Dr. Timothy Morton will turn your notion of ecological awareness on its head.  Discarding all cozy notions of being one with nature, he has coined the term "dark ecology" and advocates for an appreciation of one's surreal, creepy connection with all other things.  He dissolves the concept of nature and sees no clear line between life and non-life.  Dr. Morton is the author of Ecology Without Nature and The Ecological Thought, but our conversation ranged far beyond ecology (assuming anything can, in fact, be beyond ecology).  So shake your brain out of its torpor and brace yourself for a deluge of fascinating ideas and more than a few awesome metaphors.  Object oriented ontology, anyone?