Ecofeminism: First Stop! What really is the Earth?
This post begins the second arm, the Environmental Movement, of our two-part series: the Women’s Movement and the Environmental Movement—as they exist and are linked in a patriarchal world—through the view of ecofeminism.
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Our Earth cries out: #MeToo!
DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE ALL ARE CREATURES?
WE TOO ARE ANIMALS and all of us ARE THE EARTH ITSELF.
THUS, COULD THE RANDOM SADNESS WE SOMETIMES FEEL BE COMING FROM THE DEPTH OF OUR OWN EARTH, WHICH, IN TURN, IS WHY IT IS COMING FROM DEEP WITHIN OURSELVES?
If we are going to examine ecofeminism and its view that the environmental movement and the women’s movement are connected detrimentally under patriarchy—and to try to find some solutions—it would be wise to take a look at the locus of the environmental movement—namely, the Earth.
What—or who—actually is the Earth?
My views on the concept, “We are the Earth,” are largely based on the theories of Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. and Thomas Berry, C.P.
So, let’s get a sense of this from the perspective of these great thinkers.
On humanity’s evolution, Teilhard offers us a futurist message. He allows for a reverence for Earth that is presently missing under patriarchy:
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955), was a Jesuit priest, paleontologist, and philosopher.
He proposed a vision of evolution that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things and the future of a unified consciousness, which he referred to as the Omega Point.
His vision was that humanity is at a pivotal point in this evolutionary process. It is in the phase of consciousness that Teilhard called the noosphere.
The think tank, Human Energy, provides a nice, clear explanation of what the Noosphere is, as Teilhard saw it:
The Noosphere is the sphere of thought enveloping the Earth. The word comes from the Greek noos (mind) and sphaira (sphere).
The Noosphere is the third stage of Earth’s development, after the geosphere (think rocks, water, and air) and the biosphere (all the living things).
The three spheres build on each other:
For example, life in the biosphere needs the geosphere to survive (matter, water, and air),
and thinking needs to be embodied in the biosphere, via the living brains of human beings and our technology.
So the Noosphere can be seen as the rise of a planetary superorganism integrating all geological, biological, human, and technological activities into a new level of planetary functioning.
Teilhard held that the Earth, with its biosphere and noosphere, is a single, unified entity, and that humanity is an integral part of this whole.
He saw the spirit of the Earth as a force driving evolution towards greater consciousness and unity.
Quote:
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,“The Evolution of Chastity,” in Toward the Future, 1936, XI, 86-87
—For more on Teilhard’s views about love energy, see “Love as Energy," by R. Wayne Kraft, a monograph in the Teilhard Studies Series, Spring/Summer, 1988, available from American Teilhard Association.
NOW, LET’S TURN TO:
THOMAS BERRY who gives us a broadened view of who we are, and sets us up for a new understanding of how we are hurting ourselves when we ravage the Earth.
Thomas Berry, C.P. (1914-2009) was a Passionist priest.
He has been described as a cultural historian and philosopher, and one who sought a broader perspective on humanity’s relationship to the Earth in order to respond to the ecological and social challenges of our times.
In a 2019 interview, Mary Evelyn Tucker, who is co-director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology with her husband John Grim gave Orion Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief at the time, H. Emerson Blake, some insight into Berry as she spoke with Blake about her book Thomas Berry: A Biography, written together with John Grim and Andrew Angyal, 2019, Columbia University Press.
Tucker:
Berry is interested in our identity as humans in the largest sense of our being. Thus, he is keen to awaken our deepest identity as related to the cosmos itself—we arise from out of universe and Earth processes.
This is an ancient reality and yet a new discovery. That is because all cultures have had cosmologies that explain where we come from and where we are going. But now through the lens of science we have a new sense of cosmology as the interrelationship of systems—galactic, planetary, and ecosphere.
We are part of nested circles of interwoven realities from stars to planets, from mountains to rivers, from humans to more than humans.
The awareness of this relationality is born from a new understanding of evolutionary time—cosmic, geological, and human.
We are older than we thought. We have arisen out of the deep time of the universe unfolding. We are kin to all biological life. Thus, we sense we are related both to that which is minute and that which is infinite—to the microcosm of the atom and the macrocosm of the universe. Within such immensity, we belong here.
This opens us up to awe and reverence in the face of vast mystery and endless complexity. Such awe can lead to action; such reverence can lead to responsibility.
A new understanding of our role not as dominators or exploiters, but care takers, care givers. (Emphasis mine.)
As such we are participants in the dynamic creative powers of the universe and Earth. May it be so!
Berry quotes below are from the Thomas Berry website: thomasberry.org
“The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.”
—Thomas Berry, “Petrochemical Age” in Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as a Sacred Community, 2006, p. 96
“The human is neither an addendum nor an intrusion into the universe. We are quintessentially integral with the universe.”
—Thomas Berry, “The Earth Story,” in The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future, 1999, p.32
It might also be helpful—as we prepare to investigate how the past and current treatment of the Earth is significantly related to how women have been treated under patriarchy—to sit back for a moment and savor the concepts given us by Teilhard and Berry.
They have shown us how to see ourselves in a larger way, as being an integral part of the Earth and Universe, allowing us to recognize the human as a creature among others: cells, molecules, and atoms with the capacity for thought and invention—and, I would add, a sense of the Divine.
And, here is one other perspective to consider:
In order to understand ourselves as part of this larger picture—we could also try the concept of “Seeing the World Whole.”
“Learning to See the World Whole” was the title suggested to me by theologian and song-writer Kathleen P. Deignan, CND, PhD, founder of the Kathleen Deignan, CND Institute for Earth and Spirit at Iona University. She suggested it at the 1997 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) for a four-person theological panel that I had convened and was moderating—and on which she was a panelist.
Our panel was presenting at the meeting, and we were also being considered for an AAR annual award. A slip-up in printing happened and the title was listed as “Learning to See the World As a Whole.”
While we were pleased to later learn that our panel had been chosen for the award, we did regret the incorrect wording of its title as it created a difference in meaning,
“Seeing the World Whole," as Sr. Kathleen explains, “is the integral perspective of perceiving the demonstrable fact of the unity of the living planet in every facet of its self-expression. It means recognizing the interconnectedness of all things. It is a holistic view that transcends and dissolves the divisions we often create.”
To me now, the “world whole” represents all the Earth’s multiplicity of life forms, its geological formations, the air and its water—as one living being.
When we see the world whole, we are more apt to be able to gain a better perspective on how the connection of the degradation of women is made to the degradation of the Earth as viewed under ecofeminism. The connection is all of a piece because we are all of a piece.
Below is what I consider to have been one small example of “seeing the world whole” from the view of a child.
Chris Andersson created this design for his math schoolbook cover in 1976 when he was in the third grade. He did so on his own initiative.
I love that he gave the flower and the Sun a voice in the chorus!
We are one Earth, one whole.
When the women, who are part of Earth—and whom we have been reviewing in the first arm of our two-part series—have cried out “Me Too,” so then may not our “Earth Whole” reverberate with the same cry?
And are we not obliged to listen and to act?
And to ask: “Why is this so?”
…to be continued
In the next post, we will address the above question by examining what ecofeminism has to offer as it has made significant connections between the environmental movement and the women’s movement.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Preview Current Post, “What Really Is the Earth?”:
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We have planned this series to explore two movements—the Women’s Movement and the Environmental Movement as they exist and are linked in a patriarchal word—and as shown through the lens of ecofeminism.
We have adjusted our publishing schedule, still one post each week, ufor the next few weeks —to the completion of this series.
