NMU Conservation Crew

The Politics of Saving the Environment

 

     As we all anxiously await the results of the 2020 election, it’s safe to say that most environmentalists are hoping for a Biden win; after all, Democrats are typically associated with policies that protect our land, air and water, right?  A recent New York Times article titled “The Trump Administration Is Reversing Nearly 100 Environmental Rules.  Here’s the Full List.” certainly seems to add weight to that theory, but the inconvenient truth is that environmental protections aren’t as blue vs. red as we are led to believe.

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     Just a few weeks ago, in a lecture for The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York entitled “The Politics of Cultural Despair,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and activist Chris Hedges painted a dire picture of the state of our country, including what he described as “accelerating ecocide.”  Hedges pointed out that, despite growing environmental activism and awareness, there has been a “…60% rise in global carbon emissions since 1990.  Estimates predict another 40% rise, almost all of it baked in the system, in global emissions in the next decade,” Hedges warned.  “That means we are less than a decade away from carbon dioxide levels reaching 450 parts per million – the equivalent of a 2 degree Celsius average temperature rise – a global catastrophe that will make parts of the earth uninhabitable.”

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     A good environmentalist is well aware of this prediction and, besides engaging in the activism that Hedges mentions, mainly by voting blue, probably also commits to such actions as using reusable bags at the grocery store and cups at the coffee shop, as well as religiously recycling instead of just carelessly throwing everything out in the trash, but is that really the best we can do?  More importantly, is it even the right way to go about creating real and lasting environmental protections?

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     Years of corporate greenwashing has pushed a narrative that the responsibility for the care of the environment rests with individuals.  Avoiding the horrors of environmental collapse is, we are told, dependent on our ability to replace our lightbulbs and appliances with more efficient models; to choose electric vehicles; to add more insulation and low-flow showerheads.  While individual actions are important and every bit most certainly helps, they largely serve to make us feel like we are making a difference and doing our part; the reality is that we are never going to buy ourselves into a cleaner, safer environment – especially in a country where just 50 individuals control 40% of the wealth and, even more sickening, just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions.

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    The realization that we need to hold corporations responsible is gaining more traction.  Just a few days ago, Shell Oil Company left the door wide open when they asked twitter what they were willing to change to reduce emissions.  The backlash was prompt and harsh, and included a response from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who tweeted, "I’m willing to hold you accountable for lying about climate change for 30 years when you secretly knew the entire time that fossil fuels emissions would destroy our planet,” as well as 17 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg who typed, "I don’t know about you, but I sure am willing to call-out-the-fossil-fuel-companies-for-knowingly-destroying-future-living-conditions -for-countless-generations-for profit-and-then-trying-to-distract-people-and-prevent-real-systemic-change-through-endless greenwash-campaigns."

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     What, then, about voting?  Surely that is essential environmental activism work, isn’t it?  Well, as Hedges points out in his lecture, both parties are corrupted by corporate money – the very same corporations working so hard to gaslight the population into believing curbing carbon emissions is up to them.  Deregulation of environmental protections, fracking, and continued support for big oil has full bipartisan support; in fact, a Biden win could be even more dangerous for the environment because the illusion of safety makes activists complacent and less vigilant, assuming that their vote was the majority of their work and responsibility.  Oh, if only it would be that simple.

    

     Hedges warns in his lecture that both parties are truly one corporate state, controlled by corporate money, and they will never respond to the climate emergency because it does not benefit them financially to do so.  To slow or disrupt our descent into ecocide, he says, we must first acknowledge that our systems of governance are incapable of being reformed.  “No one in power will save us,” he insists, “No one but us will stand up for the vulnerable, the demonized, and the earth, itself.  All we do must have the single aim of crippling the power of the ruling elites and the hopes of new systems of governance that can implement the radical reforms to save us and the world.” 

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     Perhaps there is a grain of truth in all of that corporate greenwashing: it IS up to us, but not just by voting or recycling or driving a Prius (though you shouldn’t stop doing those things), but by working to change the political systems that allow a handful of wealthy elite and corporations to wage environmental destruction for their profit and our expense.  This will take sustained acts of nonviolent mass resistance, along the lines of what we saw at Standing Rock, and more.  The fight ahead of us is much harder than we imagined; the perils that await us if we fail are unthinkable; the urge to go back to bed and hide under the covers is overwhelming, but we cannot afford to go back to sleep.  In this struggle, Hedges offers hope that “we will find our own freedom, our autonomy, our meaning, and our social bonds among those who also resist.  This will allow us to endure and, maybe, even triumph.”  To environmentalists everywhere:  I hope we win.

 

Mary Boyle is a writer, editor and closet activist from Ozaukee County, Wisconsin.  Read more at www.OzaukeeLivingLocal.com.