Fritjof Capra: Ecology

“My main professional interest during the 1970s has been in the dramatic change of concepts and ideas that has occurred in physics during the first three decades of the century, and that is still being elaborated in our current theories of matter. The new concepts in physics have brought about a profound change in our world view; from the mechanistic conception of Descartes and Newton to a holistic and ecological view, a view which I have found to be similar to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions.”

Fritjof Capra book The Turning Point

Preface.
The Turning Point (1982)

Age , World , Idea , Change

“These, then, are some of the basic principles of ecology—interdependence, recycling, partnership, flexibiility, diversity, and, as a consequence of all those, sustainability …the survival of humanity will depend on our ecological literacy, on our ability to understand these principles of ecology and live accordingly.”

Fritjof Capra

Epilogue: Ecological Literacy
The Web of Life (1996)

Understanding , Dependency , Partnership

“A major clash between economics and ecology derives from the fact that nature is cyclical, whereas our industrial systems are linear. Our businesses take resources, transform them into products plus waste, and sell the products to consumers, who discard more waste…”

Fritjof Capra

Epilogue: Ecological Literacy
The Web of Life (1996)

Business , Nature

“Organizations need to undergo fundamental changes, both in order to adapt to the new business environment and to become ecologically sustainable.”

Fritjof Capra book The Hidden Connections

Source: The Hidden Connections (2002), p. 86 Ch. 4 Life and Leadership in Organizations http://beahrselp.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Capra-Hidden-Connections-Ch-4.pdf.

Business , Change

“Economics emphasizes competition, expansion, and domination; ecology emphasizes cooperation, conservation, and partnership.”

Fritjof Capra

Epilogue: Ecological Literacy
The Web of Life (1996)

Partnership

“The so-called free market does not provide consumers with proper information, because the social and environmental costs of production are not part of the current economic models…. an ecological tax reform would be strictly revenue neutral, shifting the tax burden from income taxes to "eco-taxes." …the taxes would be added to existing products, forms of energy, services, and materials, so that prices would better reflect true costs.”

Fritjof Capra

Epilogue: Ecological Literacy
The Web of Life (1996)

Parting

“The new paradigm may be called a holistic world view, seeing the world as an integrated whole rather than a dissociated collection of parts. It may also be called an ecological view, if the term "ecological" is used in a much broader and deeper sense than usual. Deep ecological awareness recognizes the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and the fact that, as individuals and societies we are all embedded in (and ultimately dependent on) the cyclical process of nature.”

Fritjof Capra

Fritjof Capra, Gunter A. Pauli (1995) Steering business toward sustainability. p. 3 cited in: Elmer Kennedy-Andrews (2008) Writing Home. p. 13.

World , Nature , Sense , Parting

“In the Germany of the l920s, the Weimar Republic, both organismic biology and Gestalt psychology were part of a larger intellectual trend that saw itself as a protest movement against the increasing fragmentation and alienation of human nature. The entire Weimar culture was characterized by an antimechanistic outlook, a "hunger for wholeness". Organismic biology, Gestalt psychology, ecology, and, later on, general systems theory all grew out of this holistic zeitgeist.”

Fritjof Capra

Source: The Web of Life (1996), p. 32.

Hunger , Nature , Parting

“Understanding ecological interdependence means understanding relationships. It requires the shifts of perception that are characteristic of systems thinking—from the parts to the whole, from objects to relationships, from contents to patterns. …Nourishing the community means nourishing those relationships.”

Fritjof Capra

Epilogue: Ecological Literacy
The Web of Life (1996)

Communication , Understanding , Thinking , Parting