Spiritual Ecology

Contemporary societies are confronted with a socio-ecological crisis. Thus, humans are facing a moral challenge, one where they have to adopt a new lifestyle in order to survive on a planet that no longer seems to be able to sustain itself for much longer.
So when something new is required of humankind, something new is required of religion…
This paper aims to explore other  possibilities on how ecological issues affect one's spirituality.

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The article proposes an interpretative study of Darren Aronofsky's film Noah. The film draws inspiration from various spiritual traditions ranging from shamanism to Buddhism, whilst relying heavily on Jewish midrash, and adds a layer of innovation. Our main assertion is that the film attempts to present three viewpoints on issues of religion, humanity, nature, and God-while negating two of them and preferring one. Each of the various characters and groups in the film represents one of the three stances, as the film's protagonist must cope with the problematic nature of his worldview and revisit it.
The film engages with current pivotal issues: climate change, the depletion of natural resources, materialism and hedonism, fundamentalism in both religious and environmental trends, suspicion of religious institutionalized interpretations, and gendered spiritual religious beliefs. Thus, the film Noah is a cultural product that disseminates spiritual ideas and values within mainstream culture.

Cet article est paru dans  :
Philippe HAMMAN (éd.), Ruralité, nature et environnement. Entre savoirs et imaginaires, Eres poche, 2017, p. 275-302.

L’ouvrage offre un état des lieux, à la fois large et synthétique, rétrospectif, d’actualité et prospectif, des rapports complexes entre rural, environnement et nature en promouvant un regard ancré dans les sciences sociales dont la sociologie et la géographie sociale.

L’ouvrage remet en question aussi bien une vision passéiste du rural (vu en soi comme conservatoire de traditions, de la nature, etc.) que la tentation de fin de l’histoire où le rural serait dissout dans un urbain généralisé. Il renouvelle ainsi conjointement les études rurales et d’environnement françaises à l’heure des appels au « développement durable ».

This article attempts to stretch the boundaries of the discourse of political economy, social theory, religious and Punjab studies by deploying the concept of spiritual economy in advancing the understanding of the politicoeconomic
dimensions of a key religious shrine in the Indian sub continent.
Amritsar’s Golden Temple as a holy shrine is known as a site of sacred pilgrimage in the cultural universe of many communities in the sub-continent and diaspora. This article expands on the religious significance of the Golden Temple by exploring the site also as an economic institution in the daily lives of many communities in the region. By capturing the exalted religious economic importance of the place, the article aims to add to the understanding of the site as a place of political contestation and of many conflicts in the history of the evolution of the Sikh community

This thesis examines the New Age spiritual movement in its relationship with Indigenous cultures. Indigenous spiritual traditions have been appropriated to support relevant New Age theories. It critiques New Age perceptions of Indigenous cultures as misinformed and argues this misinformation is proliferated through certain New Age practices. It argues that the New Age can achieve a sustaining, earth-based spiritual practice without resorting to the appropriation of Indigenous traditions. Neo-paganism holds many of the qualities that New Agers seek in Indigenous traditions and is a potential alternative avenue of spiritual solace to the appropriation of Indigenous culture. The embodiment of New Age goals can be understood within the context of environmental ethics philosophies. Alternative festivals that operate with a spiritual ethic are explored as evidence that the New Age can and in some areas, does operate in a positive, life-affirming manner. Importantly, the thesis argues that re-interpretation of Indigenous culture by the New Age is neither welcome nor necessary.

