The author touts the I-you model for treating each other and the planet.

Question: What is the relationship between emotional and ecological intelligence?

Daniel Goleman: Well, there not really a strong segway from emotional intelligence, which has to do with how we handle ourselves personally and how we handle our relationships in ecology except for this.  One of the attributes of social intelligence, how we deal with each other… I was described years ago in a book by a philosopher named Martin Buber called “I and Thou”, he talks about 2 modes of relating.  One is an I-It mode, where, basically, you treat other people as an object not as a person.  And so, you… whatever you say is like sending bullets, you know, I’m going to tell you this, I’m going to tell you that, I’m going to tell you that and you don’t care how the other person takes it, how they’re responding.  The contrast to that is an I-You, where you’re tuned in, you empathize, and how that other person responds to what you say determines what you do and say next.  That’s rapport.  That’s where you have good chemistry.  Right now, the human species generally has an I-It relationship to earth.  And, I think, “Ecological Intelligence” is about changing that to an I-You