Anybody could create a series of slides filled with data, statistics, and numbers to convey a message. What I found more important than the numbers were the people behind the numbers. Putting statistics under examination showed me how all encompassing and how vitally important environmental justice is.
The first lesson the classes taught me is how little I know. I had never heard of the Dead Zone of the Gulf of Mexico. I had no idea the Sahara and the Gobi were annually expanding. I could not fathom what the effects day-to-day living in America has done to countries around the globe. Then I asked, Why? The immediate and somewhat obvious answer came to me. There is little to no media coverage of this. But why? Do people not care, or do environmental issues seem too abstract to take seriously? I realized that even if half of the world’s population pushed to preserve natural ecosystems, mitigate our impact on the world, and stop wasteful and destructive practices, there would still be half the population pulling in the opposite direction. It is an all or none battle.
My next lesson made a bigger impact on my opinion of environmental justice. Whether anyone likes to admit it, everyone has a set of environmental ethics. No one is advocating that we should “pillage and plunder the Earth for resources.” Rather, in my opinion, people tend to roughly side with one of two camps. One camp is actively trying to take action in preserving the environment. The other is more or less apathetic or ignorant of these issues. This, of course, is a broad sweeping generalization but there is a kernel of truth to it: people cannot act on issues they do not know exist. If we suppose they do know but do not act, then there are a number of other factors at work. Compare a farmer from the Midwest to a resident in New York City. In order to make a profit the farmer may use pesticides or growth hormones on his or her crops because a competitor is using them. When the crops are shipped to New York City, the resident there will try to buy the crop at the lowest price. Both the farmer and the resident are aware of the effects on the environment, but when personal gains are at stake, the environment is usually forgotten.
The next step in this lesson was rethinking how we relate to our environment. The first problem I started thinking about is whether we should even say “our environment.” This phrase implies some form of ownership, which is a dangerous attitude to take. On the other hand, calling it “our environment” conveys the sense of urgency and responsibility we should have towards it. This is the crux of environmental ethics, lessening our anthropocentric view of the Earth while strengthening our responsibility towards it.
After two classes there is one last startling revelation that struck me. We need the Earth but the Earth does not need us. Abusing our only resource for survival is akin to suicide. As abstract as environmental justice and ethics seem to some, it involves all of us.
This class is not merely a set of numbers, it is a call to action. What will I do?
