Environmental Management: Principles and practice

BOX 8.2  Some common green characteristics
The ‘four pillars of green’:
1
ecology
2
social responsibility
3
grassroots democracy
4
non-violence
The ‘six values of green’:
1
decentralization
2
community-based economics
3
post-patriarchal principles
4
respect for diversity
5
global responsibility
6
future focus
Green characteristics:
♦ Holistic approach
♦ Disillusionment with modern unsustainable development paths
♦ Non-violence
♦ A shift in emphasis away from philosophy of means to ends
♦ A shift away from growth economics
♦ A shift toward human development goals
♦ A shift from quantitative to qualitative values and goods
♦ A shift from impersonal and organizational to interpersonal and personal
♦ Commonly a feminist interest
♦ A decentralized approach—‘think globally, act locally’
Sources: Spretnak and Capra, 1985:xx; Porritt, 1984:10, 15;
Merchant, 1992:15
1980, with environmentalism increasingly involved with politics, commerce, law
and business (Wilson, 1994). Some environmentalists are willing to embrace
technology, biotechnology and the free market; many will not (Anderson, 1993;
Narveson, 1995). There are also those on the side of science and rationalism who
challenge environmentalism and the Green Movement (Brick, 1995).
Environmentalism and green spirituality
Spiritual ecologists include those who focus on established western religion, for
example Piere Teilhard de Chardin (1959; 1964), and Matthew Fox (Fox, 1983;

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1989; Merchant, 1992:124; Kimmins, 1993; Kearns, 1996); and those who look to
pre-Christian religions of Europe, America or the orient for inspiration to transform
human consciousness so that it will have reverence for nature. In 1986 the World-
Wide Fund for Nature held its 25th annual meeting at Assisi, where leaders of
Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Judaic and other faiths established an
International Network on Conservation and Religion, and published the Assisi
Declarations on Man and Nature. Religious beliefs play a significant role in
environmental management; for example, in some countries sacred groves are often
the last remaining forest sites (Singh, 1997).