Lecture notes
Environmentalism
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- The University Of Warwick (UoW)
Lecture notes on Environmentalism covering all basic points
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EnvironmentalismMonday, March 6, 2023 12:24 PM
David Attenborough & A Life on Our Planet (2020)
• Bringing the natural world into our homes
• Human actions damage almost all of nature, but it sustains us
• Nature returns when humans recedes
Environment today
• Animal Extinction: animal populations have declined 60% since 1970 (WWF)
• Plastics: widespread impacts, particularly on the world’s oceans and marine life (National Geographic)
• Landfill: 2.12bn tons of waste globally per annum – World Bank estimates to grow 70% by 2050
Climate change scale
• Australian bush fires 2019-20: more than 20% of Australian forest burnt
• EcoWatch, 5 October 2018: ‘8 Cities that could be underwater as Oceans Rise’ (Houston, London, Shanghai, Dhaka,
Manila, Lagos, Bangkok, Jakarta)
• Science Magazine: Deforestation (Amazon Rainforests) exploding
HISTORY OF GREEN POLITICAL THOUGHT
• Environment = our surroundings
• Derived from French verb ‘environner’ – to surround
• Concept arose in the mid-19th century: Human beings are shaped by their (natural) environment
Holism
Humans and nature are intertwined and interdependent – works both ways. Interconnections, planetary scale, actions in
one place affect others. In a self-sustaining biosphere all living organisms are part of one entity. Taking an holistic view
causes us to revalue nature. Lovelock (1979) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth
We have become too anthropocentric: seeing ourselves as the central element of existence.
Ecocentrism: places value on the natural environment – whether of ‘use’ to humans or not
The ancient lineage of environmentalism
• Environmental ethics in Ancient Greek thought
• Studied how plants and animals relate to their habitats (Plato & Artistotle)
• But some trace to Palaeolithic or Neolithic times: more a ‘way of life’
Indigenous cultures place nature at the core
• Stems from a time when we lived in, and directly from, nature
• ‘Sumak Kawsay’, Quechua word, loosely translated: ‘Good Living’
• How to live well within ourselves but also in connection to our communities . . . reciprocity and harmony with
Pachamama (Mother Nature)
Aboriginal & Maori cultures
• Maori culture: ‘Kaitiakitanga’ – humans are deeply connected with nature
• Australian aboriginal people: nature possesses us – we do not possess it
Taoism
• Dao: a principle that embraces nature, a force which flows through everything in the universe
• Yin and Yang (predates organised Taoism): forces that exist in the seasons, food and everything else in nature:
work with natural forces
In ‘modern’ terms, green political thought is a relative ‘newcomer’
• 1800s–Now: Loss of ancient knowledge about, and connection to, nature as humans industrialise and move off the
land/urbanise
• 1860s: First use of word ‘ecology’ (Ernst Haeckel):
– Science of relations between organisms and their environment
– Nature is a unified, balanced organism of which humans form one part
Week 18 Page 1
, – Nature is a unified, balanced organism of which humans form one part
– ‘Wonderful temple of nature in all its beauty’ (Andrew Vincent 2009: 202)
Is it possible to make nature a central societal concern?
Green political thinking in modern times
• Modern greens 1960s/1970s
• Roots in teachings of Gandhi, writings of Martin Luther King
• UN Limits to Growth: wholesale depletion of the planet, modelling of future implications
• ‘Western centric’ – prevailing modes of organising economic, social and political life at heart of the problem
• Variety (environment, ecology)
Critique of modernity
• Consumerism and globalisation place heavy demands on planet
• The ‘Great Acceleration’ – material and growth driven values (Newell 2020)
• Modern, consumer-industrial-technology society increasingly divorced from planetary constraints, but also
dependent upon resources
Ecological restructuring
• Valued preservation of the integrity of nature
• Place ecocentrism, and recognition of the limited carrying capacity of our planet, at the heart of how society is
organised
Grassroots democracy
• Think Global, Act Local
• Participatory forms of democratic organisation
• Decentralisation, non-violent & mutually supportive ways of organising society
Green Political Thought as an Ideology?
Indigenous variants more like an (eco-)philosophy?
1. A view of social reality
Nature is being devastated by human actions
2. Is socially directed – bettering society
Humans have stopped valuing nature, whilst place too much emphasis on profits, consumerism and material
goods
3. A programme of political action
Place value on nature, adopt a holistic worldview, and transition to an ecologically sustainable society
Thin or thick ideology?
• Thin (Freeden in Humphrey 2013):
Not enough about programme of action: how do we get from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism? Core concepts
not determinate enough – can be (and are) co-opted by other ideologies
• Thick (Dobson in Humphrew 2013):
Placing a concern for environmental sustainability at the core of societal relations is not something that other
ideologies can easily co-opt – without losing their own cores . . .
A Green Party Manifesto has ideas about the economy, equality, welfare, transport – but all are related to
sustainability
“We rely on an extraordinary eclectic political and philosophical ancestry. To try to weld this into some easily articulated
ideology really would be a waste of time – and would completely miss the point. Ideologies are by definition both
reductionist and divisive” - Jonathan Porritt (1984) Seeing Green
CRITIQUES
1. Anthropocentric
• Humans need to ‘control’ nature – not bend to its whims
Week 18 Page 2
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