Introduction To a Paradigm Shift to an Ecological Worldview

We are all becoming aware of the disastrous and ongoing climate disruption, the continual loss of habitat, the loss of bio-diversity, the increasing acidification of the seas and the unchecked production of non-biodegradable plastics that are moving up the food chain. Slowly, very slowly, we are also becoming aware that the prevailing hierarchical worldview with its oligarchic democracies, extreme wealth inequality, rising homelessness and poverty levels and also the largely unchecked use of fossil fuels with billions of tons of CO2 being dumped into the atmosphere each year.

A paradigm shift to an ecological consciousness is necessary, if we all are to work effectively together on the issues of climate change, along with social justice disparities. This radical change involves a complete transformation from the dominant hierarchical worldview, based on hierarchies within hierarchies, to an ecological worldview, based on ecosystems within ecosystems. It also involves, within ourselves a transformation to an eco-awareness which leads to an evolving ecological consciousness

In a Hierarchical Worldview, Who and What Are We?

In the hierarchical worldview, we are all placed on a certain, acceptable level within the existing hierarchy. Individually, we are placed on a rung on the social ladder according to: how much wealth we have accumulated; or how poor we are; the particular race we were born into, and what gender we are. Intrinsically, the hierarchical worldview is the origin of all human conflict, as well as, the continual exploitation of nature and the resulting climate disruptions.

This prevailing hierarchical worldview is a fictional, or made up, way that we understand the world

rd and our place within it. The hierarchical worldview has evolved, over centuries. Since the industrial revolution the world has become increasingly, ecologically unbalanced and threatened.

If we begin to step outside of this prevailing, hierarchical worldview, we can begin to ask ourselves: “Who am I?”, “What am I?” and “What is my true nature? We can begin by seeing ourselves as fundamentally a manifestation of an ancient and very complex ecosystem consisting of ecosystems within ecosystem within ecosystems. Then a number of questions arise:

What does identity mean, since it is no longer hierarchical? What is our fundamental or primordial nature? What is an ecological consciousness that is able to think about the delicate ecological balance and about the unified harmony within the ecosystem in which we live.

Given the catastrophic disasters that we now experiencing, is this not worth our undivided attention?