Are You an Atmosphan?
Posted: March 15th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Almost Green, Habits, top | Tags: atmosphan environmentalist language |
I’ve been mulling over in my head potential replacements for the word “environmentalist,” a term that in the minds of many needs to be retired, then sent home with a pension and a gold watch.
Why? Maybe it’s that it’s just not a very inspiring word. Maybe it’s that the term suggests that there is this “thing” out there called “the environment” that we need to buckle down and fix. To me, “the environment” feels more like an obligation than something to get excited about fixing. It’s a catch-all collection of planetary ills: Deforestation? Overfishing? Whales? Particulates? Mercury? E-waste?
Can we please turn down the earnestat a few degrees?
Look, you’re all smart people out there. Maybe we can put our heads together and come up with some more upbeat words to describe those of us who know everything is ridiculously out of whack, and are working on the solutions, at home, at work, around the neighborhood, or across the country. Something a little more, er, marketable….
Let me throw one out to start. For me, it’s still all about climate. Attentive readers of this blog will note that I’m a big supporter of the atmosphere. It’s in rough shape, and pretty much everything down here depends upon us getting it back into balance, asap.
So call me an atmosphan. There.
Okay, now you. Go.
I’m proud of being an Environmentalist. Sure, there is a silliness to it—aren’t we all “environmentalists?” we are all a part of teh environment aren’t we?—but it has come to represent a way of thinking about our environment (including the atmosphere) that matters. The term has been savaged so much—I still boil up over Rush Limbaugh saying environmentalists “don’t work”—that I would rather wear it as a badge of honor. I have put sweat and volunteer hours into saving wild places. I have taken tear gas in the face for my beliefs. I have seen a friend suffer a stroke while he was trying to protect wild places he loves. I have seen environmentalists savaged, mocked and marginalized, all for working selflessly to, as my friend who had that stroke once put it, “be an advocate, speak for places that have no voice.” I am truly concerned about climate change and I do think it is within our reach to reverse the damage we have done, but I have to admit the climate change movement also makes me squirm a bit. It’s obsessive, often spurred on by it’s own unerring certainty. You are not allowed to argue with it. That frightens me in a way (even if I believe it is truth). It risks reducing the complexity of the world into a single issue that since it is so pressing and real, only allows for right and wrong. That’s the same type of certainty that scares me in religious fanatics. It goes against the intellectual tradition of skepticism I was educated in and believe in. At times it reminds me a bit too much of communism and that movement’s unstoppable belief in the ability to create a “new man.” Yes, climate change is a very real, I’m not arguing that. But the worst mistake “environmentalism” has made over the years is to believe so fully in its own moral superiority that it loses its connection to reality. Over the past decades, conservationism has grown up and learned to include diverse voices, make compromises when necessary (and some should not be made) and, most of all, listen. Also, when it comes down to it, climate change can/will only be addressed though massive government action. Environmentalism encompasses all the little things each one of us can do. Some people love to hate her, but I have always been inspired by Julia Butterfly Hill. Saving one tree was all she could do, but symbolically it meant so much more than one tree, and she put herself so fully in the act of fighting for one simple thing, perhaps the only thing, she could save—her tree. Isn’t it just as important, maybe more so, to save the nest of a single songbird in Ohio from development, or, say, to teach a room of 7-year-olds about where their drinking water comes from, as it is to take on the planetary labor of halting climate change? Environmentalism is an awareness of the world around us, a compassion for all living things, a willingness to stand up for what is worth defending, and a willingness to think about the world’s complex interactions and trust in them to create beauty and wonder. Again, it’s not that I don’t believe that climate change is the most pressing issue facing the world and the environment (and I do think your term “Atmosphan” is fantastic… and that _Almost Green_ is spot on in looking at the complexities of green issues), it’s just that I worry about any movement that becomes too certain of its own inevitable rightness.
Wow, thanks Doug. Great thoughts and observations. My main fear is the cartesian duality thing… by protecting the environment, we not only put ourselves above it (when it is us and we is it) but we also compartmentalize it. When the chips are down, it can be temptingly easy to put the environment into a mental box and set it aside while we focus on more important things, when in fact the ills it seeks to address can be traced to a wide range of imbalances and habits that suffuse all aspects of life and work.
As you know the book is about trying to navigate daily life with this knowledge in mind — where your 6 year old wants mass produced plastic crap from china for her birthday because you let her watch TV, because you need to focus on dinner, because you had to work late, because you have a big mortgage to cover, because you felt you were entitled to a nice big house with a nice view that you can’t really afford… an endless loop of decisions that are easy to condemn but not so easy to unravel and break free of. It’s messy, and the most offensive thing you can do is profess purity.
The “ism” part ruins it for me. And yeah, the moral high ground is so hard to figure out, the sanctimoneous, religious fervor. But weren’t you feeling that when you took the tear gas? Wherever you were, whatever the circumstances, you must have been feeling so deep inside you that you were morally right, that it was so important. That’s precisely where the place of religious certainty exists, and that’s exactly what is so dangerously alienating about the movement to so many who might otherwise get with the program.
Playing soccer doesn’t come with the baggage of an “ism,” neither does getting together to enjoy music with your friends. These things are about healthy fun, being together, building community, shared values….
Rambling now…
Yes! I think we are on the same page.
I’ll revert to my hero Bertrand Russell:
” Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance. “
When asked if I am an “environmentalist,” I reply that I am “an economist,” even though I am not at all. Because many environmental solutions rely on a smart economy, at personal, local and global levels. Hopefully it makes people think a little outside the box when thinking about “the environment.” But these days being an economist is no longer as marketable as it used to be.
You could also just call yourself “a parent,” if you indeed are one, because anyone with kids should be working for a better future.
Hi James, Perhaps it is just life, humans they call us, trying to live and learn as we progress through our daily routines, always aware that the world should be a better place for everyone. Challenging but necessary , it is all part of the learning curve. Hopefully you will continue to educate and enlighten us along the way.