Evasion of Global Warming S. Lourdunathan

8/12/2019 Evasion of Global Warming S. Lourdunathan

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Evasion of Global Warming:

A Human Responsibility with an Ethical Challenge

S. Lourdunathan

Paper presented at Sacred Heart Seminary, Poonamallee, in the Symposium on Global Warming on 14

-15the September 2!"Head, #ept" o$ Philosophy, %rul %nandar &%utonomous' (ollege, )arumathur" *-mail+lourdunathanyahoo"com

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Crisis-context: A call for fresh worl outloo!

.he causes o$ global /arming are multiple and ho/e0er the present paper does not

attempt to sur0ey on the scienti$ic and technocratic rationale $or global /arming"

only aim at the philosophical $oundations that continue to en$orce an undue relation

o0er nature and thereby augment $or an alternate outloo that is ecologically

sustainable" hold that many o$ our philosophical traditions both the *uropean and

the ndian, are not su$$iciently ecosophical, hence the ecological de0astation is only

an e$$ect o$ the primary cause that is our /orld outloos that shape our relation /ith

nature" .he causal connection or the in0ariable relation bet/een our /orld outloos

and global /arming hence /ill be established in this paper as to $oster the necessary

ethical relation /ith nature to a0ert en0ironmental crisis such as global /arming"

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% report by $rom 3S *n0ironmental Protection %gency &( *, 6arch 2!, 1787 p"22'

assert that global /arming, 9%n ncon0enient .ruth: is mainly caused by human

energy use and production" .he acti0ity percent contribution to global /arming due

to *nergy 3se and Production is 5!;, by chloro$luorocarbons is 1!;, by

agricultural practices is 14; and changes in land use is 7; and other industrial

acti0ities is actory /astes ills the $auna and $lora o$ the ocean,

pollutes the atmosphere /ith asphy=iating gases, and /ipes out the natural

procedures o$ o=ygen" .he de0eloped countries rob the periphery e0en o$ its o=ygen?

%$ter all, they consume more than they produce@the gigantic ecological collapse

looms" .he time dra/s near /hen, as i$ by an act o$ cosmic 0engeance, nature /ill

e=terminate the species homo $rom the $ace o$ planet" ne=tricably intert/ined /ith

the sin o$ economic and political inAustice, the sin o$ human domination is the 0ery

death o$ nature" %nd yet, as /e no/, the one /ho grasps $or the s/ord, dies by the

s/ord:"1 n other /ords, the maAor cause o$ global /arming is due to the pro$it

oriented human inter0entions /ith nature and the practice o$ cultural domination"

Global /arming as an important aspect o$ ecological crisis, ser0es as a catalyst to

ree=amine our 0alue systems" t is both a challenge and an opportunity $or us to

rethin our relationship /ith natureBen0ironment, by 9rein0enting the human at the

species le0el:2"

"hilosophies of omination over #ature

n many o$ our paradigms thining or philosophies both secular and unsecular, there e=ist

a Austi$ication o$ grammar $or the practice o$ subAugationBdomination o$ ature by the

human" .ae $or instance most Gree paradigms o$ thining in the Cuest $or ultimate

nature o$ the uni0erse, has committed and strongly communicated the erroneous message

o$ singular $undamental reality as against the e=istences o$ pluralities o$ reality" .hey

either succumb to material or the spiritual as only $undamental entity or hence tend to

1*nriCue #ussel, Philosophy o$ Diberation, &Erbis Foos, 6arynoll, e/ or" 177' p"178

2Dester Fro/n et al", State of the world 1993: World Watch nstitute eport on Progress .o/ard a