Em décadas recentes, uma nova temática vem adquirindo uma visibilidade crescente em fóruns mundiais sobre políticas de conservação da natureza – os sítios naturais sagrados (SNS). Reconhecidos em diversas partes do planeta, esses lugares encantados expressam valores espirituais ancestrais e a visão de sacralidade da natureza de vários grupos sociais, sendo considerados elos entre a diversidade biológica e cultural. O conhecimento sobre esse tema no Brasil, entretanto, é ainda limitado e as iniciativas de salvaguarda de SNS em políticas públicas nacionais são incipientes, especialmente considerando a expressiva riqueza natural, cultural e religiosa do país. Também são raras as referências ao contexto brasileiro na literatura especializada sobre o tema. Esse quadro instigou a formulação desta tese, delineada com o objetivo de compreender como os SNS e seus valores culturais e espirituais podem contribuir para inspirar a reconexão entre sociedade e natureza e o papel das áreas protegidas em contribuir nessa direção. Inserida no campo das Ciências Sociais e delineada como uma pesquisa qualitativa e exploratória, a investigação foi conduzida a partir da compilação e análise de um vasto referencial bibliográfico - impulsionada por uma estratégia de rede colaborativa de conhecimento - e da interpretação da percepção de interlocutores da gestão pública sobre o tema, complementada, ainda, por observação direta em eventos acadêmicos, vivências de campo e no exercício profissional da autora. Pautada em um referencial teórico interdisciplinar ancorado nos pressupostos da Psicossociologia e na Ecologia Social, a tese se baseia na noção de reencantamento do mundo para lançar um olhar sobre os SNS como elementos centrais para a construção de um novo paradigma de conservação da natureza. Ao longo dos capítulos, percorre-se um caminho que parte do panorama internacional de debate sobre o tema, passa por um levantamento exploratório dos SNS no Brasil e chega até a discussão das perspectivas de reconhecimento dessas áreas no contexto das políticas públicas nacionais e na gestão das áreas protegidas. Os resultados revelam que a recorrência desse fenômeno no território nacional e sua relevância social contrastam com a invisibilidade da problemática na gestão pública. Dentre as razões para esse quadro estão a visão positivista, cientificista e fragmentada da realidade que predomina na modernidade – que separa a razão da emoção, a cultura da natureza e a ciência da espiritualidade – e a colonialidade do pensamento estatal. Comprometida com uma abordagem crítica, ética e politicamente engajada, a tese busca compreender os conflitos socioambientais nas áreas protegidas como oportunidades para a emergência de novas estratégias de gestão criativas, integradoras e transformadoras, a partir da promoção da espiritualidade ecológica e de uma conservação com coração. Defende-se que nos significados ancestrais dos SNS podem estar as chaves para uma renovação de alianças que levem à implementação de políticas capazes de inspirar a reconexão entre sociedade e natureza, trilhando caminhos mais justos, belos e – por que não? – mais mágicos.

I am still on the first stretch of this nomadic exploration, but I think I can begin to answer the question that is guiding this exploration—'how can the Natural-Indigenous Worldview support our understandings of the potential for an anarchist society (i.e. for social order without hierarchical domination)?' The key of Natural-Indigenous Worldview that opens the lock of an anarchist society, of a society without hierarchical domination, comes in the Natural-Indigenous Worldview's spiritual ecology. When we develop the four R's (responsibility, reciprocity, respect, relationships [Young 2015]) through relating to the world in a manner that is facilitated by the spiritual ecology that rises from the Natural-Indigenous Worldview and thus ascribes spirit to all things without regard for the Colonial Modernist Worldview's distinction between 'animate' and 'inanimate', we come to see the world as a single, living, conscious being. The illusion of a discrete distinction between self and other breaks down and we come to see the self (and other selves) as strands in the unified, conscious web of creation. We come to care for all of creation as we would care for our children, for our partners, for our parents and for our self. Transcending the illusion of discrete individuality we develop a lovingly reciprocal, responsible, respectful and relational orientation to the world that begets virtuous thought, feeling, behavior and being without recourse to hierarchical authority (to punishment and fear of punishment). Engaging with the world through the spiritual ecology that rises from the Natural-Indigenous Worldview allows the sprouts of human nature to grow to fruition without recourse to hierarchical domination (i.e. without recourse to attempts to 'help sprouts grow' by pulling on them and the death of the sprouts of human nature portended by such hierarchical folly [Meng Zi 2016, 2A2]).

