The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis

Summary

The 1967 essay that traced ecological crisis to belief. Historian Lynn White Jr. argues: “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them”, and medieval Western Christianity taught: “Man and nature are two things, and man is master.” Technology won’t help: “We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny.”

Rationale

White starts with a plough: land allotted by machine capacity, not family need. The disposition was ploughed in as well as preached. His single cause is tidier than ours.