Sustainable Society&e/ or+ orton, 177


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strongly suggest the idea that the-e0erything-o$-the plural needs to be sCueeIed into their

ontological structures o$ thought" .hey miss the idea that there can be a pluralities o$

realities, and the re0erence $or ature in its multiplicity seriously remain buried or

unconscious" .he idea o$ monolithic oneness is suicidal o$ the idea o$ respect $or

multiplicity" .heir philosophy most o$ten treat the e=istences in an order o$ undue

hierarchy /herein ature is o$ten pushed to the last category o$ e=istence by /hich the

due /orth and signi$icance o$ ature is either trespassed or subordinated" .he ele0ation

the Eneness o$ the Spiritual or 6aterial simultaneously construe the practice o$

depression o$ ature as the Ether to be absorbed or e=ploited" .he Primacy o$ the Spirit

in our thining diplomatically construes the dismiss-ability o$ ature, as Ether, as

3ntouchable, as non-spiritual and hence something secondary and 0ulnerable $or the

sel$ish-interests o$ the human"

Plato $or e=ample, by treating the reality o$ /orld as copy-/orld, the natural /orld

reduces it to a sense o$ unreality non-ideal and there by secondaryJ Sanara:s $rame o$

thought in his non-dualism spell out a serious sense o$ the denial o$ the reality o$ the

/orld and it deems the /orld as locus o$ ignoranceJ something o$ the nature o$ 6aya,

/hich is po/er$ul enough $or delusion and ignorance" Such is the ignoramus o$ these

patterns o$ thining" .he cogito ergo sumo$ #escartes uphold the central certainty o$

human ego by reducing the Ether, namely the material /orld, to mere e=tension and

thereby to human e=ploitation" .he e=istentialist thining o$ Sartre reduces the cosmic

e=istence to human e=istence" .he cultural lens o$ such and many other paradigms o$

thought is in0ested /ith the Austi$ication o$ e=ploitation o$ nature" .hus both nature and

human culture remains subAugated by $ello/ humans" *nriCue #ussel in his Philosophy

of Liberation and inEthics and Community 3e=poses us the logic o$ domination bet/een

6an &K' and ature &'" He argues that bet/een K and , /hen K is historically,

culturally and philosophically concei0edBpatterned to be superior to , then K

appropriates and assumes and Austi$ies the po/er o$ playing

superiorBdominatorBe=ploitatorBauthoritarianBhierarchically primary o0er " .his means

that the po/erless is at the monopoly o$ the dominant K resulting in a social #ar/inist


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morality, according to /hich the e=istence o$ is meant $or the primacy o$ K, the

stronger and the $ittest $or sur0i0al" .he usability and the perishabililty o$ is 9good:

&illegality o$ goodness' in order that the Stronger &K' sur0i0es" .he /ea is conditioned

to ser0e the stronger and the rei$ication, cruci$ication and annihilation o$ the /eaer ones

is meant $or glori$ication, dei$ication and 0oluptuous e=istence o$ the dominant" Global

/arming, the crisis o$ dimension o$ our en0ironment, is but predominantly the result o$

greediest human &K' domination Binter0ention o0er the annihilation o$ ature" Eur

inability to deem nature as embodiment o$ spirit &personhood' /ith all our dominant

philosophical tendencies imposes such e=teriority o$ en0ironment" .he $oundations $or

en0ironmental disaster lie in our attitudes, 0alues, perceptions, and cultural /orld0ie/s

that construe the practice o$ subAugation radically"

$he %acets of $ransition

.he /orld0ie/s associated /ith industrial and technological $acets o$ de0elopments

permit us to/ards the e=ploitation and destruction o$ the en0ironment" .he /orld0ie/s

that upheld the thining that human is the primacy and thereby in0ested /ith the po/er

o$ domination o0er nature impulse the illing o$ the li$e-/orld" .his means that the

e=isting /orld outloos, cultural paradigms, scientic and technological ad0ances are

inadeCuate to deal /ith this ecological catastrophe" Eur /orld0ie/s and 0alues,

perceptions, scienti$ic no/-ho/s, permitted us to establish an e=ploitati0e relation /ith

nature B en0ironment and there by disabling the li$e o$ ecosystem resulting in the increase

o$ global /arming" Global /arming does not ha0e any national or cultural or social

