Here's a piece I wrote for my environmental class a year ago.
Why I am not an Environmentalist
I do not believe I am an environmentalist although it is something I aspire to be someday. I also think that most people who say that they are environmentalists are also not environmentalists even though they would like to think that they are. I hope to point out the cognitive and actual differences between a real environmentalist and someone who truly believes themselves to be one.
First, defining an environmentalist: An environmentalist is somewhat a recent phenomenon. There have been naturalists around for a very long time but, environmentalism is something new. I imagine an environmentalist is someone who lives their life giving thought to their every action in regards to its effect it will have on the landbase and the humans and non-humans that person shares that landbase with. They are also someone who more closely defines themselves to the land they live on and owe their life to rather than an economic system in their actions, thoughts and lifestyle, ensuring that they give back more than they take.
An environmentalist probably doesn't consider themselves an environmentalist. Some time ago I read a book about a tribe that didn't have a word for 'art'. Of course they would do things that we consider art such as decorating a clay pot they made or using natural dyes to paint their body but they didn't have a word for the act of creating or adding decorations to themselves or their things. It came to them naturally. I think true environmentalism is the same for true environmentalists. We don't call Native Americans (living tribally prior to 1492) environmentalists because that's the lifestyle that they lived. The same way that produce in Africa isn't labeled as 'local' and 'organic' because that's exactly how things are. To label them as such is redundant.
Now that I've defined what I believe an environmentalist is I can tell you why I don't believe myself to be an environmentalist. My actions and lifestyle immediately give me away as not being an environmentalist. I awaken to an alarm clock, use hot water provided by a hot water heater, light my home, refrigerate my food, type on this laptop - all this and more, all powered using coal from the Appalachian Mountains by a corporate entity that uses mountain top removal to extract coal from the living soil.
I drive my motorcycle to school sometimes which uses oil as fuel. Oil that has been taken from the earth through many different methods, none of which gives back to the land that it takes from.
I eat food that also uses oil to transport from farm to grocery store (the average item in a grocery store has traveled over 2,000 miles [Dive!{2010}]). Oil is also used in the form of pesticides and fertilizers so that plants growing in non-native soil and in unnatural soldier rows may be harvested with an industrial ease. This industrial farming also causes topsoil erosion, destroys natural habitat as farmland continues to expand, pays workers slave-labor wages, and dumps so many chemicals into the lakes and rivers that in the Gulf of Mexico there is an area at the mouth of the Mississippi River called the dead zone where fish die of hypoxia due to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous which is bigger than the state of Connecticut.
"The United States constitutes less than 5 percent of the world's population yet uses more than one-fourth of the world's resources and produces one-fourth of the world's pollution and waste. If you compare the average U.S. citizen to the average citizen of India, you find that the American uses fifty times more steel, fifty-six times more energy, one hundred and seventy times more synthetic rubber, two hundred and fifty times more motor fuel, and three hundred times more plastic" (Jensen 2006, 115).
Essentially, if you are an average American, you cannot be an environmentalist as well. It is the same as saying that you are a vegetarian while having a mouthful of steak wrapped in bacon and topped with a turkey leg.
That being said, I am not saying that being an average American with the 'American Dream' is wrong. Environmentally, biocentrically, and realistically it IS wrong to think that 300 million people (in the States alone) can collectively live the most wasteful and destructive lifestyle on the planet.
There are many reasons why people choose to identify themselves as environmentalists. Primarily, it feels good. When people are able to make consumer choices about buying 'organic' or 'local' they feel like they're really making a decision that is doing good. This is largely due to the fact that we are in essence consumers more than anything else whether we define ourselves differently or not. And having that 'consumer power' makes people think that that and a few other things (like recycling, bringing your own bags to Wal-Mart, and not running the water while brushing their teeth) is enough for them to do. Being an American environmentalist is easy - all you have to do are a few token actions and you get the cool points that socially label you as a good guy or girl that is considerate and caring. And as for electric cars and sustainable energy - the Great Saviors that will herald in a new cleaner era - all of these new gadgets require mining operations, transportation to move raw materials and end-products, and industry to turn the raw materials into molded plastics, complicated electronics, and shiny metal (and all the waste associated with these processes). All on a massive, global scale. All still using finite resources. I was under the assumption that sustainable meant sustainable. What a load of malarkey...
There are also some groups that choose to not associate themselves with environmentalism and I thank them for their honesty. Environmentalism is a four-letter word that increases taxes, takes away freedoms, and inhibits industry. I've mostly found it to be men and women that like living 'the good life' and the thought that they have to limit themselves in any way is an infringement on their freedom. They buy land and things so that they can do anything they want with it rather than the idea that they are now a steward or responsible for that item or acreage. I've had very candid conversations with unashamed neighbors, family members, and friends who said that if the polar bears or crocodiles or habitat were going extinct or being destroyed then, it was their time and nothing could be done about it, the thought of slowing progress never even crossing their minds.
And then there's someone like myself that doesn't fit into either of those two very generalized groupings. I understand what environmentalism means to me. I believe that ideologically I'm an environmentalist but that doesn't keep any trees from being cut down, now does it? It means living on a human scale versus an automotive or industrial scale. It means giving more back to the land than I take away from it. It means being responsible for my own land by restoring habitat. It means growing my own food. It means minimizing my participation in the destruction of the environment. It means knowing that my miniscule actions will not and never will save the world. But it means doing those actions anyway.
