#title Book Review: Thinking Like a Mountain
#author Michael Ney
#date 1987
#source Simply Living Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 10. <[[https://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/thinking.htm][https://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/thinking.htm]]>
#lang en
#pubdate 2026-04-19T01:57:18
#topics book review, radical environmentalist, deep ecology, ecocentrism,

Addressing the enormous scope of ecological, environmental degradation and the various social implications is no easy task. Yet, within this collection of essays, meditations, poems and rainforest drawings, these dedicated authors have not only presented a clear analysis, but also a work manual to a process for the enrichment of ourselves and our home planet.

This book shines with a compassion so rich, a commitment so deep that even the most cynical would be moved.

This book comes from a sense of ‘deep-ecology’. To quote John Seed “unless we can identify with the eco-system and think like a mountain, disaster is inevitable”. He speaks of changing our consciousness by “acknowledging that part of us which shies away from the truth, hides in intoxicating or busyness, from the despair of the human, whose race is run”. Then looking to a final positive outcome when “that reverence for the natural systems — the oceans, the rainforests, the soil, the grasslands, and all other living things — will be so strong that no narrow ideology based upon politics or economics will overcome it.”

This book is a landmark event — inspirational, thought provoking, encouraging and, I believe, should be utilised in all ways possible. The Council of All Beings is, in part, a workshop structure to empower our compassion for and understanding of the inherent inter-relatedness of all life. It is also an expansive philosophy and groundwork for personal and collective action, with the end goal of rebalancing our precarious position.