El arte de vivir ecológico

The art of ecological living

Abstract

Ecological problem is not new; it has been with us the entire history of mankind. What is new, however, is the extent to which it has spread since the technological and industrial modernisation of the 19th and 20th centuries and, if the evidence and information are not misleading, it threatens to become a disaster for the whole of humanity in the 21st century. The UN Climate Change Conference report of 2007 and, recently, the Fukushima nuclear disaster provide evidence in this direction. How did this problem come about, how did knowledge about it evolve and how can human and social action be convincingly justified? What can individuals do in order to build a more sustainable life? What is the Anthropocene? Is it possible to build an ecological and caring society? These and other questions are addressed philosophically in this paper.