A major paper in the history of sustainability is Lynn White Jr’s The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis. This sought to describe the roots of unsustainability. His conclusion zeroed in on religion — specifically Western Christianity — as the culprit.
Start By Putting Off The Reader
Academic writing has changed a lot in the last sixty years or so. Sometimes this is for the worse. Older papers are often much more enjoyable reads with clearer messages than many written nowadays. Modern papers tend to have more technical and obscure language. Past writers often appeared to have seen their articles as a chat with a reader. This can often be very engaging but also sometimes not. I must confess I don’t miss the namedropping and hagiography in older works. Honestly, the author’s praise for their benefactors at the beginning of The Limits to Growth is cringe-inducing, see here. Lynn White Jr starts by name-dropping Aldous Huxley, which though kinda cool that he met Huxley seemed a bit weird. I’m not a fan of that, as I remarked to Pluto.
To be fair, this author does tell us that the rabbit was introduced to England in 1176. It is a fascinating little digression that I hadn’t heard before. Maybe I do like his discursive style.
This Is An Old Paper
White’s aim is to describe where unsustainable behavior comes from. He goes through some history to emphasize a link between Christianity and unsustainable behavior. To make his point, he brought in some other religions too but expressed his thoughts in a quite dated way. He used, what I’m sure he thought was, an engaging turn of phrase about sacred cows that has in no way stood the test of time. He even tells Hindus to eat beef, which is not only remarkably insensitive but really terrible advice if you want to avoid an ecological crisis.
White also seeks to tie Islam to Christianity noting Islam shares a common root with Christianity but has a set of beliefs not endorsed by Christian leaders. I got his argument — that problems have their root in Christianity — but I’m not sure I would advise using his terminology that read a bit Spanish Inquisition-esque. Still, the fact that his dated paper is definitely of its time doesn’t necessarily mean that his thesis is bad.
Roots Of Unsustainability
White discusses that Christianity eclipsed pagan animism. He sees this change as the cause of ecological problems.
By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.
White Jr., 1967, page 12050
According to White Christianity established humanity as masters of the dominion of nature. His solution is to embrace a different type of Christianity, more centered on the work of St. Francis of Assisi. Christians could have a religion that is more in touch with nature. As someone who isn’t religious, I don’t feel too involved in that discussion. I certainly don’t want to have to adopt animism myself, see here. Plus, reading too many Asterix comics has made me scared of the power of animistic druids. (I believe the Romans were the villains in Asterix, but I figure it is best to steer clear of the people with the magic potions too). Still, if people are motivated to adopt more sustainable behaviors for religious reasons, then that is great with me. If St. Francis is the key to people buying an EV that seems excellent.
Causal Stories
The problem with this work, to my mind, is its ambition far exceeds what it could ever possibly achieve. I don’t want to be too negative. I like history (see here) and the story is interesting. What is more, starting a conversation with a bold statement can be useful. That said, how can you possibly show the roots of unsustainability in a 4-and-a-half-page article? Could White ever properly demonstrate that Western Christianity is the root of the problem in that number of words? No, of course, he couldn’t. That said, this didn’t stop him from claiming that he had.
Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny
White Jr., 1967, 1207
I was thinking that we needed to move to solar power generation, do something to improve cement’s emissions, and cut out the beef but apparently ‘refeel’ing is what we need to do.
Read: Lynn White, Jr. (1967) The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, Science, Science Vol 155, Issue 3767 pp. 1203-1207 DOI: 10.1126/science.155.3767.1203