Cultural competency has become a topic in recent years due to an increased globalized society and issues with inequality, bias, and a breakdown in intercultural communication (Mareno& Hart, 2014). When people are faced with cultural differences, they may experience uncomfortableness and may experience stages of egocentrism before developing into ethnorelativism (Bennett, 2012). Spiritual ecoliteracy provides purpose and meaning making in life learning through reading the world with the head, heart, hands, and spirit (Lees, 2017, 2021, 2021). In this article, we provide the elements of cultural competency and the methods used in ecoliteracy to increase cultural, spiritual, and ecological understandings. This article was a presentation on March 8 th , 2021 at the Global Collaborations in Science, Technology, Education,

Le catastrophisme né des enjeux écologiques peut-il être pensé comme apocalyptique ? Tel semble être le cas pour un réseau franco-suisse de « collapsologues » qui anticipent non pas la fin du monde mais la fin d’un monde ouvrant sur une nouvelle civilisation. Ils insistent sur la nécessité de mener une transformation intérieure, au croisement de l’écologie et des spiritualités alternatives, en explorant des pratiques de reconnexion à soi, au vivant et à la Terre associées au New Age. Cette écologie spirituelle peut en effet être interprétée comme une résurgence apocalyptique de ce courant, dont la dimension millénariste était présente dès l’origine.

"On the Mongolian grasslands, poetry is not only a way of describing landscapes but also a means of producing them through appeals to the world of spirits, gods, and ghosts. Exploring this magical ecology, Jessica Madison’s article analyzes how word-making and world-making are entangled for the people in Dariganga. In a landscape broken by decades of socialist ruination as well as by the numerous mining operations that have bloomed after the Mongolian mining boom in 2010, Madison argues that poetry, ovoo stone heaps, and musical performances are marshalled to hold the landscape together, to sing the landscape
into flatness in an increasingly vertical world. And yet this is not your classical instance of traditional resistance to modernity, Madison insists. For modernity in Mongolia is associated with the socialist past. In a very real sense, modernity has already come and gone. The current mining boom is also ambiguous. It benefits many Mongolians even as it destroys their world: mining is both life- and deathgiving.
Under these circumstances where neither past, present, nor future can be
taken for granted, poetry and the ritual ovoo stone heaps that seek to bring the world together are highly ambivalent practices. Madison calls them “strategic equivocations”: experimental spiritual designs to materialize a more-than-material landscape in a changing, uncertain world."
-Nils Bubant, Introduction to "Non-Secular Anthropocene"

Numerous indigenous religious traditions express connection between people and the spirit world, through specific powerful places on the landscape.  Such place-based spiritual perspective locates humans within networks of reciprocal relations with other living and non-living beings, and offers an avenue into examining the activity of nonhuman nature in shaping human perceptions and practices. A place-based view that locates spiritual beings in specific locations on the landscape shifts the understanding of nonhuman nature away from a utilitarian perspective that sees forests, rivers, and soils as natural resources to be used with maximal efficiency, and toward a more inclusive perspective that values aspects of the landscape beings, or homes of beings, with their own inherent values, purposes, meanings, and destinies.

In the eastern Himalaya, autochthonous deities, believed to be the original owners of the land, were not eradicated by Tibetan Buddhism but were incorporated into its pantheons and practices, creating a mechanism that mediates the relationships and strengthens the connections between people to their landscapes.  The beliefs and practices of Tibetan Buddhists of Bhutan engage with specific places on the landscape to create and nurture the habits of mind that recognize forests, soil, rivers, mountains, and wildlife as beings worthy of respect. The prohibitions and requirements of autochthonous deities have shaped human settlement, land use patterns, and local custom, as well as the placement of religious structures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted on repeated visits to Bhutan between 2001 and 2008, I show how religion shapes the landscape in Tibetan Buddhist parts of Bhutan by dictating land uses and proscriptions in certain sites.  Spiritual and religious perceptions shape the landscape through (1) land use restrictions that may prohibit agriculture, trespass, resource collection in places where deities are believed to live; (2) siting of religious monuments; and 3) prohibitions against construction that result from beliefs that deities reside in the land. 

