Lecture 19 The Practical

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Lecture 19 The Practical

• Activism

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Things

• Coffeehaus Sign-Up Sheet on back of Attendance
  Sheet
• Artifact Marks
• Papers

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Today Activism General to Specific Examples

• (1) CP Curry, P. (2006). Ecological ethics An
  introduction (pp. 71-89, 95-99). Malden, MA
  Polity Press. (deep ecologyecofeminism)
• (2) NET Gender and the Animal Rights Movement.
• http//www.utanimalrights.com/gender.htm
• (3) NET People for the Ethical Treatment of
  Animals. Draggin' Ladies Prove That There's
  Nothing Glamorous About Fur.

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Consider the Social Implications Below Can we
wonder why there is environmental activism?
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http//www.learner.org/jnorth/images/graphics/s/so
ngbird_migration_lights01.jpg
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As much as we might like to think we did,
westerners did not invent environmentalism.

• Where does Environmental Concern Originate?
• In the individual? In society? ?
• Is environmental concern an innate human
  condition?
• What are some signs that this COULD be the case?
• What are some signs that this is NOT the case?

• What about youdo you remember your own initial
  environmental concern?

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Introduction to Environmental Ethics

• WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE CLIPS?
• WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES?
• HOW IS THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT and SOCIETY
  IMPLICATED?
• HOW IS THE WIDER WORLD IMPLICATED?
• Do you feel implicated in any of these examples?
  Why? Why Not?

• The definition of environmentalism is not
  clear-cut -
• Is this environmentalism?
• LINK consider sexuality here
• This? is the body, here, sexualized? Why or why
  not?
• This? How is gender implicated in this
  intervention?

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http//www.firstnations.de/development.htm?06-1-co
ast-salish-1.htm
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But, why? arent we all in this together?

• Michael Bell believes that, as long as people
  have dominated the natural environment, other
  people have been concerned about it.Things Can
  get quite Tense

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Rachel Carson was concernedfor example

• 1907-1964
• (photo rachelcarson.fws.gov)
• From Silent Spring It is our alarming
  misfortune that so primitive a science has armed
  itself with the most modern and terrible weapons,
  and that in turning them against the insects it
  has also turned them against the earth.

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Why was her book called Silent Spring?
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First Earth Day in 1970, reflected the peak of
modern environmental concernHow old were your
parents in 1970? Your grandparents?
(www.orlock.com)
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(msnbcmedia.msn.com)
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• Environmentalism/ environmental concern is a good
  thing, right?

• There is an emerging claim that environmentalism
  is a passing phase and elitist!
• What do you think?

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• Following adapted from and inspired by Michael
  Bell (2004)

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Consider the social institutions

• Boredom with being green
• media taste for something new
• realization of scope of economic costs to
  reverse environmental damage
• they are taking care of things (government)
• social trends, such as environmental concern,
  come and go
• compassion fatigue

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Social Status and Environmental Concern

• Data show demographic differences in those
  interested in environmentalism race, gender,
  and other indicators
• Within those data, many contradictions persists,
  such as income the higher the income did not
  predict a higher environmental concern
• Indicators include income, gender,
  race/ethnicity, social power, egalitarian
  attitude

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c. f. http//www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/10425
92.html

• Smarter, busier, poorer than everWage gap
  between women, men wider now than 10 years agoBy
  SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff ReporterSat. Mar 8 -
  505 AMNo matter where they live or how much
  education they have, women still have a long way
  to go before they get equal pay in many
  workplaces, says a newly released Canadian Labour
  Congress report.
• "In fact, over the past 10 years, young women
  have done everything they were told to do to get
  ahead economically," Ivy Shaw, secretary
  treasurer of the Nova Scotia Federation of
  Labour, told a news conference at Province House
  on Friday.
• "Young women have put off starting a family so
  they could earn a post-secondary degree and build
  a career. And now they are actually worse off.
  The wage gap between them and their male
  counterparts has actually grown.
• Women in the classhow does this make you feel?
  How might you become empowered?
• Men in the classdo you feel more empowered to be
  green?

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Ramachandra Guha, sociologist

• Poor people can be and are concerned about the
  environment but are often focusing on eating
  and careful spending and working hard
• Guha dissolves the myth that poor people do not
  care
• Why this should make sense to us Consider that
  most if not all of us here in this classroom are
  poor because of student status, and most if not
  all of us are concerned
• (www.newstoday.net)

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Guha claims that

• environmentalism of the poor often differs
  significantly from the environmentalism of the
  richit combines a concern with the environment
  with an often more visible concern with social
  justice (qtd. in Bell, p. 160)
• What are some present-day examples?
• Think of Halifaxwhere are the laundromats, power
  lines

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Three Theories of Contemporary Environmental
Concern

• 1. postmaterialism
• 2. paradigm shift
• 3. ecological modernization

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1. Postmaterialism

• (Political Scientist) Ronald Ingleharts theory
  of postmaterialism
• First, what is materialism?
• What is postmaterialism?

