intimate conversation with mother earth

For a dramatically different take on the ethical dimension of reality, see this "intimate conversation with mother earth", from Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh; (go to this link). Thich Nhat Hanh's teaching is a rich alternative to much of the empty materialism of the West: "You manifested more than 4 and a half billion years ago and life began to manifest on you less than one billion years later. Since then, you have gradually become the beautiful living planet that you are today". 

intrinsic value in nature

Holmes Rolston has a new book: A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millenium for Life on Earth. Although Rolston covers many topics herein, of special significance me is his writing on intrinsic value in nature. He takes great care to explore the ideas around "who values", what constitutes a "valuer", and how he diverges from some current philosophers on these questions. I think Rolston has it right; my understanding is mostly formed out of intuition. Read and decide for yourself.

recommended book

This book may be "just the right book, at just the right time", for some of us. "Plotkin’s greatest concern about current Western society is that we are stuck in an adolescent stage (Duane Elgin also expressed this in his excellent book Promise Ahead) in which we are, in the absence of natural initiation, prone to addictions and highly destructive behavior.  Sooner or later, we each have to address the paramount addiction in the Western world: our psychological dependence on the worldview and lifestyle of Western civilization itself." 
(from a review by Linda Buzzell, M.A., M.F.T.; see this link for more of this review)