Before the second semester began, I had a very narrow-minded view of environmentalism. My upbringing was one that strongly emphasized a low carbon footprint and waste reduction on an individual scale. My family and I rarely used our car and almost exclusively biked to and from work or school. We have solar panels on our roof. We do not use air conditioning even in 90 degree summer heat. We are all very conscious of our consumption of plastic. My sister and myself were active members of our school’s environmental club. My dad will take 3 day train rides to conferences instead of 5 hour flights. He is an anthropologist whose latest book was titled Energy Without Conscious. We spent a year in Trinidad while he studied the oil industry and moral issues surrounding climate change. My high school did not offer an ENVS class, so I did not have a formal education about Environmentalism. All I had was a deeply entrenched sense that overconsumption and an overwhelming devotion to profit and economic growth has resulted in a rapid destruction of the natural world.
I soon realized that I had a classic view of environmentalism. As we read different articles from both classic and contemporary environmentalists, I discovered that there was a lot I had been missing. Analyzing these writings by looking at different ecotypes axises highlighted a divide I had not known existed. When we read Austerity Ecology, I was truly dismayed. I resented the fact that I had to read a book that attacked the things I believe in. But I learned a valuable lesson from this reading. Environmentalism means nothing. Those who label themselves environmentalists may have completely opposite views of both the problems that need solving and the solutions to these problems. My belief, which I still maintain, is that economic growth and consumption must be curbed in order to counteract climate change. Leigh Phillips believes that economic growth is the solution to climate change.
A lot of the reading I have done for this class was disheartening. Jevon’s paradox offered the possibility that my efforts to curb my consumption had all been in vain. In general, our readings have emphasized institutional change and de emphasized individual action. The combination of these readings and the ecotypes axises made everything appear black and white. This has been my main objection to this class so far. I do not see how one can have institutional change without individual action. Individual action precedes institutional change.
Phillips, Leigh. 2015. Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Winchester: Zero Books. Kindle Edition.