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materialism

• What materialism, in Ingleharts view, is NOT
• NOT based on direct relationships between people
  and economy, technology, biology, greed,
• Rather he considered materialism to be the
  learned and internalized values behind
  choices/concerns based on those cultural norms

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postmaterialism

• Material ideals TO postmaterial ideals
• That is
• Postmaterialism is an ideological shift FROM
  concerns about money and physical safety (these
  are material values) TO concerns about freedom,
  self-expression, and quality of life (these are
  postmaterial values).
• Many surveys have been conductedto support this
  theory Do You Agree?

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2. Paradigm Shift

• the paradigm shift theorys involvement in the
  rise of environmental concern in response to
  discrepancies between the evidence of
  environmental threats and ideologies that do not
  consider environmental implications, people are
  slowly and steadily adopting a more
  environmentally aware view of the worldbecoming
  more aware of the real material effects that
  industrial like has on the environmenttheir own
  ideologies, then, are beginning to change to
  match this new understanding.
• OLD/TIRED VIEW - Human Exemptionalist Paradigm
  Humans can overcome environmental limits through
  technological mastery
• NEWLY EMERGING VIEW - New Environmental Paradigm
  Humans are part of nature and need to learn to
  live within certain natural limits
• A Conflict Environmental Beliefs how we think
  things ARE
• Environmental Values how we think things SHOULD
  be
• What are some current examples of this conflict?

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Challenging the Paradigm Shift

• There is an obvious problem of reducing such a
  complex matter as environmental ideology to only
  two categories paradigm shift researchers are
  only assessing the degree to which the rest of
  the world agrees with them about what
  environmentalism is. (Western-Centric)
• They use closed-ended surveys, so that doesnt
  give respondents a chance to explain why they
  answered the way they did.
• Finally, how might we assess long-term
  ideological change with surveys of current public
  opinion?

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3. Ecological Modernization

• The belief that we can safely include our
  institutions in our path to ecology in order to
  settle the environmental disputes between
  business () and nature.
• Examples
• Clean air standards/laws
• Energy efficient housing
• Recycling
• Carpooling
• Return to the village way of life

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Challenging Ecological Modernization

• Modernization is what we are living in right now
  science and technology and industry,
  capitalism, availability, distribution,
• So, we cannot easily escape those trappings of
  Modernity, and ecological modernization cannot
  help fast or effectively enough with those
  problems

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Which one rings most true to your social and
individual experience? Why?

• 1. postmaterialism
• 2. paradigm shift
• 3. ecological modernization

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Okayso, we are all on board with environmental
concern...

• Now what? There are plenty of bandwagons to hop
  onto.

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Deep Green Environmental Ethics

• Based on your reading on Ecological Ethics (2006)
  by Patrick Curry
• Deep green movement an ethical movement
• Ecocentric - earth-centred holistic
  non-anthropocentric (not people-centred)
• A Deep green ethic must accept at least
• There is a value in all environments
• People cannot always win against nature

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Deep green ethics also claims Nothing in any
environment has more value than something else in
that or any other environment

• How might this stance be challenged?
• We eat meat. Is that in and of itself breaking
  the value rule?
• Is it possible for societies to act as if
  everything is of the same equal inherent value?

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Old Farts of the Deep Green Movement
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• Aldo Leopold 1887-1948
• Land Ethics Movement
• Famous for saying Think like a mountain. A
  thing is right when it tends to preserve the
  integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic
  community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
  The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of
  the community to include soils, waters, plants,
  animals, or collectively the land.

• How does one think like a mountain?
• What do you make of the stamp illustration?
• Who gets to say what beauty is in order to
  preserve it?
• What would our society look like if there were
  laws against swatting a mosquito?
• Who would we choose to govern against sabotage on
  the commons?
• (www.planetaryexploration.net/patriot/stamps2)

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James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis

• Gaia Theory (Gaia ancient Greek goddess)
  originated around 1970.
• Earth is a living organism, interconnected and
  complex, always adapting to changes toward
  survival and self-renewal
• Famous for its claim against the three Cs cows,
  cars, and chainsaws
• Critiqued for its monist qualities, and how the
  earth may become its own enemy
• What in our Halifax society promotes survival and
  self-renewal?
• (worldisgreen.files.wordpress.com/2007
• content.answers.com/.../200px-Lynn_Margulis.jpg)

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Arne Naess Norwegian philosopher

• THINK OF YOUR LOCAL WORLDAND THE WIDER WORLD
• What is a vital need? What isnt one? Who would
  decide?
• Which nations or groups of people will be
  expected to be the first to reduce
• the number of children they have in order to
  help other species flourish?
• What will be the first to go in Economics?
  Technology?
• How do we change our western
• standard of living? Do we aim to become more
  like certain other cultures?
• ARE HUMANS ANIMALS? WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL
  IMPLICATIONS IF WE ARE? THAT IS, ARE WE THEN
  SUBJECT TO THE CONTROLS WE PLACE ON ANIMALS AT
  PRESENT?
• (gfx.dagbladet.no/kultur/2004/12/06/arne1.jpg)

