Critical Analysis of The Viable Human.
Thomas Berry constructed a solid argument for the support of the idea of Deep Ecology. He took a look at humans and their perspective on the environmental problem. What he found out is that humans don't have too much of a perspective on the environmental problem. Humans are in their own little bubble. They line this bubble with as many useless gadgets as they can that make their life just a little bit easier. The problem is that they are blinded from the problems arising around them. The planet is on life support. Our resources are depleting, species are dying off by the minute, and everything we have will be gone if we keep up at the same rate. Berry sought to change this. For a movement like this to happen, there has to be a change in the way people think. People will be responsible for the future of the planet, whether it be fatal or successful.
The first argument Berry makes is the selfishness of humans and their view of the world. People take an anthropocentric view of the world, meaning that they look at the world in relation to themselves. This is very relevant because you can easily overlook the problems of the world, if these problems aren't affecting your way of life whatsoever. Berry suggests we take a more geocentric view of the world. This way we will have a world view that includes humans in the mix of everything; not just as an outsider looking in.
It seems that humans have had the greatest impact on the worlds environment in all of recorded history. "The emergence of the human was a transformative moment for the earth as well as for the human" (8). The human species seems to have taken a different evolutionary path.
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than most species. We have the natural needs to fulfill as all species, but somewhere in our sense of community, we lost our attachment to nature, and now view ourselves as a separate entity from it.