1 He stud-
ied philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy at Oslo University, the Sorbonne,
and the University of Vienna. While in Vienna, he worked with Dr. Edward
Hitschmann, a noted collaborator of Freud, and was welcomed at the famous
Schlick Seminar by the members of the Vienna Circle. He received his Ph.D. at
24 and went on to perform postdoctoral research in learning theory with E.C.
Tolman in Berkeley (1937 – 1938). Upon returning to Oslo, he was appointed
to the University of Oslos chair of philosophy at the age of 27. He occupied
this chair until 1969 when, at the pinnacle of his philosophical career, he sought
early retirement to devote himself more fully to ecological issues and activism.
Naess has commented that this effort to be more engaged in social conflicts
reflects his desire ”to live rather than function.”
Naess’s long philosophical career is punctuated by two main periods. Prior to
1970 he was largely known for his contributions to academic philosophy, but
after 1970 he received wide attention from the environmental community for his
contributions to ecophilosophy and the deep ecology movement. By making the
evolution of Naesss oeuvre available to the English-language audience for the
first time, the SWAN allows these ostensibly disparate contributions to be seen
as a unified and coherent whole.
Naess has had a profound influence on Norwegian philosophy and social research.
From 1939 – 1954 he was the only professor of philosophy in Norway. He was
chiefly responsible for organizing the courses for the examen philosophicum,
required of all undergraduates. His unique paradigm of inquiry, emphasizing
pluralism and open-mindedness, a vital concern for contemporary social and
political problems, and a thorough grounding in philosophy and the history of
ideas, shaped the intellectual fabric of postwar Norway. Naess is credited with
rekindling the study of philosophy in Norway and with forming the Oslo school
of philosophy. The section on Scandinavian philosophy in the Encyclopedia of
Philosophy elaborates:2
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess Biography 3
The philosophical milieu in Norway today [circa 1967] is determined
by an internationally known and original philosopher (who is also
a famous mountain climber), Arne Naess.... Naess ... is the orig-
inator of a radical type of empirical semantics and the leader of
the so-called Oslo group.... The empirical methods applied by the
Oslo group employ carefully worked-out questionnaires. By the help
of such questionnaires and by teamwork, philosophers of the Oslo
group have carried out investigations of such expressions as ”truth,”
”democracy,” and ”private enterprise.”... If it is correct that Nor-
wegian philosophy has had a dead3 period, it is equally correct to
assert that, primarily because of Arne Naess, Norwegian philosophy
is now in the middle of a period of life and growth.
When asked to comment on this passage, Naess was emphatic about inserting an
addenda to the last sentence.4 He was proud to convey that contemporary Nor-
wegian philosophers pursue a wide variety of directions and employ a diversity
of approaches, many independent of Naess’s own line.
Naess’s contributions to philosophy extend well beyond Norway. He has made
significant scholarly advances in: the philosophy of science, empirical semantics,
scepticism, the study of Gandhi and Spinoza, peace studies, the study of democ-
racy, and environmental philosophy (in part, as founder of the ”deep ecology
movement”). As an example, from 1949 – 1950 he was the scientific leader of a
UNESCO project established to examine the nature of ideological controversies
between the ”East and West.” The project culminated in an empirical explo-
ration of the various uses of the term democracy since antiquity. This empirical
study stressed the term’s richness, diversity, and multiplicity of meanings - in-
cluding its use in the Soviet Union - inciting detractors in both the East and
West. According to Naess, ”The resulting volume5, edited by R. McKeon and
S. Rokkan, was promptly sold out and never reprinted by UNESCO due to the
politically dangerous character of its items.”6
In the 1970’s, philosophy was still influenced by the events of World War II.
Heidegger’s flirtation with National Socialism and the Hitler regime, and his
unusual way of expressing himself, made it difficult for him to be considered a
great philosopher. Naess’s book on four contemporary philosophers7 was seen
as unique because he interpreted in a scholarly and positive way both Heidegger
and the fiercely anti-Heidegger philosopher, Rudolph Carnap, a logical empiri-
cist. Carnap, who was forced to flee Nazi Germany, could not fathom how Naess,
as an old friend, could present positive discussions of Heidegger and himself in
the same book. The two other philosophers included in the book, Wittgenstein
and Sartre, also had completely incompatible views of philosophy, but Naess
accorded them equally high positive appreciation.
