The Theory is There- Economic Value to the Question of Deep Ecology is not

I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It’s not academic for me.
-Kamala Harris

This quote continues to resonate with me as I answer the questions as to what brought me to environmental justice. The wealth of #deepnature or Deep Ecology … an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of all humans- later this within modern society and it came to be; my values and ethics simply didn’t understand how our modern society built in such a way that takes nature from who it inherently belongs to be forever interconnected with…
“Deep ecology argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex inter-relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of others within ecosystems…Human interference with or destruction of the natural world poses a threat therefore not only to humans but to all organisms constituting the natural order” (Deep Ecology definition)

The relationship between health and nature is a hard topic to research. There are a vast amount of variables that limit the rigor of studies on the subject. Have faith, there is some evidence. The way I see social workers engaging with this at a macro level is questioning why more funding is not going into this topic. The theory is there. Yet, Economic value or incentive to the answer question of deep ecology is not. Economic value is rooted in cultural values. When we don’t value the specific population, we also don’t appreciate what it is they lack. The house on the ocean, in the mountains, within profound secluded nature, is costly. That cost is the outcome of the way we value those spaces… even if we can’t quantify why.