December 17, 2015 - 14:08
Sasha Moiseyev-Foster
ESEM: Changing Our Stories
Professor J. Cohen
December 17, 2015
Ecological Intelligence: Balancing Self and Community
The current crisis regarding the changes we’ve wrought in our planet’s atmosphere will result in major shifts in our collective relationship with the environment. This is an inevitability; our world has been so drastically altered by our activities that over the course of the next couple centuries, our ways of life will have to change monumentally if we hope for them (and ourselves) to survive. We will have to shift to a new pattern of thought: ecological intelligence.
Ecological intelligence, to me, mean the ability to incorporate forethought seamlessly into impressions of the present, and give long-term consequences equal weight and attention as to short term gain. It means putting a greater amount of thought into the ways in which we influence each other, and the ways in which we are influenced by others’ actions within our communities, both local and global. The current mode of thought favors the short-term benefits of actions, with the presumption that whatever negative effects are produced will be rectified by future generations. The primary problem with that presumption is that it allows every generation to act recklessly with no regard for future generations, without fixing the issues created by the previous generation, the result of which being that nothing ever gets fixed, and problems stack atop one another until they are unfixable. Ecological intelligence, by valuing future consequences as highly as present benefits and consequences, ensures that there are no assumptions of a future fix that never actually occurs, preventing disasters such as the current climate crisis. However, other people have different definitions of “ecological intelligence.”
In his article “Agency in the Time of the Anthropocene,” Bruno Latour laments our current idealization of individuality, and claims that we should abandon it in favor of prizing the good of the community above all else. Similarly, in their book “The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future,” Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway portray a future totalitarian government’s view of the past, with the members of the future society praising conformity above all else. However, despite the need for a more community-based ideal for conduct in combating the effects of climate change, I strongly disagree with all three authors. While valuing individualism over the impacts one’s actions have on others is highly detrimental to society at large, I also firmly believe that the other extreme is just as bad. With the adulation of community over self at all cost comes a devaluing of the worth of the individual, and deeply limits if not eliminates the ability to dissent against a harmful majority opinion. Mob rule is just as, if not worse than, prizing one’s own comfort and wellbeing over others’. Instead, ecological intelligence requires a balance between the needs and desires of the individual and the overall wellbeing of the community. This connection with the community is like the difference between the statements “I am a part of this community” and “I am defined as a person by my role and usefulness within this community.”
So how would one go about teaching this duality in a way that makes sense? I believe it can be simplified to a lesson most children are taught very young: respect for other’s belongings and ideas. While some children are unfortunately taught from a young age that they are entitled to other’s possessions, not required to share with their peers, and that their opinion is more important than other’s opinions and feelings (which frequently carries over into their actions in adult life), even more are taught that it’s important to consider other people’s feelings about your actions, and that you should make an effort to share with your peers. If the environment is classified as “someone else’s possession” that has been loaned to us, it creates a sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of our environment that otherwise would be classified as “mine to do with however I want, and someone else’s problem to deal with.” If the environment belongs to future generations, then it’s our duty to care for it in their stead. It’s a family heirloom that never falls into the possession of a tangible descendant.
To me, ecological intelligence is the ability to consider the future in the same way we do the present, as if all negative consequences derived from present activity for short-term gain would happen in the next hour rather than many years in the future. This intelligence requires people to consider the environment as not only an extension of themselves, but also as the possession of future generations leant to them for the present. By doing so, we can balance the needs and desires of individuals with the overall wellbeing of our global community.
Works Cited:
Latour, Bruno. "Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene." New Literary History 45, 1 (Winter 2014): 1-18.
Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.