Globalization is slowly and subtly shifting deity beliefs and associated practices on the landscape.  Increased interaction between Bhutan and with the world beyond the Himalayan and Tibetan regions is having the paradoxical consequence of increasing interest in sacred natural sites and spiritual landscapes, while intensifying the forces that jeopardize the cultural and ecological survival of these same landscapes.  Greater understanding of the geographic distribution and extent, ecological characteristics, and socio-economic aspects of the sacred natural sites could contribute to greater appreciation and protection of their cultural and ecological aspects, and could help shift ecological and geographical thinking toward a view that values the agency of non-human nature and the natural landscape.

Comunicação apresentada no webinário "O Espírito e a Terra", organizado pelo colectivo Irmânia, no dia 31 de Maio de 2020 - Domingo de Pentecostes, no qual também foi apresentada a comunicação "Império do Espírito Santo e Quinto Império: o Espírito que vem da Terra", por Paulo Borges.

There are two images of Sir. Patrick Geddes that have been received by subsequent generations, Geddes the Liberal and Geddes the Mystic. This paper examines the ways in which revived sensitivity to the wisdom and limitations of Geddes the Mystic may help facilitate the process of transforming human-nature relations and staving off the cultural and ecological genocide of Modernity.

Abstract
Undergraduate students lack the opportunity and environment to contemplate and develop ecoliteracy skills that serve to integrate subject matter into their everyday experiences. Ecoliteracy is grounded in Capra's web of life theoretical framework and represents students' capacities to read world systems objectively with their head, heart, hands, and spirit. Contemplative pedagogy provides educators with exercises that give students time to reflect on the integration of learning. Ecoliteracy and contemplative pedagogy research has shown little quantitative data pertaining to how contemplative pedagogy affects undergraduate student ecoliteracy. To address that gap, this causal-comparative study measured the use of contemplative pedagogy exercises relative to undergraduate student ecoliteracy. A convenience sample of 150 undergraduate students who did and did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises completed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale and Self-Compassion Scale Short Form. Independent-samples t tests measured the differences between the 2 groups. Findings indicated that students who did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises in the classroom were more likely to self-report higher ecoliteracy. A possible interpretation of these findings is that current contemplative pedagogy exercises may focus students' attention internally and not adequately promote the world-centered view that would more readily advance student ecoliteracy skills. Results of this study provide further insight that may inform professional development and contemplative pedagogy exercises that empowers students' ecoliteracy skills by encouraging critical thinking, action, and compassion towards positive social change.

Ancient Egyptians perceived the natural world as an extension of their human existence. Such a perspective affected their way of dealing with its resources. Harmony and respect prevailed in their dealing with their environment. This attitude continued to exist during the Coptic and Islamic eras. Daily life practices as well as arts reflected a relationship of intimacy with nature. Alas, the Egyptians lost that vision due to many elements, among which is related to the fact that they lost the ancient perception of integrating the human and natural world. A deeply religious perspective fashioned the ancient behavior and attitudes.

This dissertation follows the trajectory of fisheries management in British Columbia from a period prior to European contact when Aboriginal people encountered limits, learned to live within them and indeed enhance productivity of lands and waters. The diversity of ecological contexts and human experience created a rich diversity of eco-social-spiritual communities, sustained by the interweaving of scientific, economic, social, spiritual and aesthetic values. Since then, fisheries managed primarily for commodity value have depleted marine life, while the growth of other economic sectors has transformed ‘fisheries’ from a mainstay of culture and existence to a tiny fraction of BC’s economy as measured by GDP. Globally, depletion and chronic undervaluing have prompted leading marine scientists, conservationists and others to call for a sea or ocean ethic. A literature review reveals a strong public demand for inclusion of immeasurable values between the lines of the ecological economics literature and in declarations from leading scientists and world religions, but there is no coherent way to implement it. A research project using Q methodology indicates that the public demand for inclusion of a spiritual dimension holds for a wide cross-section of people engaged in the governance, management and use of BC’s marine environment. The dissertation outlines a concept of the secular sacred based on a spirituality of dedicated attention to relationships. Dedicated attention confers the knowledge to enhance relationships that contribute to flourishing and unravel those that are destructive. The secular sacred can draw on the moral authority of science to report objectively on large-scale relationships, the moral authority of Aboriginal and local people at local scale, the moral authority of ordinary people committed to flourishing of people, species and places, the moral authority of religion in terms of gratitude, generosity, compassion, love and justice and the moral authority of artists who can represent complexity and tension and point ways to sustainability which words cannot. Drawing on multiple sources of knowledge and authority without belonging to any of them, the secular sacred opens the door to transformative change in and beyond British Columbia.