First, defining an environmentalist: An environmentalist is somewhat a recent phenomenon. There have been naturalists around for a very long time but, environmentalism is something new. I imagine an environmentalist is someone who lives their life giving thought to their every action in regards to its effect it will have on the landbase and the humans and non-humans that person shares that landbase with. They are also someone who more closely defines themselves to the land they live on and owe their life to rather than an economic system in their actions, thoughts and lifestyle, ensuring that they give back more than they take.
An environmentalist probably doesn't consider themselves an environmentalist. Some time ago I read a book about a tribe that didn't have a word for 'art'. Of course they would do things that we consider art such as decorating a clay pot they made or using natural dyes to paint their body but they didn't have a word for the act of creating or adding decorations to themselves or their things. It came to them naturally. I think true environmentalism is the same for true environmentalists. We don't call Native Americans (living tribally prior to 1492) environmentalists because that's the lifestyle that they lived. The same way that produce in Africa isn't labeled as 'local' and 'organic' because that's exactly how things are. To label them as such is redundant.
Now that I've defined what I believe an environmentalist is I can tell you why I don't believe myself to be an environmentalist. My actions and lifestyle immediately give me away as not being an environmentalist. I awaken to an alarm clock, use hot water provided by a hot water heater, light my home, refrigerate my food, type on this laptop - all this and more, all powered using coal from the Appalachian Mountains by a corporate entity that uses mountain top removal to extract coal from the living soil.
I drive my motorcycle to school sometimes which uses oil as fuel. Oil that has been taken from the earth through many different methods, none of which gives back to the land that it takes from.
I eat food that also uses oil to transport from farm to grocery store (the average item in a grocery store has traveled over 2,000 miles [Dive!{2010}]). Oil is also used in the form of pesticides and fertilizers so that plants growing in non-native soil and in unnatural soldier rows may be harvested with an industrial ease. This industrial farming also causes topsoil erosion, destroys natural habitat as farmland continues to expand, pays workers slave-labor wages, and dumps so many chemicals into the lakes and rivers that in the Gulf of Mexico there is an area at the mouth of the Mississippi River called the dead zone where fish die of hypoxia due to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous which is bigger than the state of Connecticut.
"The United States constitutes less than 5 percent of the world's population yet uses more than one-fourth of the world's resources and produces one-fourth of the world's pollution and waste. If you compare the average U.S. citizen to the average citizen of India, you find that the American uses fifty times more steel, fifty-six times more energy, one hundred and seventy times more synthetic rubber, two hundred and fifty times more motor fuel, and three hundred times more plastic" (Jensen 2006, 115).
Essentially, if you are an average American, you cannot be an environmentalist as well. It is the same as saying that you are a vegetarian while having a mouthful of steak wrapped in bacon and topped with a turkey leg.
That being said, I am not saying that being an average American with the 'American Dream' is wrong. Environmentally, biocentrically, and realistically it IS wrong to think that 300 million people (in the States alone) can collectively live the most wasteful and destructive lifestyle on the planet.
There are many reasons why people choose to identify themselves as environmentalists. Primarily, it feels good. When people are able to make consumer choices about buying 'organic' or 'local' they feel like they're really making a decision that is doing good. This is largely due to the fact that we are in essence consumers more than anything else whether we define ourselves differently or not. And having that 'consumer power' makes people think that that and a few other things (like recycling, bringing your own bags to Wal-Mart, and not running the water while brushing their teeth) is enough for them to do. Being an American environmentalist is easy - all you have to do are a few token actions and you get the cool points that socially label you as a good guy or girl that is considerate and caring. And as for electric cars and sustainable energy - the Great Saviors that will herald in a new cleaner era - all of these new gadgets require mining operations, transportation to move raw materials and end-products, and industry to turn the raw materials into molded plastics, complicated electronics, and shiny metal (and all the waste associated with these processes). All on a massive, global scale. All still using finite resources. I was under the assumption that sustainable meant sustainable. What a load of malarkey...
There are also some groups that choose to not associate themselves with environmentalism and I thank them for their honesty. Environmentalism is a four-letter word that increases taxes, takes away freedoms, and inhibits industry. I've mostly found it to be men and women that like living 'the good life' and the thought that they have to limit themselves in any way is an infringement on their freedom. They buy land and things so that they can do anything they want with it rather than the idea that they are now a steward or responsible for that item or acreage. I've had very candid conversations with unashamed neighbors, family members, and friends who said that if the polar bears or crocodiles or habitat were going extinct or being destroyed then, it was their time and nothing could be done about it, the thought of slowing progress never even crossing their minds.
And then there's someone like myself that doesn't fit into either of those two very generalized groupings. I understand what environmentalism means to me. I believe that ideologically I'm an environmentalist but that doesn't keep any trees from being cut down, now does it? It means living on a human scale versus an automotive or industrial scale. It means giving more back to the land than I take away from it. It means being responsible for my own land by restoring habitat. It means growing my own food. It means minimizing my participation in the destruction of the environment. It means knowing that my miniscule actions will not and never will save the world. But it means doing those actions anyway.
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