boundaries" ts destruction spells on the entire biospheric li$e-systems" Such a crisis-

situation calls into Cuestion our mode o$ adaptationBrelation to the natural /orld"

n our concern about global /arming, belie0e, /e are $undamentally in0ol0ed in

seeing a /orld0ie/&s' /hose ethical $oundations ought to be deeply ecosophical than

merely human-logical" We need to understand that the androcentric, anthropocentric,

e0en god-centric and positi0ist-technocratic /orld0ie/s or paradigms are ethically

incapable o$ responding to en0ironmental crisis and that they lac ecological ethics" .his

means that /e need to be non-human centric &non-anthropocentric' and non-androcentric,

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non-positi0istic, and non-technocratic, in our perceptions and attitudes to li$e by /ay o$

critically re-looing into our e=isting 0alue-systems be that o$ secular or unsecular" We

need to transit $rom our established patterns o$ rationalities and actualities to/ards a deep

ecological /ays o$ li0ing" We need to shi$t $rom the notion o$ instrumental 0alue and

e=trinsic 0alue &0alue $or others' to the notion o$ intrinsic 0alue o$ natureBen0ironment"

&%""Whitehead'" We ought to reorient our understanding o$ our sel$J /e ha0e to shi$t

$rom 9indi0idual sel$: to socialBcultural sel$ and $rom social sel$ to a sense o$ ecological

sel0es" .he /ritings o$ Dynn White, Lr", %rnold .oynbee argue that monotheistic

religions /ith their monolithic moral theologies ha0e only created an ontological

hierarchy among God, 6an and ature, robbing the animistic 0ie/ that nature is spirit-

personi$ied, and thus rendering the idea that nature is someho/ corrupt, remote to any

transcendent deity, secular and there$ore not su$$iciently sacred and 9gi0en: to the utility

o$ 6an the best o$ creation" 6a= Weber:s Protestantism elaborates the $act that the

de0elopment o$ e=ploitati0e capitalism has ended in desacraliIation o$ ature resulting in

materialistic and mechanistic tendency namely nature is non-person there$ore a resource

$or human pro$it ends" 4

.he mechanistic-enlightenment rationality e=tended as technocratic rationality in the late

modern age is dubious in the sense that by claiming human progress and de0elopment it

has only caused the su$$ering o$ the EtherJ the Ether here include the 0ulnerable ones

namely the *n0ironment and the People /ho are 0ulnerable to e=ploitation and

destruction" Fy late 17thcentury human ind has sel$-con0inced itsel$ that -)no/ledge is

Po/er &>rancis Facon', historical ine0itability o$ human progress &%ugust (omte' and

humaniIation o$ nature &)arl 6ar=' leading to Social #ar/inism and there by the

estrangement o$ humans $rom nature" Fut then, We need to understand that such

mechanical philosophy o$ that o$ e/ton, Galileo and #escartes that de0ised a

machnomorphic/orld-outloo is erroneous and the e0ents o$ eco-disasters gi0e /ay $or

a rene/ed understanding that the planet earth is no more a machine $or human

appropriation but a li0ing organism /here in li$e is sel$-generati0e &autopoeitic'"

4alph 6etIner, he !ge of Ecology, &esurgence o"147, o0-#ec 1771'

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.he *arth, instead o$ an inert body o$ dead matter as seen by Lames Do0eloc and Dynn

6argulis, is a ind o$ superorganism, e0ol0ing in homeostatic reciprocal interaction

bet/een li0ing organisms and the physicochemical en0ironment"5 .he challenge o$

Nuantum physics /ith its uncertainty principle, the theory o$ pluralistic relati0ity in many

our systems o$ thought, and the idea that 9truth is culturally construed &postmodern

0ersion' etc gi0e /ay $or a ne/er understanding o$ reality in /hich reality is understood

in terms o$ nested relationality &holarchy'" .he atomistic conception o$ reality is seriously

