This from the Los Angeles Times web site:
Arne Naess, Norwegian philosopher, dies at 96
Naess coined the term 'deep ecology' to indicate that humans are no more
important than other species, ecosystems or natural processes.
By Patricia Sullivan
January 26, 2009
Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term "deep ecology" to
indicate that humans are no more important than other species, ecosystems or
natural processes, died Jan. 12 in Oslo. He was 96.
Naess founded the deep ecology movement in 1973 after years of environmental
activism and thinking.
Deep ecology says the living environment as a whole has the same right as
humans do to flourish. In contrast, "shallow ecology" fixes on short-term
technological answers to environmental concerns. Although the two ideas can
coexist, Naess argued that only a "deep" transformation of modern society
can head off ecological ruin.
The philosophy drew adherents as diverse as the radical Earth First!
activists of the late 1980s and Douglas Tomkins, co-founder of the Esprit
clothing line.
The ideas of deep ecology quickly became foundational, absorbed into the
thinking of activists and policymakers, said Andrew Light, director for
global ethics at George Mason University and a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress.
"Naess presented us with a way of approaching problems that will continue to
be used in environmental work," Light said. "That is, look for the real
origins of environmental problems and not just their surface impact."
For example, a deep ecologist would clean up a pond because plants and
animals deserve a pristine habitat and the woods should be allowed to evolve
at their own rate. A shallow ecologist would preserve the pond so his
children have a place to swim and the watershed quality improves.
Naess urged deep ecologists to work with those who didn't completely share
their worldview, often noting "the frontier is long."
Born in Oslo on Jan. 27, 1912, Arne Dekke Eide Naess did undergraduate work
at the Sorbonne in Paris and graduate work at the University of Vienna, UC
Berkeley and the University of Oslo, where he received his doctorate in
philosophy in 1938. The next year, he became the university's youngest
professor and made the history of ideas a prerequisite for all academic
specialties.
An outdoorsman from a young age, he led the first expedition to conquer the
25,000-foot Pakistan mountain Tirich Mir in 1954 and led another Norwegian
expedition up the mountain in 1964.
He wrote many books on communication and was among the first to use
statistical methods and questionnaires to survey philosophical beliefs.
During World War II, he joined the Norwegian resistance and helped avert the
shipment of students to German concentration camps. During the 1960s, he
became involved in environmental activism and was once arrested for
nonviolent civil disobedience at a waterfall where a dam was planned. He
also wrote a manual to help activists who were involved in nonviolent
protests. In 1958, he founded an interdisciplinary journal of philosophy
called Inquiry.
He retired from his university job in 1970 and began examining humanity's
relationship with nature. Inspired by environmentalist Rachel Carson, Indian
philosopher of nonviolence Mahatma Gandhi and metaphysician Baruch Spinoza,
he argued that all living things have value independent of their usefulness
to others, but he rejected the kind of individualism that leads to
selfishness toward other beings and nature.
He later amended the philosophy, and deep ecology became a collection of
eight basic principles, which valued life in all forms, asserted that
diversity is a value in itself and required those who agreed to work for
change.
In a 1995 interview for a documentary film about him, "The Call of the
Mountain," he described himself as a short-range pessimist and a long-range
optimist.
"I am, to the astonishment of certain journalists, an optimist," he said.
"But then I add, I am an optimist about the 22nd century. And they say: 'Oh,
you mean the 21st . . . ' 'No, 22nd century!' I think that in the 21st
century, we have to go through very bad times and it will hurt even rich
countries. Now it is all sailing smoothly -- but it will hurt the rich."
Sullivan is a writer for the Washington Post, where this story first
appeared.