Michael Zimmerman - Integral Environmentalism

The environmental movement is turning a brighter shade of green, and a new generation of activists and thinkers is overturning traditional ideas about how to achieve global sustainability. Instead of rejecting technological innovation and economic development as the source of our ecological woes, they say, we must embrace human ingenuity as a creative wellspring for responding to the environmental challenges of our age.

This interview is the first in a series of conversations that will expand and develop the exploration of “bright green” environmentalism that we kicked off in the October–December 2007 issue of EnlightenNext. This week, editor Ross Robertson speaks with integral ecologist and professor of philosophy Michael Zimmerman. A pioneer in applying the multidisciplinary approach of integral philosophy to environmental thought, Zimmerman has been investigating the delicate balance between ecological prudence and social and economic development since his days as a civil rights activist in the sixties. His work is marked by an unusual depth of knowledge and spans a broad range of interests in the cultural, political, ethical, and metaphysical dimensions of contemporary environmental questions.

In this engaging exchange, rich with original and stimulating ideas, Zimmerman and Robertson explore the transformations underway in environmentalism today. Out of their conversation, a much fuller and more hopeful vision of sustainable development emerges, one that opens the future to radical change.

BIO

Michael E. Zimmerman is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has been concerned about environmental problems since his undergraduate years, and his research has examined the metaphysical, cultural, ethical, cognitive, political, and religious dimensions of such problems.

Like many others in the field of environmental studies, Zimmerman maintains that a multidisciplinary approach is needed both to comprehend the issues and to propose effective solutions. Although criticizing the command-and-control attitude toward nature that has characterized modernity, Zimmerman has also warned of the dangers posed by the anti-modernist attitudes that characterize some versions of environmentalism. He asks: How to retain what is noble about modernity, including the freedoms connected with politics, research, and religion, while correcting its shortcomings, including serious environmental problems?

In addition to his work with philosophers Ken Wilber and Sean-Esbjörn Hargens on helping to develop and apply an integrative model to the study of the environment, Zimmerman has written two books on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. He is also the author of numerous articles and scholarly papers, including contributions to anthologies and journals on topics ranging from Buddhism and gender to the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and contemporary continental philosophy.

Zimmerman graduated from Louisiana State University and Tulane University, where he taught for over twenty-five years.