Achilo kulno papėdėje : pasaulinė ekologinė krizė ir Lietuva

LTKnygos turinį sudaro apmąstymai apie praktinę gamtos filosofiją (ekologinę etiką) ir jos vietą bei vaidmenį sprendžiant ekologinę dabarties problemą. Aptariami ekologinės krizės kaip globalinio proceso iššūkiai ir Lietuvos visuomenės moralinio gyvenimo ypatybės. Knygos įvade pateikta ekologinės etinės minties raidos Lietuvoje apžvalga. Trijuose skyriuose gilinamasi į ekologinės problemos kilimo priežastis ir jos sprendimo būdų paieškas, atskleidžiami žmonių abejingumo gamtai motyvai, nušviečiamos ekologiško elgesio paskatos. Nemažai vietos skiriama ekologinės etikos, kaip taikomosios etikos šakos, įvairiems teoriniams aspektams, šios etikos ypatybėms, principams apibrėžti. Neužmiršti ir praktiniai dalykai - lietuvių tautos gamtosauginės tradicijos bei jų puoselėjimo kryptys globalizacijos sąlygomis. [Anotacija knygoje]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Ekologinė etika; Ekologinės pusiausvyros išlaikymas; Atsakomybė už aplinką; Aplinkos apsauga; Environmental ethics; Environmental responsibility; Environmental protection.

ENChanges in demography and technology materialized in the world over the past centuries have modified human environment essentially, contributing to the emergence of new challenges. Degradation of natural environment has become a problem - both locally and globally; a search for its solution has involved virtually every area of social life, including schooling and education. Ecological consciousness; ecological thinking; ecological worldview; deep ecology; environmental morality; ecological ethics; ecological culture; ecological behaviour patterns are the notions commonly used in mass media. They stress the idea that man is immersed not only in natural but also in social reality; that the prosperity and outcome of Homo sapiens or other species on this planet depends on the conscious embrace of natural and social human bonds. Ecological ethics is a particular nucleus containing the definition of problems concerning man’s relation with the natural world; the understanding of the objective and subjective pre-conditions for the emergence of these problems; and also the awareness of individual responsibility for the solution of these problems. As meant of technological civilization and globalization; the aggravation of contradictions between society and nature; and the degradation of natural environment. Not only the intellectual part of society, e.g. scholars, researchers or artists, but also other environment-friendly people, including youth, started a protest against the barbaric invasion of civilization into nature or water pollution, or rainforest destruction, or annihilation of wild fauna on the continents and of aquatic life in seas and oceans.These obvious facts of war against nature injured human conscience and integrity, encouraging man to put a stop to the destruction of nature, the greater home of mankind, and to insist on moulding a responsible attitude towards natural environment and forming environment-friendly behaviour patterns. These processes encouraged rather rapid emergence and subsequent diffusion of ecological ethics in society. The last among all European countries to adopt Christianity, Lithuania inherited from its history beautiful agricultural traditions of ecological worldview embracing favourable attitude to bee-keeping, or flower-growing, or gardening, or farmstead-organising, or tree-planting, or bird-respecting, or animal-minding. Rudimentary ecological-ethic thought began to appear in the works of professional writers; among them there were classics of literature, such as K. Donelaitis, A. Baranauskas, J. Tumas-Vaižgantas; or representatives of natural sciences, such as P. Matulionis, T. Ivanauskas, Č. Kudaba, E. Šimkūnaitė, E. Šapokienė, R. Račkauskas and others. In the 20th c., insights into the ecological-ethic thinking began to take shape in the works of Lithuanian philosophers, such as Vydūnas, A. Maceina, J. Girnius, V. Vyčinas, and A. Šliogeris. Works and ideas of outstanding western philosophers, such as J. J. Rousseau. I. Kant, H. D. Thoreau, A. Leopold, A. Schweitzer, M. Heidegger and others affected the formation of Lithuanian society’s ecological consciousness quite significantly.Although Lithuania has been an independent state for a quarter of a century, the consciousness of people still contains some anti-ecological views and moods reflecting indifference to nature, and also environment-hostile behaviour patterns inherited from its complex past. On the other hand, after Lithuania’s liberation from the firm grip of totalitarian system coupled with its nature conquest-oriented ideology which was followed by Lithuania’s subsequent gravitation into a free market economy, a large part of Lithuanian people rushed to another extreme characterised by consumerist style of living or elevation to an absolute of freedom and rights, or rejection of obligations and responsibility, or disregard for public interest, especially in the area nature protection. Under such circumstances, it is evident that nature protection enthusiasts acting all by themselves will not achieve any good results unless the greater part of society stops moving in the opposite direction. The situation demands continuous advancement of ecological education among people, consolidation of the weakened bonds of people’s identification with their life sources, and assistance in the promotion of responsibility awareness. Doing away with the ecological crisis is a hard task because it is hard for an individual to do away with his/her ignorance and greed. [...]. [From the publication]