Kristen Baumlier

Today I dialed in to Orion Magazine’s online/phone conference meeting called Getting Over Environmentalism: Live Discussion with Paul Kingsnorth and Friends on January 18.  The discussion focused on whether “environmentalism” gone off course and questioned what sustainability has to do with a healthy planet.

The session started with the Paul Kingsnorth speaking, author of “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist” an article in in the current issue of Orion.  In his article he writes about how environmentalism has effectively died.  On the one hand it has been absorbed by the political left, which has diluted its ecocentric message; on the other, it has been taken over by the vision of a new “sustainable economy” which amounts to business-as-usual without the carbon.

Kingsnorth talked about how he became an “environmentalist” due to his strong emotional connection to issues about the land, water, mountains, and animals and these are not common values of “environmentalists” today.  Today’s environmentalism focuses on promoting “sustainability,” which focuses on a completely different idea:  sustaining human civilization at the comfort level that we feel is our right, without continuing to destroy the “natural capital” or the “resource base” that is needed to do so.  Sustainabilty is currently primarily carbon-centric, and is about sustaining what Kingsnorth called our “empire” of humans.

Eco-centric narratives have disappeared from the word “green,” which used to mean preserving nature: mountains, seas, animals, etc.  Kingsworth mentioned that today the word often means putting wind turbines and solar panels into the natural environment.

What are the next steps that need to be taken?  He talked about how we must go back to the original green values, we can’t pretend that our system is not going to collapse, and we must begin to believe that we are destroying our environment in order to work to save it.

The next speaker was Lierre Keith who is writer, small farmer, and radical feminist activist. She started her talk by saying that 200 species will go extinct today, 98% of forests are gone, and 99% of prairies are gone.  We have greatly impacted the environment.

She also talked about how the environmental movement today is focused on saving civilization from destruction of its own action and that our current infrastructure is not sustainable.  She mentioned Manhattan as an example, which is – under all the city – an island. This island is not able to sustain itself on its own water, land, and resources – so other places around the country use resources to sustain the way of life in New York.  It is an example of how we take more than the land can give.

Keith talked about our current culture and said, “Our way of life has been a one time blowout and its over.”  She went on to say that we are in a culture of entitlement and that a radical shift is needed.  The solution? It’s a big one.  We will have to eliminate our systems – dams, coal, oil, pipelines, etc – and work to non-violently shut down the system.

One example she gave of people effectively shutting down the system was in France in 2010, when citizens used non-violence actions to shut down the economy for 3 weeks, by “blocking oil.” She said that movements like Occupy, and 350.org are examples of group action– but more needs to be done on a larger scale.  “It’s a war and it is time to fight back,” she said.

The effects of our way of life are not always visible, but we are changing the natural environment. Today in China, there are places that do not have flowering plants due to the elimination of pollinators.  This is in places that for thousands of years had this kind of wildlife – and is an indicator of how we affect the natural world.

During the phone conference, there were other speakers, a question and answer section where individuals could email questions for the speakers, and concluding remarks.

All the speakers closed by saying that in order for change to happen we will have to lose faith in our current system.  Currently we are comfortable, and those that are not believe in the promise that they could be comfortable and join in.  There are individuals who want change – but don’t know what to do. The system is breaking down – and it is not going to get better.  What can be done to change this?  All the speakers talked about joining together in solidarity for change is our future for change.

Since I heard this session, this has really gotten me thinking about the term “green” and sustainability, and the shift that the speakers talked about in terms of environmentalism.  I plan to do some research, and write another post about the history of the word “green.”

The session will be posted in the multimedia area of the Orion Magazine website, and I recommend streaming it – to get a new (even radical) perspective on the environment and sustainability.

Image Source:
Kristen Baumlier

Links:

Paul Kingsnorth, author of “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist” an article in in the current issue of Orion (January 2011)

Listen to the Getting Over Environmentalism: Live Discussion with Paul Kingsnorth and Friends podcast:  http://www.orionmagazine.com/multimedia

Lierre Keith’s Deep Green Resistance Book