Odin, Steve. "Environmental Ethics in Whitehead's Eco-Philosophy of Nature, Green Buddhism, & the Japanese of Shizengaku Imanishi Kinji."   http://whitehead-japan.com/03/taikai/ecosophia/odin20100220.pdf 

Abstract

This paper examines A. N. Whitehead's organic process cosmology in relation to Green Buddhism and Japanese shizengaku (nature-study), on overlapping topics including environmental ethics, ecology, sustainability, and philosophy of nature. Here I introduce the Japanese shizengaku of Imanishi Kinji, which is influenced not only by the modern Zen Philosophy of Nishida Kitarô, but also the modern environmental sciences. Most advocates of Deep Ecology and Green Buddhism emphases biospheric equality while rejecting all hierarchy. It is argued that all sentient beings in the web of life have equal moral standing and equal intrinsic value. However, for Whitehead, as for Imanishi and even some Japanese Buddhist, nature is ranked into a hierarchy of degrees of values, including aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values. The view here is that in addition to the horizontal axis of interconnectedness and biospheric equality, there is also a vertical axis establishing a hierarchy of compassion involving the expanded awareness of an ever-widening circle of relationships in nature.