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What can I hope for (from politics)? 1101
1. (the restoration of the relationship of man and nature!) The greens are
occasionally asked what they prioritise: the interests of nature or man.
The answer is awaited with suspicion. If they side with nature, they hate
man and are traitors against humanism. If they recognise the priority
of human interests, then they have said nothing new. In reality the
question itself is meaningless. Even at the level of everyday conversation,
ecology means the search for harmony between the two inseparable
interests — or, one could say, man’s two kinds of interests. The nature¬
centred approach of ecological politics originates from the recognition
that in our age the survival of every good thing has come under threat
from our ever more determined and inventive destruction of the natural
requirements of an existence worthy of man. The unavoidable starting
point and distinctive characteristic of the ecological movements is the
defence of the unity, integrity and beauty of living systems, as Aldo
Leopold put it, because their destruction is today the greatest threat
humanity faces. Everything else is connected to this in one way or
another: our increasing vulnerability to technological systems, the spread
of violence, the unrestrained poverty on the one side and the
unprecedented concentration of wealth and power on the other.
‘The coexistence of civilisation and nature, like every coexistence, is an
endless succession of conflicts, in which any solution can only be temporary
and a good solution can only be based on the mutual consideration of
interests and sharing. Such compromises are contained by
— various formulas of sustainability to ensure the gentle use of natural
resources and sinks in knowledge of their finiteness and to prohibit their
use beyond the limit of their capacity to renew;
— the measures, quotas, international treaties (regarding e.g.,
greenhouse gases, plastics and so-called plant protection products),
handling specifications (e.g., for radioactive waste, sewage, etc.) and
recycling procedures limiting or prohibiting emissions that harm the
environment;
— (overdue) measures to protect living beings from disturbance, which
give a chance of survival to the remnant of life on Earth, which has
suffered irreparable damage regarding the number and genetic diversity
of species and individuals;
— the application of the precautionary principle to the intervention
into natural systems as a general rule, in the knowledge that the
complexity of these systems prevents us from knowing all the
consequences of our actions, thus requiring us to proceed with the
greatest caution.