Work · Analytic Philosophy
The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary
Short paper in Inquiry, based on a lecture in Bucharest in 1972: it contrasts a “shallow” movement against pollution and resource depletion, concerned with the health and affluence of people in rich countries, with a “deep” movement that rejects the human-centred image of nature.
Introduction
This four-page paper appeared in the journal Inquiry in 1973, based on a lecture that Næss had given in Bucharest in 1972 at the Third World Future Research Conference. It distinguishes the “shallow ecology movement”, which fights pollution and resource depletion in order to protect the health and affluence of people in developed countries, from the “deep, long-range ecology movement”, which rejects the image of humans as separate from nature and affirms biospherical egalitarianism, diversity, symbiosis and local autonomy. The text gave a name to a whole current of environmental thought and is a frequently cited starting point for discussions of deep ecology.
Connections
Taken up in
- Ecology, Community and Lifestyle1976 · Arne Næss
More works by Arne Næss
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made