Might we understand these seemingly different ideas--so called primitive animist belief in a living, relational world versus more recent concepts like deep ecology, environmental ethics and nonhuman politics--as linked at a deeper epistemological level? What links these ideas, and what are the potential implications if we were to take these similarities seriously? This paper is an attempt to reengage with this question: Can the belief in a living, animate world gain a new political relevance for the twenty first century? My argument here is that taking these claims seriously does matter, and the political implications are quite deep and far reaching.

The principles that govern eco–spirituality were established between the 1960s and 1980s, coming from various currents and paradigms derived from the counterculture and the New Age movement, and its bases can be traced in philosophical currents of the 17th century such as pantheism and romanticism. On the one hand, eco–spirituality emerges as an academic, scientific and social discourse in pursuit of the construction of new alternatives in the face of the ecological crisis. On the other hand, it is constituted as a way to overcome the religious and spiritual
fragmentation of the post–industrial society of the 20th century: a path towards mystical and transcendental experience. This article examines the theoretical foundations of eco–spirituality and its implications.

Many of us are likely familiar with the phrase ‘faeries at the bottom of the garden.’ It is something that we might tell our children, encouraging them to go looking for the little-folk to keep them busy on a summer afternoon, while we bask in the sunshine. The notion might also conjure up thoughts of the infamous Cottingley photographs taken in the ‘beck’ at the bottom of a Yorkshire garden by two young girls, which were first popularised in Strand Magazine by Arthur Conan Doyle one hundred years ago (Cooper, 1997). Regardless of the veracity of the images (i.e. whether they captured real faeries or not), the Cottingley photographs nevertheless represent a continuation of a long-standing popular belief that faeries are associated with gardens and wild places

Since the beginnings of human culture the spirit of place, what the Romans called the Numina, have been honored and personified in myth, pilgimage, and religious practice.  This article by artist Lauren Raine looks at why that understanding is still important in todays world

Like social justice, ecological justice is dependent upon cosmological and ontological justice (i.e. upon just worldview[s]). We cannot conceptualize a just relationship with the rest of nature without recourse to our basic assumptions concerning the nature of reality, and we cannot attain justice in our relationships with the rest of nature if we do not properly understand our relationship with nature as facilitated by Spirit (the Nothing-Infinite Eternal [NIE]). Like liberal democracy, which sought to render hierarchical-domineering social relationships as sustainable through manufacturing the illusion of freedom and agency, liberal environmental sustainability discourses have often simply sought to render the hierarchical relationships with nature that are portended by the 'man's dominion over earth' (Genesis 1)/ 'deliverance through conquest and colonization' (Warrior 1989) ontologies from which colonial-modern western consciousness and its systems of oppression like capitalism/communism were birthed as 'sustainable'-the Archons all too often want to 'sustain' nature so that their offspring can be delivered into the Promised Land of patriarchal 'manhood' through conquest and colonization of nature; (Haraway 1989) they want to 'sustain' nature so that their offspring can extract wealth (i.e. power) from our mother earth for generations to come. At the root of the Colonial-Modernist incarnation of the 'man's dominion over earth'/ 'deliverance through conquest and colonization' discourse lies the reduction of reality to passing time and physical space, the denial of the spiritual nature of 'the other', the illusory distinction between animate and inanimate, etc. This paper seeks to explore the essential relationship between understanding the underlying spiritual ecology of nature and the potential for ecological justice (i.e. non-hierarchical sustainability).

