{~} ecology
ecology is the study of life as a community.
it looks at how organisms interact with each other and with their environment.
in our civilisational context, it concerns itself with the actions and reactions resulting from the interaction between human civilisation and infrastructure and the rest of the environment. ecology implies a unity of all things, an inescapable, bilateral relationship between beings and agents. ecology, to us, is also awareness of our impact on the world.
dark ecology
in particular, dark ecology departs from the knowing (or "letting-be-known") of the global ecosystem's dire predicament. depressing and grim, especially when every single one of our actions (nearly so) contributes more fuel to the half-metaphorical fire, it is deeply in tune with the time at hand, but is also reminiscent of Time itself and the endless resurgence and resilience of Nature as an undivided process. it does not free humans from our responsibility: in fact it asserts the facticity of the Anthropocene, of homo sapiens-caused climate change and mass extinction (which is not "soon", as liberal protest groups such as extinction rebellion like to claim, but already very much occuring). dark ecology makes apparent the possibility and adjunct necessity of living differently, of being aware of our environment and the unfathomable variety in scale and qualities that it assumes. the dark ecological mindset is aware of the socio-economic and environmental impact of the cup of coffee which one drinks while observing in wonder the magpie scouring the garden. ultimately, one should live in a way that is ecologically virtuous; this is why i personally aim to leave the cities and attempt to distance myself from the consumerist, growthist economy which birthed me.
hopefulness
i think there is a great beauty to the conception that we are not distinct from « nature », that there are no separations between civilisation and wilderness, which permeate each other endlessly. humans and their interactions with other beings and structures are just another level of ecological interaction.
living in the center of a metropolis, i rarely see nature approaching states that could be labelled "primal" or "pristine" or even the connotated "wild", "unkept", "neglected". ponds are kept disturbingly odorless and moss is hosed off of buildings. for all this, the ecological nature of earthly existence reminds me of the presence of the natural spirit all around me, even in a maze of detritus and stone and bitumen. the alianthus which grows invasively along cracks in the pavement, the moss which always creeps back onto the walls and around gutters, the weeds which "have to be" endlessly disrooted. all of this reassures me, even as i hear of another extinct species of great feline or field mouse, of the supremacy of green lushness over monochrome efficiency (not that the two are incompatible! civilisation has only made it seem so).
humans build and plants wait for it to break down, make their way through spores and seeds onto rooftops and abandoned plots of land. humans burn fields and forests and pioneer grasses and gramineae move in to reclaim the space. not out of spite, but animated by a fundamental force.
seeing ourselves as animals both desacralises consciousness and sanctifies other forms of living. it forces the confrontation with new ethics and axiologies. it reminds us that we are a process, a natural movement of the world through itself, and shows us, subtly, our kinship with all other beings and allows for the speculation of an uncommunicable experience of being.
道生之，德畜之，物形之，勢成之。是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德。道之尊，德之貴，夫莫之命常自然。
All things are produced by the Dao, and nourished by its outflowing operation. They receive their forms according to the nature of each, and are completed according to the circumstances of their condition. Therefore all things without exception honour the Dao, and exalt its outflowing operation.
This honouring of the Dao and exalting of its operation is not the result of any ordination, but always a spontaneous tribute.