My introduction to the world of environmental studies came at an exceedingly young age. Growing up in Salt Lake City, I watched every winter as a dense cloud of smog settled over the city. These inversions sparked my constant worry for the health of the people in my city and I immediately jumped into learning more about it. It was not until I took AP Environmental Science in my final year of high school that I realized I wanted to make a career of it. However, entering college was an entirely different ballgame. I now know that nearly everything I have learned until now has been either natural science related or popular opinion-based. I had never been exposed to conflicting perspectives and every argument was one-sided. Though I would say that Environmental Studies 160 has taught me far more than I initially thought it would, the most important lessons I have learned that will influence my pursuit of environmental studies are:
1. No perspective is the correct perspective.
My previous Environmental Science class had taught me that if something was not backed up with hard, scientific evidence, it was invalid. The book written by socialist Leigh Phillips titled, Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence Of Growth, Progress, Industry And Stuff, offered an almost cynical perspective on environmentalism. Oddly enough, the book seemed to be answering every question that I had ever had about the best approach to solving the issues that worried me, and I discovered that I shared Phillips’ potentially controversial perspective. Breaking away from the classic environmental ideas that I had been raised to believe lead me to wonder if bleeding hearts and selfless nature lovers willing to alter their personal lifestyles could really save the world. This is not to say that I believe the socialist approach is the only effective approach to environmentalism. I also discovered my realist side through Vaclav Smil’s Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization which provided an absurd amount of material and consumer related statistics from centuries ago until now. Smil’s explanations of absolute and relative dematerialization gave me a new perspective on conservation efforts such as recycling. I believe that it is vital that humans understand why we are doing something and if what we are doing is an effective strategy, and Smil opened that door into consumerism.
2. Every new environmental theory is just that: a theory.
Perhaps the first and only exposure I had to scholarly environmental writing before Environmental Studies 160 was through Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons. One of the most cited environmental texts in history, Hardin’s theory has been accepted as truth. Just like no perspective is the correct one, not every theory is correct either. While Hardin’s theory is relatively simple and makes perfect sense to a reader, Hardin fails to examine outside factors such as government regulation, private and shared property, and even human moral compass. Reexamining the many theories that I have always believed the be true showed me that every theory misses things that others don’t and vice versa. There are so many other things to consider besides calculable effects on the natural world, like sociology, politics, and economics. Environmental Studies 160 has reconstructed my views on the entire world of environmentalism and the theories that are supported by public opinion.
3. Questions rarely lead to a concise answer.
Environmental Studies 160 has revealed just how complex the topic of environmentalism is. For every answer, there are plenty more unanswered questions. The complexity of the subject makes an interdisciplinary approach necessary. For every issue that arises affecting human health, water quality, resource availability, and everything else that the world faces, there are multiple ways to solve the problem. Every solution has flaws and one does not always outweigh the others. Who Rules the Earth? By Paul Steinberg discusses the two major categories for solution-making: institutional and individual. This book altered my perspective on the popular consensus that every individual person contributing small actions will make a great impact. While this does not mean that everyone should stop recycling, I concur that big solutions to the problems that threaten the planet will only come from social institutions and global consensus. My opinion on world solutions has altered to encompass social movements as the only logical way to produce notable change with relative speed. As Steinberg states, “[i]n their totality, social rules make up the world’s largest machine” (Steinberg 2015, 28).
Environmental Studies 160 has left me both enlightened and utterly confused. So much of what I had originally believed to be true turned out to be merely theoretical or personal opinion. Being exposed to a wide variety of perspectives and beliefs is vital for anyone who desires to make a life from Environmental Studies. Though I will need to gather my thoughts and develop my own theories before I continue in the field, I will surely stay on this course and incorporate my learnings into my lifestyle.
Citations
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth?: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smil, Vaclav. 2014. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Sussex: John Wiley and Sons.
Phillips, Leigh. 2015. Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Winchester: Zero Books. Kindle Edition.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. “Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162. Accessed April 2, 2017.
doi: 10.1126/science.162.3859.1243