Environmentalism

While I have always considered myself to be an environmentalist, until this class, I never thought deeply about what the practice of environmentalism truly means. I was fascinated by our class discussion about whether environmentalists must be activists, whether they are required to take action, and whether they are "extreme". I have always hoped to live in a world where everyone is an environmentalist. We all live on this planet and all depend on it to survive. It is deeply troubling to me that climate change, pollution regulation, and other environmental issues have become political and partisan. I hope that no matter what one defines as an environmentalist that we can move forward towards a world in which environmental issues are debated through a lens of unity and inclusion rather than division and misinformation.

Articles such as Confronting Consumption and others raise important questions about what it means to be an environmentalist. Their arguments seem far more compelling to me than contrary articles advocating for continued economic growth in the face of environmental degredation. The shocking environmental impact of Americans through our way of life makes it difficult for one to care about the environment yet consume far more than one's fair share of the world's resources. I am a member of Eco-Sense, in the sg department of environmental policy, and an environmental studies major yet still need to eat, use electricity, transport myself, and consume far more resources than I should to support a sustainable planet. Is it even possible to be an environmentalist that 'walks the walk' in the United States or any industrialized nation?

I don't know all of the steps that need to be taken to create a more sustainable society, but it is clear that change on a systemic and fundamental level is necessary to sustain our human population. In order to do this, I think environmentalists need to reach out to people that would not normally consider themselves interested in green issues and engage them on these pressing concerns. We need to shed the mantles of perceived elitism and guilt and instead frame environmental issues as moral imperatives to lift our world up, renew our economic future, and sustain the bounty of human kind.