This past Friday we discussed environmental problems in situated, close-to-home contexts to see how the concepts discussed in Chapters 2-8 relate in real life scenarios and if there are environmental perspectives that are more important than others. Perhaps the perspective that stood out the most to me and in our posts was Institutions. This is because it is through institutions that wide scale change and management of the commons is accomplished. Other perspectives provide solutions, but this chapter is all about initiating these solutions on a larger scale. Institutions is the most important perspective for being able to improve the world’s condition, but it also must be thought of alongside other perspectives that find the solutions to instigate.
Other perspectives that I find to be pervasive in all environmental problems are environmental ethics and risks and hazards. Really when any decision must be made there are ethical concerns as well as risks to be aware of and this is especially evident in environmental issues where people have strong opinions of right and wrong and the risks can be huge. These two perspectives are important to be knowledgable of when ever a big decision must be made, including how institutions operate.
The other perspectives are certainly important, but I think they tend to be more place/context dependent. For example, population is very important to be aware of in areas where population is still growing exponentially, but it is significantly less important in stable population cities and areas. The two chapters we discussed this week also fall into this category. Political Economy points out the issues of capitalism including uneven development and the commodification of nature, and while capitalist thought is an important force worldwide, it is obviously more of an issue in capitalist countries. Social construction of nature is similarly a problem that is more important in certain contexts. For example, nature is a more western idea, and is thus more of an issue in western societies. I find the construction of nature to be really interesting and important for people to be aware of, but I also acknowledge that it perhaps doesn’t provide as many solutions as some of the other perspectives and rather just points out that some of these problems are not as big of issues. These are all perspectives that are important be aware of and experts are needed in all these areas, but they are less important for us because they do not apply in every situation.
I feel similarly that I placed more importance on scientific, especially ecological, concerns coming into this course. However, environmental studies has proven to take disciplines from all across the board. I am left, then, thinking about what the best way to organize and act on environmental issues is. Clearly, experts from many different fields are needed, but how can we facilitate these collaborations that seem necessary for problem-solving? I think this leads to interesting territory.