First and foremost, politics and the environment should not
be together. What I mean is that, in an
ideal world, politicians shouldn’t be able to use environmental policies and
environmental protections as political pawns to get votes. Beyond that, it baffles me that doing
something anti-environment is something that actually gets votes! The opening statement of this article by Jedediah
Purdy in The Atlantic stating, “The incoming Trump
administration is likely to see the greatest revival of environmentalism as a
confrontational, grassroots, sometimes radical movement since at least 1970,
when more than a million people took part in the first Earth Day” is painful to
read. Despite the pain it brings, it’s
true. We’re constantly seeing stories on
the news about the rollbacks of environmental protections from the Obama era
and even prior to that.
I think
people, particularly more conservative people, have a view of the environmentalist
movement as being “tree hugging hippies.”
While there are certainly plenty of them, there are also other everyday
people who simply want to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat healthy
foods. Environmental activism is not a
new thing and it’s not something that is going away anytime soon. As the article noted, the movement has had
some identity crises along the way, but the bottom line is a healthier
environment both inside and outside of our homes is something that seems to me
should be so apolitical and noncontroversial, it’s a no brainer.
Hi Doug,
ReplyDeleteI agree that politics and the environment should not go together. But it seems like the system is totally corrupted by money in this regard. The big polluters (oil, etc.) pay off politicians to vote against the interests of environmental preservation in order to keep profits high. I think the best way to go about handling this is reforming the political system in regards to "donations" and other corrupt lobbying. I agree with you that there is a misconception about environmentalists. Either that they are tree-huggers or coastal elites who don't understand the struggle of folks in coal country. Maybe the environmental movement needs some rebranding. It's frustrating that it has to come to this though - delay of gratification is a difficult concept to grasp, especially in our capitalist society.
Malena
I agree as well that politics and the environment should not be together. They are separate entities that correspond to different needs. It is unfortunate that we are living in a time where the president shares different values from public health professionals and believes our work is not adequate. As time progresses hopefully both politics and the environment can be allies to work together on issues that might coincide.
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