$alsi$ied and e=change $or the 0ie/ that reality is not monolithic but multiple, multile0el

and comple= interactions o$ phenomena" 9.he conCuest o$ ature: e0angeliIed by

positi0ist epistemology has resulted in anthropocentric morality /hose root is the

subAugation o$ nature, and by e=tension the subAugation o$ the po/erless nations and its

people is seriously eroded in the $acet o$ the emerging en0ironmental ethics" .he ethic o$

deep ecology propel biocentric 0alues /here in humans are seen as part o$ nature not as

masters o$ 6other ature and that li0ing systems ha0e their intrinsic 0alues in

themsel0es" We need to realiIed that appropriation o$ nature $or human-ends

un$ortunately ends up /ith annihilation o$ e0ery li$e in the planet and that include

primarily the li0ing-/orld o$ the poor and by e=tension the li$e o$ e0ery other persons"

$he Ethic of Ecology & A Human Response-ability

alph 6etIner con0incingly maps the 0arious dimensions o$ transition $rom industrial

age to ecological age in his article entitled, *merging *cological World Oie/" He calls

$or an alternate attitudes and 0alue systems+ .he scienti$ic paradigms that consider

uni0erse as machine, earth as inert matter, li$e as random chemistry, deterministic, and

atomistic and linear has to be e=changed $or the ecological 0ie/ that earth is organismic,

uni0erse as process-story, earth as Gaia, li$e as inter-dependent, holistic and non-linearJ

the epistemology o$ rationalism, dualism, and mechanism, logical positi0ism,

operationalism, reductionism, etc has to be replaced by a pluralistic and relati0istic sense

o$ epistemology namely o$ that o$ critical realism, deconstructi0ism $or continuous

reconstructi0ism and pluralism" .he role o$ human concei0ed as conCueror o$ nature, the

dominator o$ nature, his ego-centric indi0idualism, his tactics o$ resource management

5 Lames Do0eloc, .he %ges o$ G%%+ % Fiography o$ Eur Di0ing *arth &e/ or+ orton, 1788'

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etc has to be tra0ersed to reconsider himsel$Bhersel$ as a li0ing being as part o$ nature, co-

e0olutionary, symbiotic and as part and parcel o$ a plurality o$ sel0esJ in the plane o$

morality human has to shi$t $rom anthropocentric and androcentric attitude to/ards

biocentric re0ie/s by considering nature in its o/n /orth ha0ing intrinsic 0alue" .he

Cuestion o$ economic de0elopment in terms o$ hegemonic monolithic maret economy

has to be e=changed $or the realiIation o$ community-based economics in0ested /ith the

idea o$ ecosystems sustainabilityJ the pro$it dri0en technologies, addiction to $ossil $uels,

mono-cultural and consumerist tendencies has to be eroded and the practice o$

appropriate so$t technologies, reliance on rene/ables that restore ecosystems need to be

replaced"M

.he ethics o$ ecology is basically a human response-ability to deconstruct our dubious

cultural and metaphysical and moral constructs by replacing it /ith ecological

sensibilities" t is to become conscious o$ our dubious moral $oundations and

practices because humans are specially endo/ed /ith a special sense o$

consciousness and re$lecti0ity o$ hisBher en0ironment" t is an attempt to e=pose and

deny the logic and practices o$ domination and inAustice &sin$ulness' that is

inherently $ibered in our /ays o$ thining and social li$e, thus it is a Cuestion

socialBcosmic Austice" .he destruction o$ ature and the practice o$ the $orms o$

cultural domination are interrelated" Hence response to global /arming is by its

inclusion a reAection o$ the modes o$ cultural dominations" ealiIation that humans

are ecologically conditioned compels the reorientation that /e ought not to be

indi0idualistically egoistic but patterned in a community o$ sel0es as ethical human

persons"

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Malph 6etIner,Emerging Ecological "orld#iewin World0ie/s and *cology", ed, .ucer Lohn %

Grim, Erbis Foos, e/ or 177


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Evasion of Global Warming S. Lourdunathan