“The crisis is at root one of perception; we no longer see the cosmos as alive, nor do we any longer recognise that we are inseperable from the whole of nature, and from our earth as a living being. But there is hope, for as the crisis deepens, the call of anima mundi intensifies.”
Stephan Harding, ‘Animate Earth‘
Tucked down a leafy lane in the Devon countryside in the UK is an extraordinary educational Centre – Schumacher College, part of the Dartington Hall Trust. Here they offer an Msc in Holistic Science – a ‘hard’ science degree grounded in the ecological philosophy that is the Gaia Principle, or theory.
This principle (in a nutshell) is that the planet is a vast living interconnected system, not the dead, mechanical object that many 19th and 20th Century philosophers and scientists in the West have based their ideas upon.
Stephan Harding is the co-coordinator of that Msc, resident ecologist, teacher on the short course programme that the college runs (and on which I have been fortunate to experience his formal & informal teaching style), and author of this recent book, ‘Animate Earth’, which is the fruit of his teaching and personal experience.
Ecotour Iran
All of us are aware of the high cost of energy these days, as well as the adverse ecological effects of using fossil fuels like petroleum and coal to run the coastal power plants that supply our electricity in Israel.
This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I have felt so conflicted about.