In the 21st century, humanity has entered an era of a turbulent, globalised and politically awakened world of the Anthropocene where science clearly shows that we need a global energy transformation for a sustainable future. Science is fundamental and it seems that nobody even global leaders can deny its unquestionable proofs. It provides evidence-based directives that are helpful for humanity to safely navigate its way through a period of the novel, global challenges. Unfortunately, more recently, the future and our existence have been undermined since the prevailing structure of the international system is not fair towards the Earth. “The present system has been inducing states to comply with global norms in ways that actually exacerbate unsustainable development rather than sustainable development.” (Stevenson, 2012: 4). Recent cataclysmic weather events ranging from raging wildfires, torrential rains, widespread floods, devastating droughts, catastrophic earthquakes, crippling hurricanes and spectacular volcano eruptions show that Earth is ailing. Unfortunately, it seems that there is a limit of what human civilisation can do against the forces of nature. Science shows that there is a connection between climate change with its most visible signs such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, increasing weight of oceans, increased volcanic activity worldwide with human actions. Are these all not the signs that our planet is awakening? Undoubtedly, the living Earth or Gaia is an open system and it seems that it might be protesting against human actions that are evidently harmful to her. According to ancient beliefs, earth is a goddess, who can use her powers destructively or creatively (Toynbee, 1976: 290). Throughout history, climate has been variable, it has also impacted in various ways on the development of past civilisations what will be discussed in the paper. Up to 1950s, it could be argued that climate variations could be explained by natural factors. However, from the mid-century, the steep rise in temperature occurred, so it is clear that the most recent warming of the climate is due to human factors (Attenborough, 2006). Moreover, science has delivered numerous proofs that global warming is a result of human-induced climate change. Plus, some IR scholars argue that climate change is a global issue that is likely to exacerbate migration, civil unrest and even conflict. Realism states that it is a threat multiplier since it exists in the nexus of catastrophe, conflict and migration in the worst-case scenario leading to the global turmoil. Many prominent authorities in the world of science, such as Steven Hawking, point to the doomsday scenarios arguing that population rise, climate change and finite resources on Earth will result in life becoming increasingly dangerous on the planet. So the only way to preserve civilisation to build upon the progress made over the last century will be to look out to the rest of the galaxy. However, other scholars state that it might be incredibly difficult for humans to reach for the stars and colonise cosmos unless major, global problems will be first solved here, on Earth. Despite these opinions, as always, there is also a bright side to the problem. There were periods in the past when Earth’s climate has been relatively stable. Such conditions happened for the last 12,000 years. Such stability and reasonably balanced and mild climate without any major Ice Ages have been critical for the development of modern civilisation. Favourable climate conditions enabled humans to pursue agriculture, domesticate animals, settle down and develop culture and arts leading to the flourishing of civilisations and creative and splendid periods of Golden Ages. Space observations, astronomy combined with archaeology and climate science, give us valuable clues as to how ancient civilisations, like that of the Mayans and the Old Kingdom of Egypt, collapsed. Scientific evidence suggests that climate change and drought, in particular, has been at least partly responsible for the rise and fall of many ancient civilisations. This paper argues that stable way of life for present civlisation depends on a stable climate. Humanity must listen more carefully to the voice of our planet, living Earth or Gaia. Faced with a changing climate, we must learn the lessons of the past, study past civilisations, and simply adapt. The primary