deep ecology

Noun

deep ecology (uncountable)

1. An ecological and environmental philosophy that advocates the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs.
   • Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centered. It views humans as above our outside of nature, as the source of all value, and ascribes only instrumental, or “use,” value to nature. Deep ecology does not separate humans—or anything else—from the natural environment.1996, Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 7
   • In the early 1970s, after three decades teaching philosophy at the University of Oslo, Mr. Naess (pronounced Ness), an enthusiastic mountain climber and an admirer of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” threw himself into environmental work and developed a theory that he called deep ecology.[2009 January 15, William Grimes, “Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, Dies at 96”, in The New York Times, →ISSN