For those of you who may not know, the creation of this blog was an assignment for an Indiana University Politics of Sustainability class. After last week's posting on our views of the environment, this week's assignment is: Have you refined or altered your philosophical stance toward the natural environment and its denizens since our class discussion or do you find yourself more confused and uncertain than ever? Elaborate. (Oh how I freakin love college). So, after reading nearly 20 blogs written by 20 classmates . . . I sat on my comfy couch, with my 32 oz Big Gulp of Mountain Dew in all it's non-biodegradable and chemically enhanced loveliness, and I reflected on the environment.
There were two common threads that ran through all the blogs when it came to the environment. The first was Ambivalence, that's right, ambivalence with a capital A. I, like my classmates, care about birds and trees clean air and cute baby koalas -BUT - while we feel that the environment should be protected, none of us were doing much about it. There was a definite lack of passion. Lets just say I doubt any future leaders of Greenpeace will spring forth from this particular poli sci 201 class.
I attribute my lackluster enthusiasm and general slackertude toward environmental issues in part to my aging and menopausal crankiness. After all, what do you want from me? I myself am older than the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which was created in 1970 (thank you Richard Milhous Nixon XOXO). So, most of my childhood I grew up without without the government taking any kind of a active stance on the environment, it simply was not a part of my life. (yeah, I know . . lame excuse). Besides, we were much more concerned about the Russians nuking us in our sleep. Cold War worries seemed so much more urgent back then, much more important than throwing garbage out a window. OK, so that is my justification for why I didn't give a damn back in the day - so, why don't a give a damn now? Maybe because in comparison to how bad the environment and pollution used to be, today's issues seem as bland as a plate of cold mashed potatoes without butter. Or maybe, it is because today's problems have become a confusing mix of special interest group rhetoric and PR campaigns conjoined with elitist academic jargon. It's become too complicated, maybe I just don't get it anymore - forgive me - what exactly IS a carbon footprint? It's kind of like my mother droning on about the latest gossip from her knitting club - I have no idea what she is talking about, my eyes glaze over and I tune out.
This brings me to the second common thread that ran through the blogs; a feeling of powerlessness. Much was said about the government, the federal government in particular, not leading the way, not enacting environmental legislation that would mandate a more proactive behavior toward the environmental. Even bloggers who did make attempts at recycling and saving energy felt their efforts did not make a difference. It was striking and a bit frightening that none, NONE of the bloggers even mentioned making changes at the local government level. The bloggers did not even realize how much power they actually DO have at the campus, city and county levels to affect change, their sole focus was their powerlessness at the national level. (you know this is stuff conspiracy theories are made of).
So, how has any of this changed how I think about the environment? It hasn't, I am still much more concerned about unwanted facial hair and middle age weight gain, but it DID get me thinking about WHY we feel the way we feel. Why do I and my classmates, separated by more than a generation in age share an almost identical feeling about the environment? They are from the era of Twitter and instant information, I am from an age before the internet - it is so perplexing that while we are from almost completely different planets, we share a same indifferent attitude. So then, I think the REAL question, the question that holds the most significance is not WHAT we think, but WHY do we think that way?
The Fabulous David Bowie, Changes, with lyrics
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