"Our Western culture long ago abandoned its integral relation with the planet on which we live.
Obviously the universe, the solar system, and the planet Earth are the primary given in any discussion of human affairs. We awaken to a universe. We have no immediate access to anything intellectually or physically prior to or beyond the universe. The universe is its own evidence since there is no further context in the phenomenal world for explaining the universe. Every particular mode of being in the phenomenal order is universe-referent. While this was the clearly understood by former peoples, its is also evident in our times, since our scientific endeavors do not provide us with any explanation of the universe except the universe itself. This acceptance by science merely confirms what we know from simple observation. The universe, in the phenomenal world, is the primary value, the primary source of existence, the primary destiny of whatever exists.
A second observation to be made concerning the universe is that it does not exist as a vastly extended sameness. The universe exists in highly differentiated forms of expression. So too the planet Earth exists as a highly differentiated complex of life systems. The only security of any life expression on Earth is in the diversity of the comprehensive community of life. As soon as diversity diminishes then security for each life-form is weakened. This has become abundantly clear in recent studies of the biosystems of Earth, such as Biodiversity, edited by E.O. Wilson in 1988, and Wilson's own book, The Diversity of Life, in 1992.
A third observation might be that these various forms of expression are so intimately related that nothing is itself without everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. Any being can benefit only if the larger context of its existence benefits. This law can be seen in the honeybee and the flower. Both benefit when the bee comes to drink the nectar of the flower: the flower is fertilized, the bee obtains what it needs for making its honey. The tree is nourished by the soil; the tree nourishes the soil with its leaves. It is the ancient law of reciprocity. Whoever receives
must also give."
