4.4 Planetary well-being requires a change of mind and action

The actions we take now and in the near future will have a major impact on the potential for well-being of current and future generations of humans and other life forms. For some species and ecosystems, we are even talking about a matter of existence – the possibility of life continuing in that form. Holmes Rolston III, one of the great names in environmental ethics, has said that “destroying species is like tearing pages out of an unread book, written in a language humans hardly know how to read, about the place where they live”. According to Rolston, we have a moral obligation to protect endangered species because we have a duty to respect and value species as historically unique continuums of life and its capacity for renewal. The idea is strongly in the spirit of planetary well-being.

In the same way, the pioneer of deep ecology and eminent Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess spoke of life as a rich historical process in which the unfolding of life takes a huge variety of forms. The potential of life is realized in different species-typical life forms and in functional entities typical of different ecosystems, which we humans perceive as different collections of life forms and perceptible, sensory entities (a coniferous forest, a string bog, an alpine meadow). Arne Naess placed at the heart of deep ecological ethics the idea that all these life forms have a moral right to self-realization, i.e. to their species-specific forms of being and living – in planetary well-being terms, well-being.

Human as a species is also an expression of a unique historical continuum. For us, too, self-realization is the highest form of well-being, which requires both the integrity of the processes within planetary well-being to satisfy our material needs and the satisfaction of our species-specific psychological and social needs. Such a conception of well-being is strongly eudaimonic, i.e. emphasizing rather than pleasure, leading a good life, as we learn in the Good life and planetary well-being course.

Humanity's cultural diversity and adaptation to very different circumstances is the richness of the human species and has produced diversity within the species. Humans are generalists (largely due to culture and technology), meaning that as a species we are able to live in a wide range of conditions. In addition, our technological advances and the means of transmitting information, as well as the accumulation of new knowledge that is built upon and transformed from stored and previous knowledge – such as scientific activity – have produced a large number of tools that help to make different environmental conditions not only more livable for us, but also more pleasant and comfortable.

However, our ability to shape the living environment has reached such a scale and complexity that the impacts of human activity are compromising the earth- and ecosystem-level processes whose functional integrity is the basis of all well-being. Moreover, the capacity to modify the environment makes the well-off communities of the human species exceptionally resilient to environmental disturbances compared to other forms of life. Many other species and human communities underprivileged by intra-human exploitation already suffer when more affluent human communities, rather than facing serious threats to their basic needs, can continue to focus on things such as the color of their kitchen curtains, Christmas decorations or the exact wording of their social media posts.

Eco-social civilization or ‘bildung’ (philosopher Arto O. Salonen's idea, which we discussed in section 3.1 of the Good life and planetary well-being course) and responsible citizenship refer to an awareness that we are all not only parts of human-determined nationalities but also members of the biosphere as a whole, along with millions of other species. We benefit from and participate in the same processes by which life on Earth has evolved over time into its present form and continues to evolve. The way we construct our own human systems and the processes that sustain them will have a huge impact on the future. Although human systems are in many respects becoming more complex and cannot be perfectly managed, they are nevertheless human systems: their existence and functioning depend on what people think, say and do. Therefore, systems are also changeable. We are all members of these systems through our many roles, and from our roles, we also have the opportunity and responsibility to influence these systems to better pursue planetary well-being, through both words and deeds.

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