requirement is that civilisation builds just and responsible management of the global commons by overcoming the tragedy of the commons. This could be done when states commit to solving, or at least, understanding, and to some extent, wisely managing climate on Earth. Throughout centuries, science has been a reflection of our instinct for civilisational survival. In 1908, Svante Arrhenius argued that an increased greenhouse effect due to human activity would be a good thing, preventing a new Ice Age. At the time, he did not consider the risks of rising sea level and local disruption of agriculture. Today, humanity faces a choice: either to enact smart actions leading to homeostasis or to remain in a passive, climatic impasse resembling 'a Gordian knot' or rather a contest with the forces of creation. The latter would probably end in increasing strains on the finite planet. This would signify a regression on the trajectory of human progress. The old truth says that the Earth could be hospitable, but it can be also destructive. We must appreciate the fact that humanity is intrinsically part of nature, but sometimes, we have to be made to feel very small and insignificant because the laws that govern it are beyond human domination. According to the Gaia theory, Earth's natural cycles work together to keep the Earth healthy and support life on the planet. As a result, we have to listen more sensitively to Gaia so that to start to live in harmony with her. To do that, we have to act in sync with nature and try to understand it better, so that our solutions are more approved by her and are not only selfish and functional only from our point of view. Humans have to preserve the delicate, ecological balance that has been formed between indigenous societies and our planet. At the moment, rare species face the danger of extinction, humans continue with deforestation while the cultural heritage of tribes and simple societies who managed to coexist with nature is replaced by consumer society. “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” (Pope Francis, 2015: 16). Individuals no more have a connection with the spiritual, they no longer care and respect Gaia. However, Gaia will not allow operating beyond its natural limits, she will inevitably bring back the ecological balance what in the worst-case scenario might lead to diseases, protracted suffering, or even a dangerous climax. Essentially, Earth wants to clean itself and take on another new look, it can be done with humans. Earth will be showing the right pathway. Humanity has to simply listen and engineer our way forward. Humans can either prepare for adaptation and live in a healthy symbiosis (which is a mechanism of evolutionary innovation) with the natural world or remain in stagnation, chronic disease, complaining about reappearing and unbearable heatwaves, wildfires, sea level rises and mass displacements of people, all televised by the mass media, with the ailing Gaia and suffering humanity - quite pathetic and unacceptable. Such an unhealthy condition or rather 'the clash of the titans' with an increasingly hostile civilisation in which people become alienated and detached from God and His cosmic Master plan for our planet, might be risking a confrontation after which there might be a decline in civilisational growth. Heroic leaders though can in the nick of time gain a strategic vision for planetary preservation. Following sensitivity to 'the cry of the Earth', they could make our planet great again and not just individual nations great again. But self-indulgent, hedonistic, consumption-oriented society cannot project a moral imperative on the world. Heroic leaders have to direct organised humanity onto the sustainable pathways of clean energy, preservation of natural ecosystems and peaceful coexistence. Science says that to avoid climate catastrophe civilisation needs to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by the middle of this century. Putting pressure on global leaders to act is one strategy, but equally, we have to propose practical solutions of Earth's healing. As Pope Francis (2015) noted, “Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” Comprehensive and holistic strategies require education in elucidating insights from norm-centred constructivism (the life cycle of climate norms), climate philanthropy, education of girls, meteorology, cultural and spiritual ecology and biomimicry.

