Throughout the many texts we have read this semester in Intro to Environmental Studies, there has been a continuous flow of ideas that relate to each other, giving us the opportunity to make connections that can act as a foundation for our own thoughts to stem from. The three connections I have made all include our most recent text Who Rules the Earth with the following: Why We Disagree About Climate Change, classic vs. contemporary environmental thought, and lastly Making the Modern World.
Both Mike Hulme and Paul F. Steinberg argue that the way we try to control climate change through the government is not being done sufficiently. Paul F. Steinberg discusses international treaties in his book Who Rules the Earth? stating that these treaties give the impression that countries are able to set aside their differences and work towards a common goal of ensuring a stable future for our planet, but in reality they are not that simple. He argues that “ International environmental cooperation is an attempt at governance without a government” (Steinberg 2015, 166). The global cooperation international treaties require is like no nothing we have in place today. The United Nations in some ways exemplifies an international government, but it is lacking in that it cannot tax or create an army. There are also almost no functioning courts or police at the international level so in a sense there is an inability to stop countries or businesses from breaking the law (Steinberg 2015). Mike Hulme furthers the discussion of governing in Why We Disagree About Climate Change. He also believes that “We seem ill-equipped to bring an unruly climate and its implicated global citizenry under an appropriate form of governance” (Hulme 2009, 310). He draws attention to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 which required industrialized nations to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 5% by 2008-2012. Although many countries agreed to this treaty, it did not specify how these countries should go about reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore it is not surprising that the Kyoto Protocol did not produce the results it had promised. In both of these texts the authors recognize the weaknesses in our current attempts to govern the globe and the potential the obstacles we may face in the future.
There is also a very strong connection between Steinberg and the discussion around classical and contemporary environmental thought. Steinberg’s primary focus of his book Who Rules the Earth demonstrates the need to act institutionally because small individual changes are not enough to stop air pollution or the extinction of species (Steinberg 2015). Steinberg encourages us to change the rules similarly to how Dr. June Irwin did in Hudson Quebec during the early 1990s. Through doing research, attending town council meetings, and writing letters to the local paper for community support, she was able to push for the ban of all nonessential pesticides from homes and public spaces in Hudson (Steinberg 2015).This idea of institutional change goes hand in hand with a defining characteristic of contemporary environmentalism. One specific contemporary text that furthers this idea is found in Michael F. Maniates article Individualization: Plant a tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World? in which he analyzes The Lorax. This children’s book is popular in America, but it tells the reader that smart consumer choices are the answer to fixing the degrading forests or increasing pollution. He argues that “When responsibility for environmental problems is individualized, there is little room to ponder institutions, the nature and exercise of political power, or ways of collectively changing the distribution of power and influence in society—to, in other words, ‘think institutionally’”(Maniates 2001, 33). Therefore it is clear that Steinberg’s ideas agree with contemporary environmental thought in that although recycling and biking are the right thing to do, we need collective political action in order to actually make a difference.
The final connection I have made thus far in our readings is between Vaclav Smil’s Making the Modern World and Steinberg’s previously mentioned book. Both texts touch on the idea of strings being attached to a material or an experience. Nothing is simply what it seems to be. Smil emphasizes the history of the materials we use such as concrete, paper, and steel with an overwhelming amount of quantitative data, suggesting that there is significance to these materials and the trends at which we have used them. In order to understand that relative dematerialization is far more probable than absolute dematerialization, we must be familiar with the history of these materials and how we use them (Smil 2014). Our reading of Making the Modern World led us to our situating minerals project in which we examined the relationship of a mineral to its site of production, which is more than a location rather it is a place composed of nature, social relations, and meaning. Steinberg employs a similar idea when he explains that walking on a beach, although a seemingly innocent pleasure, actually has many underlying social rules at work. He raises many questions which aim to reveal the web of people and policies involved. For example, whether or not the beach in public was decided through politics and the sunscreen in our bags was available for purchase because of patents. All of these social rules are easy to overlook, but necessary to understand how institutions are always involved (Steinberg 2015). Both of these texts point out the importance of hidden complexities of seemingly simple materials and experiences.
Works Cited
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Maniates, Michael F. 2001. “Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World?” Global Environmental Politics 1 (3): 31–52.
Smil, Vaclav. 2014. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley.
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth? How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, United States: Oxford University Press.