During this week’s readings, ecospirituality is an idea that really stood out to me. Particularly the excerpt we read from Ecotopia contained several very interesting ideas. We are living in an increasingly artificial world with our reliance on technology to provide knowledge, entertain us, and keep in touch with others. Ecospirituality seems to oppose this idea, and I think that at the heart of ecospirituality is a belief the inherent ‘realness’ of the natural world. It is easy for me to subscribe to this idea, as I definitely feel a sense of connection when immersed in areas away from human intervention. Humans have created amazing things with technology and can replicate human or nature-like qualities, but, according to ecospirituality, there seems to be a divide between that which has a biological vs. technological origin.
Of course there were some problems with Ecotopian society depicted as well, mostly stemming from the fact that it is a closed off utopian society unconcerned with the issues of the rest of the world. Relying on nature would not stop poverty, racism/sexism, or any of the other myriad of complex political, social, and economic issues of the world. Being closed off to world in a utopian society is clearly not a practical solution for anything, and we as a society need technology in our lives now. So while ecospirtuality may not bring solutions for the changing world we are facing, it still provides values that I believe to be increasingly important as we enter this digital age. It reminds us to keep the notion of nature alive in our thoughts, lest it be forgotten.
Ecospirituality is also interesting in its relation to classic environmental thought. It is an idea that has existed for thousands of years (if not longer) and ideas of ecospirituality are evident in most ancient religions around the world. It is only under the advent of the Judeo-Christian rule that has seemed to push a more anthropocentric view on the world, and especially with the exciting innovation of industrialism, ecospirituality seems to have been treated unimportant if not forgotten before classic environmental thought came around. Ideas of ‘Limits to Growth’ and ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ do not necessarily subscribe to any ecospiritual ideals, but they both share a concern for the state of our earth. Later on, the idea of sustainability provides a solution, albeit perhaps not entirely practical, to the issues raised by LTG and TotC. At the same time sustainability suggests ecospiritual ideas of taking only what we can replenish. Ecospiritual ideas have now become significantly more common thanks the environmentalism movement, and I am glad for it.