https://beta.jewcology.com/2011/02/intertwine-the-environment-and-social-justice-be-careful/ Home of the Jewish Environmental Movement Tue, 02 Jun 2015 16:55:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 https://beta.jewcology.com/2011/02/intertwine-the-environment-and-social-justice-be-careful/comment-page-1/#comment-479 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:32:01 +0000 http://jewcology.org/2011/02/intertwine-the-environment-and-social-justice-be-careful/#comment-479 You made a lot of interesting points, Evonne!

]]> https://beta.jewcology.com/2011/02/intertwine-the-environment-and-social-justice-be-careful/comment-page-1/#comment-449 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:56:36 +0000 http://jewcology.org/2011/02/intertwine-the-environment-and-social-justice-be-careful/#comment-449 Evonne, you packed a lot into one essay. There’s enough in there to expand into a book! That being said, I read your essay twice, and I think it bears re-reading a few more times. For the time being, I’m going to comment on Suggestion (1). In Suggestion (1) you write: “Given the crisis we face, if we are not getting significant long-term environmental benefits out of an individual project, why are we spending our precious and limited time on it?” I would like to point out that the environmental movement as we know it in the U.S. did indeed start out on a micro scale as part of a social movement that incorporated environmental issues. It started out with groups of people in the counter-culture creating communes and living the environmental ideas that they inherited from a generation before. Timothy Miller points out his book “The 60s Communes, Hippies and Beyond” that from just a few communes, certain ideas — including environmental ideas — spread like wildfire. Another example of the “one” making a difference is Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” which she apparently wrote just a mile or two from where I’m typing these words. It can be argued that “Silent Spring” was a major factor in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Certainly the EPA itself makes that argument: http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/epa/15c.htm While Carson’s book was all about the environment, apparently she carried the day because of her style of writing as much as her environmental science, which has been much disputed. The web page is mightier than the sword: The Egyptian government fell in 2 1/2 weeks from a Facebook stab. Far from belittling the micro effort because it’s alloyed as the “little brother” of another project and it’s long term effect may, on the surface, seem insignificant, I would say that perhaps there can’t be a macro effort without those seemingly pointless exercises like Nachshon wading into the sea up to his nose. The hypothetical kid in your essay may not grow up and vote environmental if he doesn’t start by recycling his report card. And we may not be able to reach that kid unless we start our own schools — based on social justice — yet with environmental agendas so that by example and through repetition over years we can inculcate and imbue environmental values into the curriculum. To summarize my point: the focus I think has to be on social justice, with the environmental issues coming along for the ride and I say that because it’s difficult to gauge just which environmental efforts will be effective in the long run. Thus by focusing on the social justice issues, we can piggy back the environmental issues on to a winning horse (excuse the mixed metaphor).

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