NYC - Staten Island - Sailors' Snug Harbor: Staten Island Botanic Gardens by Wally Gobetz licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
This unit introduces students to an eco-centric view of nature, emphasizing our connection to the earth and the imperative to respect and honor its principles. We will explore this through our relationship with food and food production. Putting students in touch with this interconnection is essential as many students, living in inner cities, are removed from this phenomenon. Students will analyze passages from Emerson and Thoreau relative to the concept of deep ecology, which more than two centuries later reflects its tenets. This unit ends with a trip to a local, inner-city park, so students can meditate on nature, reflecting on what they learned.
Supplemental
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s views about nature can be seen as aligned to Deep Ecology principles. Among his many writings he illustrates the point that nature is not just there for us to exploit, as anthropocentrists believe. Emerson has us question our view of nature, for instance, when he writes: “Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts?” Life, he is relaying, has its own value, not just what value we assign to it.
Likewise, Henry David Thoreau is in sync with Deep Ecology principles, such as confirming that what offerings nature brings to fruition for us are not designed to be made in expedited fashion. He notes: “Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by perseverance.”
Choosing one passage from Emerson and one from Thoreau, analyze how these passages are in sync with (or aligned to) one or more principles of Deep Ecology.