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Why Environmentalism Fails

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Clarissa

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The environmentalist discourse is failing so badly because it is promoted by the people whose political convictions are based on

  1. The idea that there is nothing more important in the universe than individual choice and individual desire, and
  2. The idea that the greatest tragedy that can befall a people is not seeing an endless improvement in their standard of material well-being from one generation to another.

Both ideas directly lead to the destruction of the environment. When you simultaneously moan that you are devastated by the impossibility of having even more cars and even bigger houses than your parents and that the environment is being destroyed by excessive consumption, that will never manage to impress anybody.

5 responses to “Why Environmentalism Fails”

  1. el Avatar
    el

    \ you are devastated by the impossibility of having even more cars and even bigger houses than your parents

    But this approach to life is called consumerism,which is required for functioning of capitalist society.

    I do not see how anti-consumerist discourse can be accepted in today’s world, regardless of how it’s promoted.

    Btw, look what I’ve found. The link has all the photos with quotes (in Russian), and the man looks really weird in some of them:

    \ Fans of Vladimir Putin can now spend “the whole year with the Russian president” as a new 2016 limited edition calendar is released in Russia showing the country’s strongman leader in a variety of carefully-crafted poses.

    Every month features an inspiring photograph of Russia’s popular leader — either fishing topless, going to church, lifting weights, or dressed in naval uniform. Each image is accompanied by a quotation from the man himself, on topics ranging from his love of dogs, Russian women and fishing to the country’s growing military power.
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/28/europe/vladimir-putin-calendar-2016/

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      This is way beyond just consumerism. I won’t be devastated if Klara doesn’t have a bigger house and a newer car than I do. I don’t measure success in life or the value of the American dream that way at all. But I kept asking people from this country why they feel so desperate in the midst of such opulence and they very sincerely explained that if their children and grandchildren don’t have more and better stuff, they feel that this means society isn’t working.

      As for Putin, thanks for the link! The Russian people will now be fined for being unemployed. I hope the calendar serves as a consolation.

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        Saw this RE Russia:

        Russian and Egyptian paratrooper participate in first ever joint drill called ‘Defenders of Friendship 2016’; the massive drill, in which 800 Russian soldiers are participating in, are being carried out to practice anti-terror techniques; drill comes as relations between Cairo and DC turn colder.
        http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4869807,00.html

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  2. David P. Bellamy Avatar
    David P. Bellamy

    “The environmentalist discourse is failing so badly because it is promoted by the people whose political convictions are based on…”

    I do not think the environmentalist movement is failing at all. I remember fifty years ago when the air and water were much dirtier, for example. The progress seems slow, but continual.

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  3. paranoid Avatar
    paranoid

    I don’t think the environmentalist discourse is uniform in whether it espouses the belief that everyone should have greater material wellbeing across generations. I’ve seen “more fun, less stuff” as an environmentalist slogan, for example.
    I do think the environmentalist magazines are uniform in supporting consumerism. They have to support it when they are sponsored by advertisers and can only survive as publications by selling things.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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