The “Eight-point Deep Ecology Platform” I took in its idealism of spirit rather than the assessing the implications of implementing it from a social perspective, which would clearly be problematic.  I think as a platform, it offers a respectful, nature oriented approach, moving towards balance and emphasizing social and ecological responsibility.  It contextualizes humankind as being an integral part of the world and not being superior. This is the type of mindset we need in order to preserve the planet and life.

My favorite part of the Platform is #7:  “The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of inherent worth) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living.  There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great.”

I really appreciated John’s concerns about how this vision would actually be implemented from a social policy perspective and how problematic and oppressive it could be.  Cely brought up a good point about the important of using a vision to socially motivate people, but not to enforce it from a social policy perspective.

The Strength and fragility of Ecosystems:  Ecosystems are inextricably linked…if you “pull a string on one end of the web, you’ll find it’s attached to everything else”  …. The reverberation is felt in the entire system.  Ecosystems are strong because there is a strong relationship and interrelationship, which supplies stability and a strong interconnected network so that there’s not a single point of failure.  They are also very resilient and adaptable.  They change, grow and morph … essentially they evolve to survive. The interconnectedness of all things, also makes it vulnerable because even a small action can have a larger rippling effect.

The “end goals” of Social Ecology:  The end goals are to deeply value life forms of all types, ecosystems, and processes in nature and to re-establish our relationship with the environment.  I think it seeks to improve both the quality of human life and its environment.  Its goals are to ensure that the various political, economic, legal and social institutions and policies are used to make ethical and socially responsible ecological decisions because they are so impactful to the overall “social ecology”.  Its goals are transformation of social and ecological systems towards new socially/ecologically responsible patterns and of production, reproduction and consciousness.  Most simply, its goals are to make society (individuals and groups) more socially aware of our role in the environment.  Its goals are to evolve consciousness.