Ecology as a concept

DEFINITION: Interdisciplinary scientific study of the interactions among organisms and their environments

The concept of ecology covers many broad areas of importance, including life processes that help to explain adaptation, which remains a central unifying principle of ecology; the broad distribution and abundance of organisms supported by radiation from the sun; the successful development of robust ecosystems; and the abundance and distribution of biodiversity across the environment.

The global sum of ecosystems is known as the biosphere, and this is where ecological theory has been used to explain regulatory phenomena at the planetary scale. One of the best-known holistic theories to explain this is the Gaia hypothesis, as developed by the late James Lovelock. Lovelock’s thesis, like Aldo Leopold’s seminal “land ethic,” affirms that the together with its atmospheric forms a single entity or natural system.

Ecology crosses between many disciplines, including ecophysiology, the study of how physiological functions of organisms influence the way they interact with the environment; ecomechanics, which uses physics and engineering principles to examine the interactions of organisms with their environment and with other species; behavioral ecology, which examines the role of behavior in enabling a species to adapt to its environment; ecology, or synecology, which explores the interrelationships among species within ecological communities; and ecology, which is concerned with the flows of energy and matter through the components of the ecosystem.

Light Versus

Ecology that tends to take a “managerial” approach to the environment, with the status quo almost implicitly accepted, is sometimes characterized as light ecology, in contrast with deep ecology, which is considered to be more progressive if somewhat abstract and idealistic. The founding father of deep ecology, Arne Naess, considered it as having fundamental ethical implications and going beyond the transformation of technology and politics to a transformation of humanity.

Contradictory positions between light and dark can initially be reconciled through a focus on the seminal writings of the twentieth century environmental guru Aldo Leopold. He wrote of how the land ethic rests on a single unifying premise: “that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.” Leopold’s vision served to enlarge the boundaries of community to include soils, water, plants, and animals. Especially since Leopold’s writings were rediscovered during the 1960s, his land ethic thesis has become a central tenet of environmental thinking, and the symbiotic relationship he proposes between human beings and nature has remained the dominant orthodoxy across much ecological thinking.

Philosophical theories of the value of nature and ecology that cut across these deep and shallow divisions can be grouped into three broad categories: anthropocentrism, inherentism, and ecocentrism. Anthropocentrism recognizes nature and ecology in all its manifestations primarily as a resource that simply contributes to human value and can be used in whatever way is beneficial to human beings, as masters of their ecological environment. Inherentism recognizes that the very concept of value is innately human; thus, this philosophical notion remains at odds with the tenets of deep ecology. Ecocentrism, in contrast, aims to challenge all ideas that suggest that human beings are somehow exempt from the natural processes and natural laws within which all other animals have to live.

It may be stating the obvious to observe that modern societies are based on anthropocentric principles, but unless this view is challenged, ecocentrists assert, ecological and environmental problems will not be solved. Ecocentrists argue that societies have to move toward a more earth-centered approach, which puts nature first. They point out the hidden social processes underlying developed societies’ comfortable lifestyles and the price paid in damage to the natural environment as a result. Some go so far as to suggest, as Philip W. Sutton has, that the Western world in particular is suffering from the “disease of over-consumption.” Furthermore, ecocentrists use the well-known theories of German sociologist Ulrich Beck regarding management, together with the Gaia hypothesis and other holistic models, to help frame current ecological thinking about the pressing environmental dangers facing the planet, most notably global warming.

Bibliography

Chau, Nancy H. and Ravi Kanbur. "The Past, Present, and Future of Economic Development." BBVA Open Mind, 2022, www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/the-past-present-and-future-of-economic-development/. Accessed 16 July 2024.

Knight, Richard L., and Suzanne Riedel, eds. Aldo Leopold and the Ecological Conscience. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. 1949. Reprint. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Porritt, Jonathon. Seeing Green: The Politics of Ecology Explained. New York: Blackwell, 1984.

Sutton, Philip W. The Environment: A Sociological Introduction. Cambridge, England: Polity Press, 2007.

Taylor, Paul. Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.