• Deep Ecology Movement figured out while
  wondering about the dynamics of ecological
  activism
• Philsophical-sociocultural-political
• 8 main principles (link)

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Val Plumwood

• Ecofeminist philosopher
• Life-changing event 22 years ago in 1985 gave way
  to an incredible academic and personal journey
• (link)
• (http//www.anu.edu.au/hrc/people/vfs/2005/Val_Plu
  mwood.jpg)

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Warwick Fox

• Transpersonal Ecology Movement
• Ethicist
• The movement resembles Deep Ecology, only leans
  toward replacing the personal self with a cosmic
  self.

How do we switch who we are? How would such a
drastic change affect society, your family,
community? Your sexuality? Your gender
roles? Plumwood worries that the transformed self
is an androcentric self. (www.adelaide.edu.au)
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Richard Sylvan

• Deep Green Theory Movement
• 1936-1996 (died right after climbing a mountain)
  philosopher, logician, anarchist
• Principles (somewhat comparable to Deep
  Ecologys)
• All present ethics are ecologically inadequate
• The inherent value of nature can sometimes
  override human interests
• Eating food to survive is one thing reckless
  hunting is another
• We dont need to worry over distinguishing
  between humans and non-humans, because one does
  not deserve special ethical treatment over the
  other
• Rather than spend a whole lot of time in the
  future on what NOT to do to protect the
  environment, more significant attention must turn
  to what TO do for it
• Individual change is not enough. Nor is a
  top-down change (institutional). It must be
  collective
• Do you feel on par with an amoeba? A polar bear?
• Will society as we know it ever comprise a
  collective environmental concern?
• IS THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN A MOTHERHOOD
  ISSUE?

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David Orton

• 8. Social ecology, eco-feminism and eco-marxism,
  while raising important questions, are all
  human-centered and consider human-to-human
  relations within society to be more important
  and, in the final analysis, determine society's
  relationship to the natural world. Left
  biocentrism believes that an egalitarian,
  non-sexist, non-discriminating society, a highly
  desirable goal, can still be exploitive towards
  the Earth.  
• 9. Left biocentrists are "movement greens" in
  basic orientation. They are critical of existing
  Green political parties, which have come to an
  accommodation with industrial society and have
  no accountability to the deep ecology movement.
• BUT HOW MANY WOMEN ARE IN POLITICS/ABLE TO BE
  PART OF A MOVEMENT IF THEY HAVE CHILDREN? What
  kind of membership limitations do men have?

• Right in our own backyardSaltsprings, NS
• Left Biocentrism
• Runs Green Web (link)

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Reading 2

• Gender and the Animal Rights Movement.
• LINK http//www.utanimalrights.com/gender.htm
• Animal rights is part of a system of gender
  oppression ---
• IN
• The Home If animals are abused, or are
  threatened, in households, it is more likely that
  violence against women also exists.
• Fur Industry targets women some say that fur
  marketing campaigns is a form of sexual
  harassment against women
• Cosmetics targets women Is Beauty without
  Cruelty possible?
• Nature is Feminine/Mother Nature male domination
  of nature is said to parallel male domination of
  women/females
• Animal Rights Movement predominantly women
  polemic challenge
• 1. women are objectified in sexist imagery in
  order to draw attention to the movement (Playboy
  references PETA has been heavily criticized for
  placing a tiger-painted woman in a cage with a
  slogan saying that wild animals dont belong in
  cages)
• 2. to draw attention to sexism, organizations
  such as Feminists for Animal Rights (FAR) attempt
  to bridge feminist concerns with other social
  concerns, such as companion animal organizations.
  Also, they work with womens shelters around pet
  rescue in abusive situations.

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Peter Singer http//www.princeton.edu/psinger/11
.jpg

• Social Action Case Study The Animal Protection
  Movement Australian philosopher Peter Singer in
  1975 wrote Animal Liberation stating that there
  cannot be any moral justification for refusing to
  take suffering into consideration, and, indeed,
  to count it equally with the like sufferingof
  any other being CAN SOCIETIES EXIST WITHOUT
  CAUSING ENVIRONMENTAL/ANIMAL SUFFERING?

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Reading 3(the difference that sexuality
makeshuge!)

• LINK
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
  Draggin' Ladies Prove That There's Nothing
  Glamorous About Fur
• LINK
• What are some similarities and differences
  between these websites and the last one on gender
  and the animal movement?

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Readings for next class (also, well finish up
the week on sexuality and toursim)

• 1. Start reading AS on Parsons---keeping in mind
  his theory about systems
• 2. SMUO Tindall, D.B., Davies, S. and Mauboules,
  C. (2003).
• Activism and conservation behaviour in an
  environmental movement The contradictory effects
  of gender. Society and Natural Resources, 16
  (10), 909-932.