Hearing Earth’s Cry

Rhetoric and Reality in Integral Ecology

Abstract

The metaphor of the cry of the Earth is increasingly prominent within the rhetoric of integral ecology. This essay argues that, in spite of its rhetorical power, this metaphor would benefit from critical attention in at least three respects: how perceiving a cry translates into judgment and praxis, how the cry implicates human-nonhuman relations, and how the cry navigates specificity and vagueness. Such critical attention contributes to our understanding of integral ecology in four ways. First, it enhances the integral ecology’s reading of the “signs of the times.” Second, it deflects key critiques of integral ecology, including its handling of anthropocentrism and its inability to apply its values. Third, it speaks to conversations on integral ecology’s reimagining of the values of dignity and solidarity. Fourth, it points toward further applications, most notably an exploration of how the cry of the Earth relates to the cry of the poor.