Today, Naess is perhaps best known for his characterization of the ”deep, long
range” and ”shallow” ecology movements.8 He views the shallow movement as
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess Biography 4
having a tendency to pursue Band-Aid measures that ultimately fail to address
the philosophical, social, and political roots of the ecological crisis. The deep
ecology movement stresses the importance of addressing the fundamental roots
and coevolving causes of the ecological crisis. Naess’s reputation within the in-
ternational environmental community results, only in part, from his trenchant
analysis of environmental conflicts. His activities often go well beyond arm-
chair theorizing to active, nonviolent participation in environmental conflicts.
Naess’s 1976 classic, &#216kologi, Samfunn og Livsstil (Ecology, Communi-
ty, and Lifestyle), which emphasizes the role of individual responsibility and
activism in resolving the global environmental crisis, has been translated into
Swedish, English, Italian, Japanese, and German (forthcoming).
When Denmark decided to institute its version of the Nobel Prize, the ”Sonning
Prize,” Naess was one of the first to receive it, in 1977, for his contributions to
European culture.9 He donated the considerable sum of 200,000 Danish Crowns
that accompanied the prize to Amnesty International and other humanitari-
an organizations. Naess’s social concern, sense of wonder, intensity, humor,
thoughtful criticism, and playful nature have all contributed to his success at
numerous academic posts around the world. He is to this day, at 85, a frequen-
t international speaker. Naess is the founder and past editor of the influential
journal Inquiry and a past editor of Synthese. He is the author of more than 400
publications in Norwegian, English, German, and French and has been honored
by five festschrifts, one each, on the occasions of his 70th,10 80th,11 82nd,12
birthdays and two on his 85th13 birthday.
About the SWAN Project
The SWAN project represents an attempt to bring the full spectrum of Naess’s
most important scholarly contributions to the English-language audience. The
series will consist of ten books in nine volumes and encompass approximately
3,000 pages. It will be by no means an exhaustive compilation of all of Naesss
work;14 but will, simply, through careful selection, offer a representative and
relatively comprehensive collection of a prolific philosopher’s principal writings.
As such, the series will be the definitive collection chronicling the development
and progression of Naess’s thinking for scholars, students, and critics alike.
Naess is a phenomenally productive philosopher who is constantly creating, re-
vising, and re-revising manuscripts. Many of his publications have never been
available in English (two major translations were commissioned for this project),
many others are out of print, and a substantial number of articles have never
even been published. Major works will be presented as single volumes (although
two smaller works will be bound together). Each volume will contain a general
introduction to the series by Naess and Glasser and a volume-specific intro-
duction by Glasser, discussing the work’s main contributions, relevance, and
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess Biography 5
relationship to Naess’s oeuvre. In addition, each volume, including those previ-
ously released, will undergo substantial revision and editing to improve clarity
and to meet contemporary standards in philosophical publishing.
The SWAN will also include a volume of selected papers. This volume will
be of particular importance to scholars because many of Naess’s papers have
been, until now, inaccessible in obscure and hard-to-find journals. In addition,
because Naess has been so prolific, many of his most important papers still
remain unpublished. The most significant of these papers will also be included
in the Selected Papers volume.
Finally, the SWAN will include a survey volume by the series editor, Harold
Glasser. This volume, prepared from dialogues between Naess and Glasser,
which were conducted over a six-year period, will present a comprehensive in-
troduction to Naesss deep ecology approach to ecophilosophy as well as link
Naess’s philosophical work to his work on ecophilosophy. To facilitate scholarly
research, this volume will also contain a complete and up-to-date bibliography
of Naess’s English (mostly) publications. In addition, a comprehensive index
for the entire series of volumes will also be available.
