An Ethical Framework for Environmental Sustainability:  Reestablishing Deep Ecology through Richard Powers’ The Overstory

S. Prabha; P. Rathna

doi:10.21697/seb.5874

Published: 2025-11-21

An Ethical Framework for Environmental Sustainability: Reestablishing Deep Ecology through Richard Powers’ The Overstory

S. Prabha

, P. Rathna

Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.21697/seb.5874

Abstract

The exploitation of the Earth’s precious resources has accelerated to a level that is causing irreversible environmental damage, including natural disasters and health hazards. However, most of the natural calamities we face today result from man’s anthropocentric attitude. The modern world lacks sufficient ethical values to preserve the environment. As a result, humanity faces a severe environmental crisis in which the survival of all living beings is at risk. It has therefore become essential to restore lost human values so that people can live harmoniously on Earth, protecting its natural balance and refraining from harming the environment for personal gain. Recognizing that a healthy living environment depends on valuing and respecting nature for its own sake is crucial. This paper examines how Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory, reinterprets Deep Ecology to promote a healthy ecosystem and sustainability by addressing the challenges we face today. The study establishes an ethical framework for understanding the interdependence of human and non-human life by connecting individual stories with those of trees.

Keywords:

deep ecology, Ecological ethics, eco-activism, sustainability, ecocricitism, ecocentrism, environmental ethics, SDG 12

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Prabha, S., & Rathna, P. (2025). An Ethical Framework for Environmental Sustainability: Reestablishing Deep Ecology through Richard Powers’ The Overstory. Studia Ecologiae Et Bioethicae. https://doi.org/10.21697/seb.5874

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Ambrosius, Wendy. 2005. “Deep Ecology: A Debate on the Role of Humans in the Environment.” UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research 8.
Google Scholar

Bandyopadhyay, Jayanta. 1999. “Chipko Movement: Of Floated Myths and Flouted Realities.” Economic and Political Weekly, 880–882.
Google Scholar

Brennan, Andrew, and Nina Witoszek. 1999. Philosophical Dialogues. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Google Scholar

Brennan, Andrew. 2010. Understanding Environmental Philosophy. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9781844654482
Google Scholar

Cleary, Thomas. 1991. The Essential Tao. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Google Scholar

Curry, Patrick. 2011. Ecological Ethics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Devall, Bill, and George Sessions. 1985. Deep Ecology: Living as If Nature Mattered. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith.
Google Scholar

Devall, Bill. 1988. Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Practicing Deep Ecology. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith.
Google Scholar

Duignan, Brian. 2025. “Peter Singer.” Encyclopedia Britannica. January 10. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Singer.
Google Scholar

“Ethics of Ecology.” 2023. In the Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. Encyclopedia.com. July 25, 2023. https://www.encyclopedia.com.
Google Scholar

Gadgil, Madhav & Guha. 2005. Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Gettleman, Jeffrey. 2011. “Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dies at 71.” The New York Times, September 26.
Google Scholar

Heise, Ursula K. 2006. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Ecocriticism.” PMLA 121, no. 2: 503–516. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1632/003081206X129684
Google Scholar

Hess, Linda M. 2019. “The Aesthetic of Wonder: Networks of the Grievable in Richard Powers’ The Overstory.” REAL 35 (December): 189–206.
Google Scholar

Hornby, Albert Sydney, and Joanna Turnbull. 2010. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. 8th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Jayantih, S., K. Maheshini. 2022. “Deforestation versus Afforestation: Contemplating Eco Materialism in Richard Powers’ The Overstory.” Shodha Prabha 47(4): 112-116.
Google Scholar

John, Emma. 2018. “Richard Powers Interview: The Overstory.” The Guardian. June 16, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/16/richard-powers-interview-overstory.
Google Scholar

Johnson, Lawrence. 2021. “Ethics of Ecology. The Topical Agenda of Ecological Ethics Is Molded by Contemporary Environmental Problems.” Rising Kashmir. https://risingkashmir.com/ethics-of-ecology.
Google Scholar

Madsen, Peter. 2024. “Deep Ecology.” Encyclopedia Britannica. July 29. https://www.britannica.com/topic/deep-ecology.
Google Scholar

Murshid, R. A. 2015. Penunggu Hutan: Tombiruo [Guardians of the Jungle: Tombiruo]. Kuala Lumpur: Alaf 21 Sendirian Berhad.
Google Scholar

Powers, Richard. 2018. The Overstory: A Novel. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Google Scholar

Rolston, Holmes III. 1986. Respect for Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar

Safina, Putri Intan. 2021. “Ecocritical Study of Richard Powers’ The Overstory.”
Google Scholar

Schipani, Andres S. 2019. “Brazil’s Rainforest Warriors Are Ready to Battle Bolsonaro.” Financial Times, April 3, 2019. https://www.ft.com/content/7a0a661c-558b-11e9-91f9-b6515a54c5b1.
Google Scholar

Sessions, George. 1995. Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
Google Scholar

Stein, Rachel, and Nancy C. Unger. 2004. “Women, Sexuality, and Environmental Justice in American History.” In New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, edited by Marcy Knopf Newman et al., 56–57. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Google Scholar

Wapner, Paul. 2010. Living Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8454.001.0001
Google Scholar

Wilke, Sabine. 2011. “Introduction: Literature, Culture, and the Environment: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation.” Pacific Coast Philology 46, no. 2: 115–121. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41851020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/41851020
Google Scholar

Yutang, Lin. 1948. The Wisdom of Laotse. New York: Random House.
Google Scholar

Zimmerman, Michael E. ed. 1993. Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Google Scholar