From Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: A Paradigm Shift and Its Relevance to Ecological Education

Abstrak

The dangers of the ecological crisis can affect all aspects of human life, such as the environment, health, and social and economic aspects. In the environmental aspect, it is easy to find ecosystem destruction, species extinction, extreme natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and others. In the health aspect, the ecological crisis can cause infectious diseases due to pollution and water scarcity. Meanwhile, the social and economic impacts include the destruction of productive land and a food crisis that has the potential to cause conflict between people and threaten the economy. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the urgent role of both anthropocentrism and ecocentrism paradigms in changing human perspectives. In addition, it is to include the role of Ecological Education in filling the related paradigm shift from one that was originally centered on humans to nature as the center. The method for this study uses library research with the theory of reading paradigm shifts. The results of this study are the emergence of general human awareness to be able to see the environment as a partner whose existence is respected, no longer an entity that must be exploited completely. Thus, the most concrete and beneficial impact is the preservation of nature, and its ideal function that can be enjoyed by future generations.