I think the aspect of Professor Maniates' approach to the environmental movement that gave me the most insight was his perspective on social change. I confess that until his videoconference, I had a preconceived notion that social change did require at least a large majority, if not the whole population, in order to be truly effective. I think his analysis showed that real change can be brought about by a motivated minority, and that so many people in the world are passive or ambivalent enough to go along with it. This perspective has given me a new sense of optimism and positivity about the environmental movement. If we can continue working through governmental and local initiatives to essentially force people into making the right choices, there might be a way out of this mess.

However, I find myself remaining skeptical about the idea as well. I think that the graph that Professor Maniates used to emphasize his point about who is with us and who is against us was not fully indicative of social trends. Although a large majority of Americans may either believe or not have an opinion on global warming, a great deal of those people are also firmly entrenched in the economic system that they are accustomed to. When it comes to creating a wide-reaching compost system that essentially changes nothing about people's behavior, Maniates' idea of social change is very accurate. However, if we try to make systematic changes to the economy in order to slow down global warming emissions, or reduce our practices of deforestation and biodiversity loss, these changes will come with economic costs to the greater population. A certain percentage of Americans may be ambivalent enough to go along with a general trend towards sustainable practices, but when we start making their energy bills higher, I worry that we will lose their support rather quickly.

That being said, I think the 'trinity of despair' concept is extremely useful. The problem mentioned above is no doubt an important one, but it is something that we can perhaps overcome with proper education and policy implementation. If we get stuck in the current trend of environmental change, we wont even approach the solutions we are looking for.

Plant A Tree

This isn't for an official post, but just thought it was relevant to our past few classes, and funny in a sort of sad way. With impeccable timing, GOOD had an article today about UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign:

"Billion Tree Campaign
Posted by: francesco.franchi on November 10, 2009 at 12:27 pm

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a major worldwide tree planting campaign. Under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges online with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide each year. In a call to further individual and collective action, UNEP has set a new goal of planting 7 billion trees by the end of 2009. The campaign strongly encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees that are appropriate to the local environment."

The best part of this is that they "encourage" tree planting. That sounds effective.

People soon started gathering 'round

and the message of the Lorax began to resound.

The more that they heard, the more they were moved

by the fate of the Truffulas and how they were removed.

A general consensus rose up from the crowd,

"This destruction of Earth- it should never be allowed!

We've had it up to here with this market-based liberalism,

what we need in this world is a dash of biocentrism."

Individually, they would have just gone on their way,

But together, the people decided to stay.

They made plans to talk, and plans to petition,

Changing social constructs became their sole mission.

The Lorax stood proudly and looked at the boy

Saying, "The voices of these people brings me such joy.

I'm so glad you looked past the power of the dollar

And saw that what people need to do is stand up and holler."

Continuing the story...

"You have finally come" he expressed with such glee
"Someone has cared enough to come and find me!
But just you alone cannot tackle this issue,"
the Lorax expressed, wiping his tear with a tissue
"We'll have to start now, we must go right away,
And tell all in the world what the Tuffulas would say."
They walked down the road, creating their plan
Deciding what they would say to "The Man."
They held a big rally in town as a call for attention
About the Tuffulas and the issue of environmental protection.
"If we do not act, the Tuffulas will be gone forever!
Please don't turn back now, we must all act together!"

I'm not good with this rhyming thing but here's my attempt.

The boy left the Onceler alone in his sad lonely shack
He decided he needed a plane of attack
So he went and looked around for a long while
But when he found the Lorax he couldn't help but smile
The Lorax looked sad and quite grim
But then he learned why the boy had come so far to find him
He hugged the boy and let out a big sigh.
He was so happy he had a tear in his eye

"Good luck," said the Once-ler, as he sat alone in his chair.
"Good luck getting so many people to care.
People like to buy things, and make their bank accounts grow.
Making changes like yours would deal them a huge blow.
You should relax, just be patient and wait,
Until the newest technology can determine our fate.
The systems not broken, its working just fine.
All our problems can be fixed with just a little more time."

Best Dr. Seus Appendix Ever

You think you can solve this with one little seed
But we must show everyone that they don’t need their thneeds.
One person alone can not make this happen
We need a world full of people, a big call to action
It won’t be easy with the systems we face
So brand new ideas must become common place
A tree would be nice but its not the solution
The problem arises from our warped institutions
I won’t take the seed but I will take a stand
Against the capitalist forces destroying our land
Grassroots campaigning, we’ll take to the streets.
And share the tale of the Lorax with all that we meet
Using truffula trees to make ourselves happy
Has turned our whole world into something quite crappy