Nature’s living ecosystems, which sustain all of us, are unravelling, and the world is changing at an unimaginable pace. There is an increasing urgency to move away from the commodification, desacralization and exploitation of natural resources in agricultural systems. Deeper insights into the underlying ethics of food production and consumption can facilitate alternative ways of working with nature for cases where conventional methods are conflicting with values about working on and with the land. This study contributes to an evolving understanding of the relationship between humans and the natural world. Placed within a unique and empirically grounded discussion of spiritual ecology, this thesis takes an ethical approach to explore the cultivation of embodied connections within biodynamic agriculture. These embodied connections lie at the intersection of the individual, the community and the environment. The research is based on a comparative, ethnographic and participatory study of two biodynamic farms: Earth Haven Farm in Canada, and Nordgard Aukrust in Norway. Whilst acknowledging that every biodynamic farm is embedded within broader, nested levels, this study demonstrates that it is at the micro-scale where personal, contingent and embodied relations develop. These, in turn, have the potential to facilitate empathic identification with the earth as a living entity. This study suggests that such processes may offer pathways to developing ethical and active engagement with the living planet, in which we are deeply immersed and with which we are in constant interaction.

This mandala series is my latest weaving together of three themes: reverence for the web of life, creative resilience, and compassionate resistance to the destruction of the Earth at the hands of greed and out-of-control industrialization. Please send comments and suggestions. The previous version used a folded ribbon geometry, but the 7-turn-Mobius-loop geometry was so unusual that I think it got in the way of the message. The new design is more symmetrical. Many thanks to Joanna Macy for the inspiration, and to Jay Mohler for permission to use one of his yarn painting as a background.

CHAMEL Jean, 2016, « Visions du monde des écologistes catastrophistes: entre attente de la fin d’un monde et retrait hors du monde », Processus de légitimation entre politique et religion: Approches historico-culturelles et analyses de cas dans les mondes européen et extra-européen, S. Mancini et R. Rousseleau éd., Paris, Editions Beauchesne, p. 281-298.

Résumé
Certains écologistes développent une vision catastrophique de l’évolution du monde. À rebours d’un certain déterminisme sociologique, cette perspective n’est pas, ou pas uniquement, la conséquence d’une situation de déclassement social, mais peut au contraire être la raison d’une marginalisation relative de ces écologistes catastrophistes. Leur vision globale d’un monde qui court à sa perte s’apparente à l’attente de la fin d’un monde et à l’espérance d’un monde meilleur des mouvements millénaristes. Mais ce rapprochement n’est possible qu’avec certaines réserves : outre l’absence de figure messianique et le caractère scientifique de ce mouvement, sa dimension religieuse n’apparaît pas clairement. On la retrouve plutôt dans des pratiques individuelles de certains écologistes, pratiques liées à une quête de spiritualité avec un fort accent mis sur l’idée de connexion. Alors que l’attente de la catastrophe est fortement mobilisatrice et pousse à agir dans le monde, à vouloir le changer pour lui éviter d’aller dans le mur, l’option spirituelle est à l’inverse démobilisatrice et s’accompagne d’un retrait hors du monde.

Abstract
Some environmentalists see the evolution of the world as catastrophic. This view is not, or not only, the consequence of social demotion, as sociological determinism might suggest; it can also be the reason of the relative marginalization of these catastrophists. Their view of a world that goes to its loss looks similar to the wait for the end of a world and the hope of a better one, typical of the millennial movements. But this research also highlights that catastrophism is scientifically grounded, has no messianic figure, and no clear religious dimension. Such dimension appears more clearly within the individual practices of some environmentalists, and these spiritual practices are strongly linked with the idea of connection. While waiting for the end of this world is a strong motivation to act in the world, to change it before it collapses, the spiritual option is a contrario demotivating and goes along with a withdrawal from the world.

Recognition on the multiple values of nature has been increasing in the recent decades in global forums on strategies for environmental conservation– including those considered as cultural. The so-called sacred natural sites, recognized in various parts of the world, have been gaining visibility as a key theme in the perspective on reconnecting society and nature. Amidst a substantial body of world information on the subject, it is noteworthy that references to sites in Brazil (a country of great biological and cultural wealth) are rare. In view of this situation, this article aims to illustrate the diversity of these Brazilian sites, its main characteristics, and socioenvironmental implications, evaluating how this theme has been approached in national surveys. The analysis was based on a bibliographical and documentary survey, driven by a collaborative strategy of knowledge construction. The results show that the recurrence of the manifestation of this phenomenon in the different regions of the country and its importance for many social groups contrast to its incipient recognition in public policies. Information on the subject is, for the most part, dispersed in non-indexed references to studies that permeate various areas of knowledge, often disconnected from the international debate. The reflection indicates a need to recognize the interdependence between culture and nature, based on interdisciplinary investigations and on theoretical approaches capable of promoting dialogue between scientific knowledge and popular wisdom, deconstructing these dichotomies. Finally, we launch an invitation to form alliances that contribute to the mission of unveiling the enchantment and mysteries of nature's sacred dimensions in Brazil.