Page 68 - ECOlogic Book

Spirit Rising
(Spring, 1993)

It was only five years prior to this writing, in 1988, that a watershed in
ecological consciousness took place. It was the year of Time Magazines’
blockbuster cover story, “Endangered Earth,” with National Geographic, Life,
and a number of other major national publications following soon after. No
longer regarded as a tenet of belief held by the lunatic fringe, the
“mainstream” began to take the environmental crisis seriously. TV specials
on environmental problems became commonplace that year. The family that
lives down the street began to demand a recycling program. Ecoloical books
proliferated, and the term “deep ecology” became a catch-phrase, though
few were aware then of the full implications of it.

Before that time, Thomas Berry and other ecological speakers had left
audiences catatonic with the “bad news” most were hearing for the first
time. But by late 1988, Berry began to say that we, as a culture, had
passed over a threshold in consciousness. He (and others) began to take
hope in more than just their own “madness.” It became apparent that
environmentalism was catching on.

I believe we are in the midst of another such watershed. 1992-93 is another
threshold crossing. This is the year of our beginning to understand and
integrate the spiritual dimensions of the environmental crisis. The same
barometer that was used 1985 is available now: mainstream publications.
The November 30, 1992 issue of U.S News and World Report’s cover story
was “Living With Nature: A Modern Darwin Explores Our Love of the Wild,”
inspired by the work of biologist E. O Wilson, known to some as the “Bard of
Biodiversity.” U. S. News writes: “Wilson contends that human beings
inherit a tendency to feel an affinity and awe for living things, the same way
we are pre-disposed to be territorial or protect our young at all costs. And
when we destroy the natural world we “court spiritual disaster.”

Other publications are following suit. Time Magazine’s December, 1992
cover story, “What Does Science Tell Us About God?” is augmented by an
unusually thoughtful editorial, “The world is Not a Theme park,” written in
defense of the Alaskan wolf:
. . . that struggle will be won or lost closer to home,
within human beings themselves. To progress from
nature’s despoiler to its custodian, we must first
redefine our place in – not over – nature, accept
the role of resident rather than architect and resist

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