Developing Ecological Consciousness: Becoming Fully Human

233 Pages·2020·6.204 MB·English

by  Christopher Uhl, Jennifer Anderson

Praise for the third edition of
Developing Ecological Consciousness
“A field guide to our deep connection to earth, a story of why we need to care,
and an invitation to walk the path towards healing the planet and ourselves.”
—Doug Wentzel, senior naturalist,
Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center
“As a student of the humanities and an advocate for human rights, I’ve never
considered myself an ‘environmentalist’ or ‘eco’-anything. So an ecological
textbook that begins with a quote from Vaclav Havel, and even makes room
for poetry and religion, has my undivided attention. Indeed, if I’d read this
book in college, I might have understood far earlier what that ecologist and
radical abolitionist Henry Thoreau taught me years later—that we are all of
us ‘part and parcel of Nature.’”
—Wen Stephenson, author of What We’re Fighting for Now Is
Each Other: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Justice
“In this thoroughly revised edition of Developing Ecological Consciousness,
Christopher Uhl helps us answer one of the most critical questions of our
time, ‘What gives you hope?’ While Uhl’s own answers are both wise and
heartfelt, the essential contribution of this book is the guidance it gives read-
ers in developing their own answers. Viewed as a ‘guidebook for hope,’ this
should be required reading for anyone, from university faculty with their
students to parents with their children, trying to discern, or reimagine, what
it could mean to be fully human in these precarious and purposeful times.”
—Jeffrey Gerwing, Portland State University
“Developing Ecological Consciousness is a sober, empowering, learned, and
impassioned guide that summons us back to the fullness of our shared
humanity. It is an agent of activation, helping us shake off the inertia we com-
monly feel when pitted against the monumental scale of our ecological crisis.
It helps us understand what the crisis is specifically asking of us: to disentan-
gle ourselves from the outmoded paradigms of thinking we are schooled in,
from the half-life of stale relationships, from the narrow anxieties that bind
us, and grow into a fully awakened relationship with the natural world. Full
of surprises, this book brilliantly illuminates what I believe to be the only way
we can move forward. Read it, and feel your life being enriched.”
—Philip Shepherd, author of Radical Wholeness
and New Self, New World

DEVELOPING
ECOLOGICAL
CONSCIOUSNESS
Becoming Fully Human
THIRD EDITION
CHRISTOPHER UHL
JENNIFER ANDERSON
with
FOREWORD BY LAURA E. HAKE
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Executive Editor: Nancy Roberts
Editorial Assistant: Courtney Packard
Higher Education Channel Manager: Jonathan Raeder
Credits and acknowledgments for material borrowed from other sources, and reproduced with
permission, appear on the appropriate pages within the text.
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2021 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
First edition 2003. Second edition 2013.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written
permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Uhl, Christopher, 1949– author.
Title: Developing ecological consciousness : becoming fully human / Christopher Uhl, Penn
State University with Jennifer Anderson.
Description: Third edition. | Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2020] | Revised edition of :
Developing ecological consciousness : the end of separation / Christopher Uhl. Second
edition. [2013] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Rather than
working through a list of environmental problems, it aims to help students awake to the awe
and wonder of our planet, begin to understand some of the challenges facing it, and explore
possibilities for action and change”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019043729 (print) | LCCN 2019043730 (ebook) | ISBN
9781538116685 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538116692 (paperback) | ISBN 9781538116708
(epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Ecology. | Sustainable development. | Restoration ecology. | Ecological
assessment (Biology)
Classification: LCC QH541 .U44 2020 (print) | LCC QH541 (ebook) | DDC 577—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043729
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043730
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
To all of us born into these tumultuous times.
May we turn toward life.

Contents
Foreword by Laura E. Hake xi
Preface to the Third Edition xv
Acknowledgments xix
About the Authors xxi
Part I Earth, Our Home 1
1
Humility: We Are a Part of Something Greater
Than Ourselves 5
Foundation 1.1: The Origins and Workings of the Universe 6
Foundation 1.2: Origins and Workings of the Solar System 11
Stepping Back to See the Big Picture 15
But What about God? 16
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 17
Applications and Practices: Cultivating Humility 18
Questions for Reflection 21
2
Curiosity and Connection: Seeing the World
with New Eyes 23
Foundation 2.1: Nature All Around Us 24
Foundation 2.2: Nature Within Us 32
Stepping Back to See a Bigger Picture 36
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 38
Applications and Practices: Cultivating Curiosity
and Connection 39
Questions for Reflection 41
vii
viii Contents
3
Intimacy: Belonging to Earth 43
Foundation 3.1: We Belong to Earth 43
Foundation 3.2: Experiencing Ourselves in Life’s Web 51
Stepping Back to See the Big Picture 58
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 59
Applications and Practices: Intimacy with Earth 60
Questions for Reflection 61
Part II Assessing the Health of Earth 63
4
Listening: Gauging the Health of Earth 65
Foundation 4.1: Listening to Earth’s Sky and Land Creatures 66
Foundation 4.2: Listening to Earth’s Ocean Creatures 71
Stepping Back to Feel the Big Picture 78
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 80
Applications and Practices: Listening 82
Questions for Reflection 85
5
Courage: Facing Up to the Unraveling
of the Biosphere 87
Foundation 5.1: Climate Out of Control? 88
Foundation 5.2: Jeopardizing Earth’s Natural Capital 98
Stepping Back to See the Big Picture 105
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 106
Applications and Practices: Courage 107
Questions for Reflection 110
6
Living the Questions: Discovering the Causes
of Earth Breakdown 111
Foundation 6.1: Humans—Too Many, Too Much? 112
Foundation 6.2: First-Person Ecology: Our Ecological Footprint 120
Contents ix
Stepping Back to See the Big Picture 123
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 125
Applications and Practices: Living the Questions 127
Questions for Reflection 131
Part III Healing Ourselves, Healing Earth 133
7
The Old Story: Economism and Separation 135
Foundation 7.1: A Story Rooted in Separation? 136
Foundation 7.2: The Price of Economism 142
Stepping Back to See the Big Picture 149
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 151
Applications and Practices: The Power of Story 152
Questions for Reflection 155
8
Birthing a New Story: The Great Turning 157
Foundation 8.1: Seeing with New Eyes 158
Foundation 8.2: A New Story 164
Stepping Back to See the Big Picture 171
Wrap-Up: Expanding Ecological Consciousness 174
Applications and Practices: Awakening 175
Questions for Reflection 178
Epilogue 179
Notes 183
Index 203