I love this essay Gillian! It renewed my zest for caring about the environment. I was once a big (and insufferable) environmentalist, but eventually developed a distaste for the whole subject after it started to get taken over more by extreme activists.
I think your approach is so wise and much more compatible with maintaining a free society of empowered individuals. It's really a dignifying philosophy of environmentalism.
I’m glad to hear you liked it and that it renewed something in you, Salomé! Writing it reconnected me to that zest as well, reaffirming that I can still be a self-described environmentalist while not subscribing to the collectivist idea of what that means or should look like.
Gillian Florence Sanger I am just blown away by the sheer grace, brilliance and love of the Earth and the people who live on it you wrote this article with! This is one of the most important articles of the 21st Century! Yet another prolific work worthy of the Pulitzer Prize by the Black Sheep! Jake’s seminal work Redefining Racism was like a bombshell dropped from an airplane. Now we have this article thoughtful and planted and nurtured with love growing into a beautiful blossoming flower! I too am a big time environmentalist and supporter of animal rights. But I must agree with every single word of this article! The modern environmentalist and animal rights movements have been hijacked by woke radicals and people with other agendas. Like the Global Climate Strike you mentioned it felt more like people virtue signaling in reaction to something than actually having a raising of consciousness around Climate Change. The Scientific establishment in my opinion has been lying to us for years about the science behind Climate Change. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very much real and a problem that will only get gradually worse the longer we wait to take action. But it’s not going to be as bad or as catastrophic as they claim. Nor is the hysteria of groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion going to help anyone. Saying stuff like “I won’t have children to save the planet.” or “We won’t have a planet in ten years.” Is reckless, nonsensical fear mongering that helps no one and is blatantly factually inaccurate. It is also the case that the modern environmental movement has elements that are anti-human. You also rightly point out that oppressive top down solutions by the government and corporations treat the symptoms not the disease itself. It’s up to us the people to take measures to do that! The solutions you provide of actions we can all take to do so are all amazing and so simple! Planet of the Humans while flawed, does a good job showing how our current solutions to Climate Change aren’t all they’ve been hyped up to be. Another critique I have of the modern environmentalist movement would be its unrealistic world view. We have to gradually transition off fossil fuels, we can’t just get rid of them overnight. We need to find realistic and pragmatic solutions like you suggested to fighting Climate Change and caring for Mother Earth. Pragmatic, bottom up solutions to Climate Change are the way to go! Also the movement itself desperately needs reform and rethink everything about how they go about fighting for their cause. I also agree with you liberals and progressives need to be open to building bridges with conservatives and libertarians and work together and bounce ideas off each other on finding solutions to protecting the environment! You’re definitely right that we need to stop with all the simplistic narratives about a very complex topic. Simplistic, grand over-arching policies by the government wouldn’t turn the trick either. We need more nuanced, thoughtful discussions as a society here in the West about how to address Climate Change. The last thing I will say is activists need to STOP tying environmentalism to things like racial justice, women’s rights, gay rights, colonialism, etc. it has nothing to do with. Muddying the waters of environmental activism with all this other irrelevant, identity politics nonsense is unhelpful to the cause and to our planet. There is no such thing as for example as “Environmental Racism” that’s just made up. Stop it! Also, the movement needs to distance itself from grifters like Greta Thunberg.
Noah, what a pleasure it was to read your comment. Thank you for your very kind words - and I agree with what you've said here. The waters of environmental activism are indeed muddy, and we need to have a conversation about it. Hopefully this article will encourage more of those kinds of conversations in fruitful ways. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and engaging with this piece. I'm glad to know you enjoyed it :)
I love this essay Gillian! It renewed my zest for caring about the environment. I was once a big (and insufferable) environmentalist, but eventually developed a distaste for the whole subject after it started to get taken over more by extreme activists.
I think your approach is so wise and much more compatible with maintaining a free society of empowered individuals. It's really a dignifying philosophy of environmentalism.
Thank you for publishing it with us!!
I’m glad to hear you liked it and that it renewed something in you, Salomé! Writing it reconnected me to that zest as well, reaffirming that I can still be a self-described environmentalist while not subscribing to the collectivist idea of what that means or should look like.
Gillian Florence Sanger I am just blown away by the sheer grace, brilliance and love of the Earth and the people who live on it you wrote this article with! This is one of the most important articles of the 21st Century! Yet another prolific work worthy of the Pulitzer Prize by the Black Sheep! Jake’s seminal work Redefining Racism was like a bombshell dropped from an airplane. Now we have this article thoughtful and planted and nurtured with love growing into a beautiful blossoming flower! I too am a big time environmentalist and supporter of animal rights. But I must agree with every single word of this article! The modern environmentalist and animal rights movements have been hijacked by woke radicals and people with other agendas. Like the Global Climate Strike you mentioned it felt more like people virtue signaling in reaction to something than actually having a raising of consciousness around Climate Change. The Scientific establishment in my opinion has been lying to us for years about the science behind Climate Change. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very much real and a problem that will only get gradually worse the longer we wait to take action. But it’s not going to be as bad or as catastrophic as they claim. Nor is the hysteria of groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion going to help anyone. Saying stuff like “I won’t have children to save the planet.” or “We won’t have a planet in ten years.” Is reckless, nonsensical fear mongering that helps no one and is blatantly factually inaccurate. It is also the case that the modern environmental movement has elements that are anti-human. You also rightly point out that oppressive top down solutions by the government and corporations treat the symptoms not the disease itself. It’s up to us the people to take measures to do that! The solutions you provide of actions we can all take to do so are all amazing and so simple! Planet of the Humans while flawed, does a good job showing how our current solutions to Climate Change aren’t all they’ve been hyped up to be. Another critique I have of the modern environmentalist movement would be its unrealistic world view. We have to gradually transition off fossil fuels, we can’t just get rid of them overnight. We need to find realistic and pragmatic solutions like you suggested to fighting Climate Change and caring for Mother Earth. Pragmatic, bottom up solutions to Climate Change are the way to go! Also the movement itself desperately needs reform and rethink everything about how they go about fighting for their cause. I also agree with you liberals and progressives need to be open to building bridges with conservatives and libertarians and work together and bounce ideas off each other on finding solutions to protecting the environment! You’re definitely right that we need to stop with all the simplistic narratives about a very complex topic. Simplistic, grand over-arching policies by the government wouldn’t turn the trick either. We need more nuanced, thoughtful discussions as a society here in the West about how to address Climate Change. The last thing I will say is activists need to STOP tying environmentalism to things like racial justice, women’s rights, gay rights, colonialism, etc. it has nothing to do with. Muddying the waters of environmental activism with all this other irrelevant, identity politics nonsense is unhelpful to the cause and to our planet. There is no such thing as for example as “Environmental Racism” that’s just made up. Stop it! Also, the movement needs to distance itself from grifters like Greta Thunberg.
Noah, what a pleasure it was to read your comment. Thank you for your very kind words - and I agree with what you've said here. The waters of environmental activism are indeed muddy, and we need to have a conversation about it. Hopefully this article will encourage more of those kinds of conversations in fruitful ways. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and engaging with this piece. I'm glad to know you enjoyed it :)