Deep ecology

[12:29] 04/12/2002, Elina Alkova
http://engArticles.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=21759

Johanna Macy from California is sure that to save life on the planet it is necessary to change people's consciousness and make their thoughts safe in the first turn.

All evil comes out of them! As a guide to action - she offered the deep ecology, developed by her. Not long ago Johanna Macy's fans - deep ecology followers from Holland on invitation from Karaganda "EcoCentre" visited Southern capital, met the activists of the ecological movement of Kazakhstan. Deep ecology was welcomed ardently here.

Is this "homo" really "sapiens" or is he a fool?

The thought that we shouldn't destroy and pollute, to not build up again and cleanse afterwards - is as old as the world. However, the humanity follows the ways of destruction and pollution eternally. The eco-system of planet Earth cannot withstand such barbarity and little by little becomes disabled. When a global disaster comes, then not only rare species of birds, grass, animals, that are in the Red Book will disappear. The Human Being will disappear!

The prospect is quite fantastic (for rational people) and by far a remote one, but it is only at the first glance. In 1991 the scientists started talking about crises in the country (the then Soviet Union): political, economic, cultural, ideological and ecological. Since then all crises (apart from ecological) have had a dynamics of changes. The planet ecology only gets worse and worse. Today, whatever piece of nature you take, - problems everywhere. In Kazakhstan the ancient belt forests disappear, while Kostanai oblast swamps cannot be saved even by their national status awarded not long ago. Starting from 1979, the fish catch falls in the world. In relation with this the economists count their losses in dollars, and ecologists say that the eco-system - water - cannot be recovered by any means. It already can't recover itself, because the water pollution level is quite high. What's to be done in this case? How can we save water at least as it is now?

Deep ecology talks little about the cleansing systems and maximum permissible norms of pollution. About millions of dollars, needed to save forests and water ponds, it says nothing. It offers banalities. In particular to switch attention from a person him/herself, standing aside from the nature and worried about its future rescue, to him/herself, as directly suffering from a disaster. Because in the end of the day that's exactly how it looks like - air, water, grass die and the human being dies as well automatically. But it's not to so simple to accept this point of view for the majority of people. They are lacking "sapiens" strongly.

Council of all living beings

According to deep ecology there is no lifeless matter in the nature. A stone, a tree, a star, a butterfly, a blade of grass, a speck of dust - all can feel and think. And this is not just a philosophy of ancient druids or anthroposophists. Scientists already think the same. Once Frau Almut Kowalski, a free lecturer from a free University of Hannover, came to Almaty. She shared wonderful discoveries with Almaty residents. In the latter scientists made their tests with tree leaves. With the aid of their shots by the method of Chirlian they prove that between plucked leaves a connection is established based on mutualism and help. The leaf that has more energy, voluntarily gives it to those that are weaker and have less energy. The help is givn until the moment, when the leaf dies completely. On the photos it looks like a bridge of energy between the leaves. After that, how can one think that they are incapable of thinking!

Representatives of Kazakhstani eco-NGO had an opportunity not only to think about such a strange stuff as thinking leaves and flowers, but they lived through various natural states themselves: those of a stone, a mountain, a waterfall. "It was the most powerful sensation in my life. Real deep", - participants of the transformation training, which the deep ecology offer to people, said. Why transforming oneself? To understand the nature going through a disaster from inside. To be someone - means to understand the philosophy of the eco-system from inside. To feel the entirety, to comprehend connections. To make conclusions.

The deep ecology founders are sure that only such submersion into the depths of nature can change the human conscience. Nothing else would stop "the crown of nature" and teach him to be different. Only the empathy with the living matter changes conscience. A human being who learned to think like a mountain, who's got the same blood with an ant, will become originally ecological.

At the workshop on deep ecology the ecologists became such literally for two days. At least, when it came to the procedure, which was called "Council of all Beings", everybody could speak sincerely and in detail about the problems of the livig being that s/he represented. After that the feeling of responsibility for that particular piece has been registered on the subcortex for the rest of life.

The world of theory of living beings

American coaches, acquainting Kazakhstanis with the new ecology, brought Johanna Macy's book "Return to life". It contains - courses, exercises, meditations, training in deep ecology. It is a practical guide book, based on modern discoveries of science and ancient spiritual teachings. Take it and work! But is our society ready to act: in the sense of working with oneself, developing oneself, becoming better and not just saving the nature?

So far it was convenient for us to bring forward delirious ideas on how to save the nature and then accpt an impossibility of realising them due to the lack of finance. Say, you decided to breed a bio-worm eating garbage in the Southern capital as a test, but you can't find no money. Well - you just transfer the responsibility for all this garbage in the city to the one who hadn't given you money for that purpose, without blaming those who breed and produce that garbage. And now the deep ecology says that you have to take responsibility for all that's happening around. Moreover, start acting… with your head and all fibers of your soul. Eco-NGO, undoubtedly, are ready to live and work in compliance with the deep ecology. And the rest of the citizens of the country have gone very far from the nature and from themselves.

"We understand that, that's why we have organised NGO, to work with children, explain the laws of nature to the little Earth dwellers, - Tatjana Dubrovski, member of ecological movement "Tau" says, - personally, I see in this deep ecology a system of bringing up human beings. Already several years we work with school pupils, take children to the mountains, carry out actions, concluded an agreement with Ile-Alatau park about taking care of the nature by our own means. Our children already know more about the living world than the grown-ups".

That's true. Not long ago the eco-movement "Tau" held an unusual action of saving trres from ritual bands in the foothills. The adults somehow decided that if one ties a band into a nod on a tree, this poor tree would realise any fantastic wish. At the same time the branches tied by those nods stop budding and go dry. The tree dies. During the action kids untied those bands, releasing the trees from all the burden, imposed on them by the adults. And there was so much stuff on the trees: toilet paper, girls' bows, shoe lace, condoms, cuffs and so on and so forth (what a vulgarity…)

New model of life

Will the humanity die or not? Dee[ ecology coaches - foreigners Fred, Paloma and Ined say that a global disaster is a fatal inevitability. It's been 20 years that they carry out their workshops on deep ecology in Europe, Russia and Ukraine. Kazakhstan - is the first of Central Asian countries that decided to join the planet saving process not by means of conventions, but by means of its hearts, reason, will of every separate person.

Ecologists are sure that people are ready to find resources that will lead humanity to a tenacious model of existence. True, they will have to change their world outlook, see the invisible, expand their perception and take the interconnectedness of all living being on Earth for granted. Millions of people have already done that. For them their thought is substance. They work with their thought. And they confess that achieving the ecology of though is harder, than the ecology of a water well. For praxis, try it yourselves repeating any word chosen by yourselves inside yourselves over and over again. And you will hear what sort of chaos is there in your head. Parallel to that word there will be one thousand and one thoughts. And not all of them are going to be positive. This very chaos destroys our house - our body and our planetary house - our Earth.