Hi, and welcome to Environmental Esotericism. I suppose I should introduce myself first, as well as why I am writing this blog in the first place. I did not originally intend to; I was required to perform an environmental project for college in which I was to state my preferred values in environmental ethics. With that out of the way, here goes:
Environmental esotericism is named that for a reason--its focus is on an area of environmentalism that, to me, gets far too little mainstream attention. Plenty of people are aware that species are endangered, and that by doing certain things (like not littering or using less electricity) they can reduce the damage they cause to the natural world. But that's not what this blog is here to talk about. It's going to talk about the idea of environmentalism from an ecological perspective.

Well, what is ecology?
Ecology is the relationship between organisms and non-living things in a given environment and, ultimately, on the Earth as a whole. As an example, on the African plain, the elephant, the zebra, the wildebeest, the gazelle, the lion, the giraffe, the plains grass, and the acacia tree all form what is known as an ecosystem. Ecosystems change over time--natural disasters happen, species evolve and go extinct--but the impact humans have on entire ecosystems is unlike anything else.

Why ecology?
It is important to realize that species never exist in a vacuum. Saving one endangered species is of little use if the ecosystem it once inhabited is already destroyed. Likewise, it may be impossible to preserve an ecosystem if some vital component, even something as seemingly insignificant as a plant or an invertebrate, is missing. Unfortunately, the role of ecology in environmentalism is often downplayed by the popular press in favor of the idea of preserving single charismatic species.

The rainforest of the Hawaiian Islands, an ecosystem at risk of destruction.