SWAN Contents
• Volume I: Science as Behavior
• Volume II: Interpretation and Preciseness: A Contribution to the Theory
of Communicative Action
• Volume III: Scepticism
• Volume IV: Which World Is the Real World
• Volume V: The Pluralist and Possibilist Aspect of the Scientific Enterprise
• Volume VI: Gandhi and Group Conflict: An Exploration of Satyagraha
• Volume VII: Communication and Argument Freedom, Emotion, and Self-
Subsistence: The Structure of a Central Part of Spinoza’s Ethics.
• Volume VIII: Selected Papers: 1936 – 1996
• Volume IX: Stones Philosopher: Dialogues with Arne Naess
Notes
1. For additional biographical information see:
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess Biography 6
Fox, Warwick. ”Arne Naess: A Biographical Sketch.” Trumpeter 9 (1992): 45
– 49.
Fox, Warwick. Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations
for Environmentalism. Boston and London: Shambhala, 1990.
Rothenberg, David. ”The Life of Arne Naess: From Mountaintop to the Depths
of Ecology.” In Environmental Ethics: Discourse and Cultural Traditions. A
Festschrift to Arne Naess, ed. Rana P.B. Singh. Varanasi, India: The National
Geographic Society of India, 1993: 13-23.
For an autobiographical discussion of Naesss philosophical development, see:
Naess, Arne. ”How My Philosophy Seemed to Develop.” In Philosophers on
Their Own Work, ed. Andre Mercier and Maja Svilar. Bern: Peter Lang, 1983:
209-26.
2. Hartnack, Justus. ”Scandinavian Philosophy.” In The Encyclopedia of Phi-
losophy, ed. Paul Edwards, volume 7. New York: Macmillan, 1967, p. 301.
3. From about 1845 to 1910 Norway was dominated by Hegelianism. This period
is often referred to as the ”dead period” of Norwegian philosophy, not because
of Hegelianism, but because it was characterized by a dearth in publishing.
4.. Personal communication, 4/30/97.
5. McKeon, Richard and Stein Rokkan, eds. Democracy in a World of Tensions.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951. Naess was the Scientific Leader of
the UNESCO project; he was only credited as being the author of the question-
naire itself and the summary paper, although he was intimately involved with
the project at all levels.
6. Naess, 1983, p. 223.
7. Naess, Arne. Four Modern Philosophers: Carnap, Wittgenstein, Heidegger,
Sartre. Translated by Alastair Hannay. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1968.
8. Naess, Arne. ”The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement.
A Summary.” Inquiry 16 (1973): 95 – 100.
9. Unfortunately for the Danish initiative, it was revealed that the sponsor of
the prize, Sonning, may not have amassed his great fortune in a decent way.
Denmark eventually dismantled the institution.
10. Gullv&#224;g, Ingemund and Jon Wetlesen, ed. In Sceptical Wonder: In-
quiries into the Philosophy of Arne Naess on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday.
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1982.
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
11. Drengson, Alan, ed. The Long-Range Deep Ecology Movement and Arne
Naess, Special Edition of The Trumpeter 9 (Spring 1992).
12. Singh, Rana P.B., ed. Environmental Ethics and the Power of Place:
Festschrift to Arne Naess. Varanasi, India: National Geographical Journal of
India, 1994.
13. Witoszek, Nina and Andrew Brennan, eds. Philosophical Dialogues: Arne
Naess and the Progress of Ecophilosophy. Oslo: Centre for Development and the
Environment, 1997 and Light, Andrew and David Rothenberg, special eds. Arne
Naess’s Environmental Thought, Special Edition of Inquiry 39 (June) 1996.
14. Space and time limitations prevent us from including many of Naess’s
interesting and important works in the SWAN collection. A few of these include:
Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy. Translated and
revised by David Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
This highly influential book is not included in the SWAN because it is widely
available and still in print.
Filosofiens Historie I: Fra Oldtiden til Renessansen (History of Philosophy).
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1980a and Filosofiens Historie II: Fra Renessansen
til v&#224;r Tid (History of Philosophy). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1980b.
This is Naess’s attempt to offer a nondidactic, integrated overview of Eastern
and Western philosophy.
Galtung, Johan and Arne Naess. Gandhis Politiske Etikk (Gandhi’s Political
Ethics). 2nd edition, 1968. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum, 1955.
