The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis

Human beings live in the realm of nature and are constantly surrounded by it and interact with it. However, despite this fact, many factors influence the way in which people see and interact with nature. What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them; it depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationships. This relationship has always been ambiguous and is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and purpose; that is by our religion. In 1967, a classic article entitled the “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’’ was published by Historian Lynn White. In his article, Christianity has been called arrogant and has been charged with being the historical root of our ecological crisis, therefore bearing a huge burden of guilt for our current ecological crisis. This controversial piece of work has motivated scholars in various disciplines such as history, theology, philosophy but also has influence youth organizations and many other branches of semi-popular culture. Robin Attfield has produced an interdisciplinary reappraisal entitled, “Social History, Religion and Technology: An interdisciplinary Investigation into Lynn White, Jr.’s “Roots” that will be discussed in this essay.

The core of the problem according to White’s paper is that the Christian doctrine of the creation sets the human being apart from nature. While I agree that this view is somewhat correct, the men and their technological instruments can also be considered parts of nature at the atomically level. Why can’t the use of technology mean some sort of harmony with nature? Clearly, men and women are very complex and highly evolved apes. They possess physical attributes that are not shared by animals, such as an erect posture, hands with a highly developed opposable thumb that can do work, faces capable of expressing great emotional feelings, and a brain and tongue capable of articulate speech. More importantly, they...