What is Environmental Activism? (p.1)
“We love the Earth. It is our planet. It is our home.”- these words are not mine, but rather from American Rapper, Lil Dicky, who recognizes the importance of the protection of biodiversity on our planet. Lil Dicky is not the first, nor the last to recognize the importance of stewarding our Earth well. He encourages environmental activism in our everyday life, “I mean, there's so many people out here who don't believe Global / Warming's a real thing. You know? / We gotta save this planet. We're being stupid / Unless we get our shit together now”. This artist is one of many who are using their platforms to speak out against the environmental injustices that have plagued the world thus far.
Environmental Activism is defined as the effort of individuals or groups to protect and aid our environment from ecological harm. Some may think of it as public outrage that must be violent in order to create change, like eco-terrorism. However, the goal of many activists is “to create a harmonious living environment that can be handed down from generation to generation without succumbing to poor human stewardship” which means that this doesn’t necessarily have to be violent or intense. It can be subtle and a choice made by an individual. Environmental activism can take many different forms. One could help shape environmental legislation, shape the ecological impacts on the corporate level, or simply take individual, personal steps like going on trash walks or voting for green parties.
For Rachel Carson, Environmental Activism looked like inspiring millions and a new generation of activists through her book “Silent Spring”. As a former marine biologist, author, and advocate of our Earth, she started to become increasingly worried about the harm of pesticides on our environment. In 1939, DDT, a harmful and powerful pesticide, was created. It could kill hundreds of insects at one time, from one application. Its original use was to kill malaria-carrying insects in the South Pacific Islands during World War I; however, in 1945 it became accessible to the public. The inventor of this damaging chemical even won a Nobel Prize.
In 1858, Carson became increasingly interested in the effects of this pesticide after receiving a letter from a friend complaining about the death of large birds because of the addition of DDT to the ecosystem. She researched and started writing in order to educate the public on this issue. In the book, she described how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the tissues of animals. She discussed that it caused cancer and genetic damage to not only animals, but also humans. She emphasizes that the addition of DDT to the ecosystem has permanently tainted our environment.
After releasing this book, she faced severe personal attacks. To my understanding, she saw heavier criticism of her personhood because she was a woman in the 1960s trying to evoke real, societal change. People called her hysterical and a spinster. Monsanto, an agrochemical company, created a parody in response to “Silent Spring”, titled “The Desolate Year” where famine, disease, and insects were out of control because pesticides had been banned.
Another approach to Environmental Activism and Justice is providing a spotlight for Indigenous people as they share their cultures relationship with the environment. It is crucial that as environmental activists continue to fight for sustainability, they also fight for equity and listen to marginalized voices. As Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote in Braiding Sweetgrass, “It was through her actions of reciprocity, the give and take with the land, that the original immigrant became indigenous. For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it… Can a nation of immigrants once again follow her example to become native, to make a home?” (9). Kimmerer suggests we take assimilating into the original culture as the method to furthering environmental activism. If we can achieve this societal shift, we can create a world in which the environment and people can be placed first, while ultimately acknowledging the true history of our country.
Shortly before Carson’s death in 1964, she asked a provocative question on a CBS documentary of her life: “Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.” As inhabitants of this world, it is our job and responsibility to steward this Earth well. If we cannot recognize this simply because we are only a piece in this world with immense power, we must recognize it for self-preservation. The destruction of nature will only result in the destruction and downfall of ourselves.
Sources:
Elliott, Lorraine. "environmentalism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/environmentalism. Accessed 18 December 2023.
“What is Environmental Activism and Why Does It Matter?” University of Nevada, Reno, 15 Oct. 2019, https://onlinedegrees.unr.edu/blog/environmental-activism/#:~:text=Those%20involved%20in%20the%20movement,that%20directly%20address%20the%20problem. Accessed 18 December 2023.
“The Story of Silent Spring.” Www.nrdc.org, 13 Aug. 2015, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/story-silent-spring. Accessed 18 December 2023.
“The Personal Attacks on Rachel Carson as a Woman Scientist.” Environment & Society Portal, 5 Mar. 2020, https://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/rachel-carsons-silent-spring/personal-attacks-rachel-carson-woman-scientist#:~:text=Opponents%20of%20Silent%20Spring%20attacked,unpatriotic%20or%20sympathetic%20with%20communism. Accessed 18 December 2023.
As part of a school project, I was tasked with writing blog posts regarding environmental activism. This is 1 out of 4.