Four Modern Philosophers: Carnap, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Sartre. Translat-
ed by Alastair Hannay. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.
Note: This account of SWAN comes from the Foundation for Deep Ecology.
Citation Format
Glasser, Harold (1997) Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess
Biography Trumpeter: 14, 3. http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.3.14
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Selected Works of Arne Naess: SWAN Introduction / Arne Naess Biography

Orton, David

Trumpeter (1997)
ISSN: 0832-6193
In Memory of Richard Sylvan
David Orton
Trumpeter
In Memory of Richard Sylvan 2
I was deeply saddened to learn that Richard Sylvan, the Australian deep ecol-
ogist, philosopher and forestry activist died on June 16th in Bali, Indonesia.
There was a memorial gathering on June 24th in Canberra, Australia. He was
buried, his wife Louise wrote to me in a July 9th letter, in the manner that he
wished: ”without ceremony, at the edge of one of the forests he cherished and
overlooking the sea. I’ll plant the tree to grow beside his grave in the spring.”
I first contacted Richard in 1987 because of reading some negative comments
about a 1985 Australian National University publication by him called . Critique
of Deep Ecology. At the time I thought, this sounds like an interesting fellow
to be so savagely criticized. I made the initial contact to obtain the publication
for myself to read. Richard’s strict philosophical writing was incomprehensible
to me. Over the years we exchanged many publications and letters. We shared
a critical deep ecology perspective and a concern with how to apply this to
subvert the industrial world. He called his work ”Deep Green Theory”. Despite
promises rung out of him from me, he never produced the ”primer” of his
ideas for activists interested in theoretical questions, which I felt was necessary.
He intellectually inspired me although we differed politically. Richard was an
anarchist and did not share my pro-socialist sentiments. We never personally
met or even spoke on the telephone. His letters were extremely difficult to
read because of his hand writing. It was always a major task to decipher what
Richard was saying. But the effort was always worth while.
Richard Sylvan had a sharp mind, a sharp tongue and was never afraid to
give unpopular views. His was the major inside critical voice pointing out the
philosophical fuzziness of much writing on deep ecology. The opening paragraph
of his Critique described deep ecology as ”a conceptual bog” which was ”well
on the way to becoming all things to all interested parties.” Perhaps because of
this criticism, he seemed to be excluded from the mutual appreciation ”club”
of deep ecology academics.
Richard changed his name from ”Routley” to Sylvan. Under his former name,
with Val Routley, The Fight for the Forests: the takeover of Australian forests
for pines, sood chips, and intensive forestry, second edition, was published in
1974, by the Australian National University. Fortunate was the North American
forestry activist who came across this book.
The issues raised in The Fight, showed an extensive and detailed knowledge
of Australian forests and wildlife, and the timber industry. But perhaps more
importantly, the theoretical perspective was helpful to forestry activists every-
where and became part of my own world view. Namely:
• The most fundamental conflicts in forestry are over values, not facts: ”how
do we use the forests?”;
• Forestry interests want to maximize wood consumption;
• Forestry interests are opposed to any magnitude of forest preservation;
Copyright 1999 Trumpeter
• Clearcutting, which has a commercial advantage, is defended as a biolog-
ical necessity;
• Needed are a new environmental ethics and an associated environmental
economics;
• The prevailing forest ideology, maximum wood production, is part of a
larger developmental industrial ideology;
• Industrial forest ecology has as its aim to justify as ecologically sound
those methods producing maximum quantities of wood; etc
While unknown to many ecocentric activists in Canada and the United States, I
regarded Richard as the leading critical voice within the deep ecology movement.
He was very intellectually productive and there are many publications. Two
recent books are (with D.Bennett), The Greening of Ethics, 1994, White Horse
Press; and Deep Pluralism, 1994, University of Edinburgh Press. His work
remains, but I will really miss him. My warm condolences to Richard Sylvan’s
family in Australia.
David Orton
July 17, 1996
Citation Format
Orton, David (1997) In Memory of Richard Sylvan Trumpeter: 14, 1.
http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.1.15
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