EDITORIAL

Dear Reader:

Today marks the first publication of the web-based, open-access, peer-reviewed journal, Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice. The journal introduces a new trend in science and culture as a whole: the eco-humanities, uniting contemporary ecology in all the diversity of its research areas with the human sciences. The eco-humanities establish the eco-human paradigm - the paradigm of sustainability and the nature-friendly evolution of humanity in the 21st century. The human being, in its self-knowledge and interaction with the environment, is at the pulsating core of the eco-humanities, where nature and humanity comprise two subsystems of a single subject: eco-humanity. The traditional distinction between human beings and the environment which surrounds them is no longer capable of accounting for the world in which we live. It has not only become clear that we have shaped the environment to such an extent that it has inaugurated a new epoch, the Anthropocene, but also that we are shaped by that same environment in our very existence: human beings are ecological beings. We cannot understand ourselves without taking that into account.

The recognition of the global environmental crisis and the crisis in the milieu of the humanities compels us to acknowledge: ecology needs the humanities as much as the contemporary humanities need ecology and environmental awareness. The environmental and moral imperatives today are two sides of a single imperative for the survival of mankind and of the world. We are in search of a renewed perception of the humanities, based on the revival of our natural essence which needs its recognition and reasoned justification in a new eco-human paradigm. The сultural and environmental situation also needs a new generation of human technologies, inventive activities in the whole complex of human sciences - philosophy, pedagogy, psychology, art history, cultural studies, linguistics and, of course, the arts and culture as a whole.

All these factors have prompted us to create this journal as a living forum of theories and practices that aim for the harmonization of human needs and planetary life in the interests of sustainable development, the creation of eco-humanity as a new coordinated reality of the human being and the natural world. The journal invites dialogue and cooperation between ecologists, philosophers, physicians, educators, psychologists, artists, writers, musicians, designers, social activists, and business representatives in the name of eco-human values, human health and well-being, in close connection with concern for the environment.

As well, we encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue, cooperation and research between the creative arts and the new eco-human approaches and sciences, such as ecology, ecopsychology, ecotherapy, ecopedagogy, ecological medicine, ecoaesthetics, ecological management and other related fields.

Humanity's care for its earthly home, the natural world, cannot be carried out only on the basis of understanding the disastrous path of the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, or a sober calculation of economic and environmental realities. All this must be supplemented by the growth of environmental consciousness, changing the attitude of humankind to the planetary life, itself and its environmental essence.

Ecopoiesis cannot be achieved without a love for the earth and for the beings, who inhabit it, including ourselves. Along with conscious awareness, this loving care must arrive with its capacity for creativity and creation. May Ecopoiesis reign over our journal as an expression of the interaction and interpenetration of living systems and their cooperation with each other.  We need both biological and cultural creation for the co-evolution of humanity and nature.

The Editorial Team:

 Sergey Alexeyev

Stephen K. Levine

Alexander Kopytin