Over the course of the semester, I have considered many points of view through the different sections in ENVS 160. Although each section offered a distinct perspective on environmental issues, I have discovered a few overarching themes that connect all of the sections and their subsequent reading. By comparing these sections, I have been able to better understand why people hold different perspectives of nature, how the materials we use are determined, and, finally, how thoughts and opinions about environmental solutions are formed.
Often when one thinks of environmental issues they think of nature; thus the first connection I made concerned how different perceptions of nature lead to different treatment of it. A large aspect of how we treat nature relates to our spiritual perception of it, this is a topic Mike Hulme examines in his book Why We Disagree About Climate Change. Hulme, paraphrasing Thomas Dunlap, notes three important principles connecting nature and spirituality: “…a focus on relationships between humans and Nature; the recognition of the spiritual or transcendent dimensions of the human experience of Nature; and a holistic world-view…” (Hulme 2009, loc. 2934). For Hulme, ones spiritual beliefs can heavily influence how they think about nature. This emphasis on the spiritual relationship between humans and nature strongly reminded me of Ecotopia, a book by Ernest Callenbach from which we read a passage of during our section on classic environmental thought. The spiritual connection between humans and nature is see when the narrator observes, “…a quite ordinary-looking young man, not visibly drugged, lean against a large oak and mutter ‘Brother Tree!’” (Callenbach 1975, 58). Through looking across different sections of ENVS, I have discovered that wherever one stands on their perception of nature, their own spirituality will have a significant impact on how they treat it.
Another connection throughout our sections that I observed involved the materials we use. An overall theme I noticed concerning materials is that, generally speaking, we are using materials ineffectively. This theme first presented itself to me when Vaclav Smil, in his book Making the Modern World, touched upon civilization’s recycling performance, “…so far its recycling efforts have been quite inadequate even when compared to what might be labeled as a barely satisfactory effort” (Smil 2014, 113). So why have our recycling efforts, and overall use of materials in general, been so inadequate? An answer was presented to me while reading Paul Steinberg’s Who Rules the Earth?, where he declares that the means by which information is shared plays a crucial role in how large groups use materials (Steinberg 2015, 44). After reading that section, I was able to return to Smil’s writing and apply his use of numerical data to Steinberg’s more abstract-leaning thoughts, which furthered my understanding of material usage.
Finally, the last connection between sections that stood out to me dealt with how thoughts about environmental solutions formed in the first place. By reading Who Rules the Earth?, I have been able to better understand how social rules shape our understanding of ideas we believe to be truths. Steinberg explains this reasoning when he writes, “When rules are routinely followed…we internalize them as habits, routines, and standard operating procedures” (Steinberg 2015, 12). This reasoning helped me understand why so many environmentalists take works such as Garrett Hardin’s 1968 The Tragedy of the Commons and Donella Meadows’, along with others, 1974 The Limits to Growth as facts; they are taught and talked about so much that it would be absurd to think of them as anything but truth. Leigh Phillips, in his book Austerity Ecology, provides an example of how such routine becomes seen as fact, “Anti-consumerism has become a fundamental doctrine of the modern left, indeed of mainstream thought across the board” (Phillips 2014, 86). Phillips argues that the idea that consumerism is bad has become so widespread that people have stopped considering the advantages of it. Thus, anti-consumerism has become a social rule. In all, by examining these sections I have been able to connect broader themes of environmentalism to conclude that before accepting an idea as solid, one must heavily consider it from all points of view.
Works Cited:
Callenbach, Ernest. 1975. Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston. Berkeley, CA: Banyan Tree Books.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162 (3859): 1243–48. doi:10.1126/science.162.3859.1243.
Hulme, Mike. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Phillips, Leigh. Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defense of
Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Alresford, United Kingdom: Zero
Books, 2015.
Meadows, Donella H., Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens. 1974. The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe Books.
Smil, Vaclav. Making the Modern World. West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley &
Sons, 2014.
Steinberg, Paul F. Who Rules the Earth? New York, NY: Oxford University Press,
2015.