Nature - autonomous learning

the ‘nature’ of geography 73Box 2.3 ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE NATURALENVIRONMENTAccording to O’Riordan (1989), ecocentrism and technocentrismare the two dominant attitudes towards the non-human worldin Western societies. The former is a pro-nature attitude that hasmild and radical variants. The mild variant (‘communalism’)recommends a return to small-scale communities using localenvironments in a sustainable way and using clean technologies.The radical variant (sometimes called a deep or dark greenattitude) suggests that the non-human world has inherent rightsthat should be respected. Technocentrism, in contrast to ecocentrism,sees the non-human world as a means to the end ofhuman well-being. In its mild ‘accomodationist’ form, it puts faithin the adaptability of technology and institutions so that whenresource scarcity or environmental problems arise they can beadjusted to without a decline in living standards. In its more radical‘interventionist’ form, technocentrism puts faith in the powerof technology and ingenuity to transform the environment forhuman well-being – as exemplified by genetically modified foods.The mild forms of both ecocentrism and technocentrism donot pose a fundamental challenge to the way Western societiescurrently organise their use of the environment. By contrast, theradical strands do, which is arguably why they are less popular.Deep greens call for nothing less than a new environmental ethicthat puts people and the non-human world on a level moralpegging. Meanwhile, left-wing interventionists – like severalMarxist theorists – want a post-capitalist future in which everyonecan enjoy a high standard of living not just the wealthy few. Inthis post-capitalist future the exploitation of the environmentwould meet the general needs of the population. Technocentrism– in both its accommodationist and interventionist forms – isanthropocentric. That is, it puts people ahead of the environment.The spectrum of environmental attitudes described above canbe found in microcosm vis-à-vis animals. For instance, extreme