“I am part of the land.
I respect it, I love it and I don’t treat it as a useless object, as if
I want to take something out of it and then the rest will be waste. Because I
want to live here this year, next year, and to hand it down to the generations
to come. In contrast, Eldorado, and any other mining company, they want to
devour the land, to plunder it, to take away what is most precious for
themselves.” And then they would leave behind, she said, “a huge chemical bomb
for all mankind and nature.” –Melachrinin Liakou, activist against the gold
mine in Halkidiki, Greece, quoted in This
Changes Everything (p 342)
There is a lot about this book that hits home and that is
very moving. Section III is my favorite
section—enlightening, motivating, and food for thought—as with all the books we’ve
read so far (we are now half-way done), I like the ending. Klein makes an argument that others have
made, that love can save a place and inspire regular people to become activists.
Janisse Ray makes a similar argument in Ecology
of a Cracker Childhood when she returns to her childhood home amid the
pines of southern Georgia—that land was the place where her bones were quite
literally built, and that connection to and love of place, fractured as it is
by human logging and development, means something. Yet, so many of our lives become separated
from the ecosystems that, at least in part, made us. I wonder if, imbedded in the
return to local economies, is a philosophy of philopatry--returning after an
education elsewhere back to the natal pond.
It certainly seems that Indigenous people have been a largely shining
example of how connection to place emboldens their communities to stand up to
big oil and coal. Many of us have lost
that connection to place—or are not fully aware of the ecosystem that was
building our bones—or more likely, for the many ecosystems around the world
that helped build our bones. And we are
so busy, that we are easily disconnected from the place around us. And as it is
slowly chipped away at with new shopping centers, we will hardly notice.
One of the challenges of conservation crises is not only raising
awareness about the important environmental issues, but inspiring or motivating
the necessary changes in people’s behaviors or a change in their belief
system. When we started talking about
science communication several years ago, it became clear that while we
science-types are most comfortable offering “educational” outreach, changing
people’s beliefs and behaviors is the key and that information alone may not be
inspiring enough to alter entrenched beliefs or behaviors—it is no trivial
task. Even the people who make full time
jobs out of raising awareness for health issues like smoking have a challenge
in moving the behavioral response. Dr. Valerie
Ubbes at Miami U who is a health educator has said that in trying to educate
the public through things like public service announcements (PSA), you know
that one PSA will not cause people to stop smoking or eating sugar or to start
buckling up or exercising. But, you are in it for the long-haul with each piece
of information like a drip which eventually motivates change. With climate change, we are out of time. The drips have not worked and what is ahead
is a flood (perhaps more inspiring?).
Klein’s book offers hope about how each one of us can contribute to
making our small individual changes and also how we can be part of larger
movements to end “taking without caretaking.”
Klein ends with the story of asking friends what she should ask Greece’s
opposition party and someone suggested “Ask him: History knocked on your door,
did you answer?” I hope the answer is
yes for each of us. Klein has showed us
where to start—anyone else ready for revolution? (Perhaps not this semester…I
am weary, but perhaps that should not matter.)
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