The Vital Tool
What are the tools we as humans can use to try and respond to the ecological crisis we see around us? Perhaps we could create wildlife protection areas, install low emissions technologies and roll out family planning support globally? I’m sure that you could come up with many other tools and approaches - there are thousands out there, and each with their own advocates. Yet, none of these really get to the root of the crisis.
When we think of tools we tend to think in terms of new technologies, better designed education programmes, or improved processes. But these don’t usually get deep enough. There is a very different type of tool that is more important than all of these. The major problem is that it is being degraded rapidly and is much less robust than it used to be. This tool is human diversity.
The reason that I advocate for human diversity as the single most important tool or resource for us to address ecological crisis is that diversity of human culture, human worldview, and human ways of living both protects and nourishes ecosystems. It also provides examples of different ways of going about living and decision making. Given how trapped we have become in our destructive ways of living, this is a vital source from which we can learn.
I would go so far as to say that without human diversity, it is impossible to conceive of us surviving as a species.
What is human diversity?
Before exploring in more detail why it matters so much, let’s explore what human diversity actually means in the context of ecological crisis.
Human diversity could refer to diversity of sexual orientation, diversity of age, or diversity of location for example. It could refer to diversity of political systems (capitalist, communist etc.) or diversity of organised religion (or lack of it). There are almost infinite ways that there can be human diversity, but on closer inspection these may not be quite as diverse as they first appear.
Let’s take a simple concept such as political systems. Whilst there are many different political systems around the world, there are only really a handful of different concepts at play. Once these are examined it becomes even clearer that they are all actually very similar. There are totalitarian regimes, communist regimes, capitalist regimes, democratic regimes, and mixtures of these blended together. Some are more liberal and some more autocratic. Yet almost all (with a handful of exceptions) adhere to the concept of economic growth as a prime objective. They may differ in who owns the means of production to generate that growth, but they all follow to the same fundamental idea. So what at first appears diverse is actually multiple different shades of the same fundamental approach.
This serves to illustrate that often we believe there is significant diversity when actually what we have are different flavours of the same thing. That’s really important to remember as we explore the type of diversity that matters most.
The type of diversity that matters the most in the context of ecological crisis is diversity in worldview and ways of living diversity. By worldview I mean a community’s underlying beliefs about how the world works. These are beliefs about things such as what role humans have in the world, what human responsibilities and rights are, and what the meaning of life is. It determines how we live with, or indeed in spite of, the Earth. By ways of living I mean the fundamental rules by which life is structured and decisions made.
This is not to say that other diversities are unimportant, for example diversity of culture or diversity of language. Quite the reverse in fact - these have great value in their own right, and also help retain and protect diversity of worldview and ways of living.
However, the core of ecological destruction is found in the way industrialised cultures have chosen to act. This is driven by a particular view of the world and so the main focus of this blog is on diversity of worldview in particular, and associated ways of living.
Photo by Parij Borgohain on Unsplash
Why worldview diversity matters
It is our worldview that drives our actions and helps us work out how to live with the world. Our crisis has shown that the dominant worldviews of the world are clearly getting things wrong in this regard. We have evidence all around us that how we live with the world is hugely damaging.
Yet there are other cultures around the world who live with the Earth in a way that can be sustained for generations, for millennia. These cultures are often on the fringes of survival or are being assimilated into mainstream culture. Yet they are the only remaining examples of how to live with the Earth healthily over extended periods of time. They are also the last line of defence for a significant number of intact ecosystems. Unlike most of us who are unwillingly part of cultures that are contributing to ecological collapse, they are some of the people who are doing the most to avert it - and they do this just by living. There’s an immense power in nourishing ecosystems just through the way you live rather than via calculations, analytics, and measurement. It is a power we have entirely forgotten and could do well to learn from and, at the very least, stop destroying.
These are people such as the San and Tukano, the Batwa and the Yanomami. There are many more I could name. Some have given up on ever living with the Earth again, whilst others hold on against the might of a cultural worldview that sees them and their land as an annoyance, an irrelevance. Many have been thrown out of their ancestral homes as they are deemed to be damaging to the land (compared to our enlightened uses of land) or are just in the way of development.
With each community evicted or destroyed, another area of land will suffer. Even if this is solely the loss of the humans that know it deeply, this is a grievous loss. However it is much more likely that this is the beginning of ecosystem destruction for short-term economic gain. Regardless, with each community that goes, we lose another example of different ways of living.
The destruction of what remains of worldview diversity in the world will likely be the beginning of the end of us as a species.
What happened to reduce diversity?
Perhaps more than any other form of diversity, it is variety of human worldview that has become most impoverished in diversity even as the world’s population has grown exponentially to incomprehensible scales.
As people have been able to travel more and interact more, some have sought to influence and change others. Some of this has been through explicit missionary work, some has been through a desire to ‘raise up’ others, some has been for geopolitical reasons. There are many reasons behind such acts, but in many cases it has been economically advantageous for the more industrialised peoples to dazzle other peoples with material wealth and then draw them into the economic system that provides such goods. Alongside this comes a shift in worldview to align more with that of the invading culture(s) - which is often helped along the way by religious conversion.
At the same time, peoples who retain ancient ways of living and beliefs can be portrayed as backward and sub-human. My experience of this was with the Batwa of South West Uganda. They were seen as a sub-human irrelevance by the government. They were evicted from their rainforest homes. This broke the sacred and practical link between their land home and their way of living.
The stated aim of one local development agencies is now to assimilate them into the dominant tribes that surround them ‘for their survival’. This is a classic example of how worldview and ways of living can be rapidly destroyed as they are engulfed by dominant cultures. This has been repeated the world over, with endless destruction - almost always in the name of progress. A progress that is taking our species - and many others - to oblivion.
Photo by Bike and Boat Motorcycle Tours on Unsplash
What can be done?
The continuing destruction of diversity is now primarily carried out by the development industry. This industry exports dominant culture and worldview whether it intends to or not. Sometimes it actively seeks to assimilate others, other times it happens as a passive by-product. But it always happens. Yet, it is our dominant cultures that are impoverished, that have clearly failed in our ability to live with the Earth. Rather than imposing this on others, and making things worse, it is time that we saw the need for us to ‘develop’ and to invite others in to share their wisdom. It is time we reversed development.
This would require an honest admission that our cultures were not the zenith of civilisation and that we have got some things wrong. It would also ask us to see all other worldviews as equals. These things are challenging, but we need to be able to overcome them if we are to honestly change what is destroying the world and ourselves.
But we can also go beyond this - we can set up cyclical cycles of support whereby protection of diverse cultural worldviews aligns with support for industrialised cultures to challenge and change worldviews. Protecting diverse worldviews doesn’t mean giving them endless resources - that is actually part of the problem - it means protecting them from our systems. It means protecting them from ourselves.
There is not a lot of time for human society to find sustainable ways of living. Our best hope lies in learning from each other. This is absolutely possible - if our dominant cultures are willing to invite in different perspectives and finally stop destroying other peoples.
Banner image by Lenny Miles on Unsplash