Norwegian Climber and Philosopher Arne Næss Dies
The great Norwegian climber, philosopher, and environmentalist Arne Næss died yesterday, January 12, at the age of 96. Ness, who had many climbing adventures in Norway, also led a major expedition in 1950 that made the first ascent of Tirich Mir, a 25,289-foot (7,708-meter) peak in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountains and the 33rd highest peak in the world. In 1964 he led another expedition that pioneered another route up the mountain.
Næss was also a noted philosopher and the founder of deep ecology, which is rooted in the basic concept that every living thing—animal and plant—has an equal right to live and flourish. This environmental ethic espoused the protection of planet earth and its environments, ecosystems, and diverse species. As he wrote in an essay coauthored with Petter Mejlænder last year, “We are living on an incredibly beautiful little planet, but our human existence is threatened. If we are to survive we have to learn to think differently. The thinking for the future has to be loyal to nature. It must encompass all humans and all living creatures, because everything alive, in itself, has a value.”
Besides being a deep thinker, Arne Næss practiced what he preached. In 1970 he chained himself with other demonstrators to boulders at Mardalsfossen waterfall at a fjord to protest a proposed dam. The dam was never built. His nephew, also named Arne Næss, was a climber, billionaire, and husband of singer Diane Ross who died in a rappelling accident when his anchor failed while retreating from a cliff in South Africa in 2004.
Photographs above: Arne Næss lecturing below Stetind, Norway’s national mountain. Næss led a 1950 expedition that made the first ascent of Tirich Mir in Pakistan.
Photographs courtesy Frode Jenssen/www.stetind.nu and Pakistan Tourist Board.
Buy Arne Næss’s books:
The Ecology of Wisdom: The Writings of Arne Næss
Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy
Life's Philosophy: Reason and Feeling in a Deeper World
Comments
To me,and to Norway,Arne Næss was a great intellctual,the father of ecologic philosophy.He grounded the movement for saving the nature and environment in Norway. His great teacher was Gandhi.He was an important professor at the University of Oslo 1939-1970—-so young!!He found the way for our research and thinking of the nature and the environment!!Beside beeing an academic,always working hard for mother earth, he was an adventurer and a climber!!
I heard him talk earlier today,on the radio,he said that the expedition to Tirish Mir was like “nothing”,-just a long walk in kneehigh snow, he said,-but I HAD TO to it!
Arne Næss lived in the nature as often as he could, he loved beeing out and had no electrisity in his cottage in the mountains.He lived his philosophy every day and through his life –both at work and in the nature.
I am very proud of him!
elisabeth
As an environmental Philosopher, Naess’s writing inspired me to study nature and the human relationship with the earth. I am deeply honoured to have known his work.
May his soul be one with nature and the mountains he loved.
We have been aware and inspired by his works and approach to the adventure of life for many years…
I will respectfully and quietly say his name from a summit this season…
DSD