The Process of Ecological culture formation in the USA: American values

The author of the article analyzes the way in which the formation of US ecological culture is interlinked with the development of American values system. This question is complex, because Americans are characterized by their desire to be wealthy and the desire to obtain as many things as they can. And that feature is not compatible with ecological ethics and the intrinsic value of nature. American culture is rooted in Protestantism which means that Americans see material wealth as a just reward for hard work. That means that Americans are reluctant to reject material wealth. Americans have considered nature being a source of this wealth as something which must be controlled. The process of the ecological culture formation has been slow because the basis of ecological culture mainly contradicts the US cultural values. Environmentalists have to put much effort into stimulating the process of ecological culture development. We can single out 6 steps of the process of US ecological culture development basing on the research of Roderick Nash. The first step is European colonization of North America and the formation of the USA when nature was perceived to be the opposite of Eden. The second step is the era of Romanticism when Transcendentalists considered that nature was divine. The third step is the middle of the 19^th century marked by the increase of the number of environmentalists and the intensity of their activity. The fourth step embraces the period from the end of the 19^th till the beginning of the 20^th century when the conservation movement became a significant one and obtained a scientific basis. The fifth step is 1960s characterized by the formation of counterculture calling to the rejection of traditional American values and reconsideration of nature as an active subject having intrinsic value. The last step embraces the period from the end of the 20^th till the beginning of the 21^st century when ecological culture has become wide-spread. The development of ecological culture was stimulated by literary works and social activity of such authors as Henry Davis Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, etc. The authors initiated the discussion of certain issues, gave the reasons to carry out ecological reform and attracted the attention of American masses. Thus, the process of US ecological culture development has been highly dependent on ecological literature proliferation. The attention of ecological literature focuses on not only nature itself, but on the problems of human-nature relationship, on the problems caused by the fact that humans do not understand that they are an integral part of nature. American values system has been changing. US ecological culture development has resulted in adopting the laws protecting nature, public acceptance of the fact that human activity has a negative effect on the environment and the fact of the existence of global warming caused by the human activity. One more indicator of US ecological culture development is signing international agreements aimed at reducing the negative impact of humans on the environment. Americans have been slowly accepting ecological values.

Keywords

Authors

References