Currents of environmentalism

1. Currents of environmentalism • Joan Martinez-Alier: Catalan ecological economist.

2. 3 contemporary strains • First two concerned with human relationship to nature, the third concerned with how humans’ relationships to one another shape their relationships to nature.

3. Cult of Wilderness • Disciplinary underpinning: conservation biology • Concern for biodiversity (hot spots, conservation corridors, keystone species)

4. Cult of Wilderness • Cultural motives: aesthetic and religious. • “Deep ecology” movement, animal rights, environmental philosophy • Policy recommendations: nature reserves; keeping some of nature safe/apart from human influence. Awareness of “environmental space”.

5. Eco-Efficiency • Disciplinary underpinning: environmental economics • Concern for sustainable development (natural resources, natural capital, environmental services)

6. Eco-Efficiency • Cultural motives: utilitarian • Policy recommendations: eco-taxes, trading of pollution credits, energy and materials-saving changes. “Internalizing externalities”. • Can we dematerialize the economy?

7. Key relationship: humans to nature • For the “cult of wilderness”, nature must be protected from human depredations. For “eco-efficiency”, nature must be subjected to human management. These two approaches can, of course, come into conflict: particularly around the issue of the incommensurability of values.

8. Reconciliation • Can be reconciled in approaches that suggest humans should both use “less” nature (by becoming more efficient) and protect “unspoiled” nature (by setting up reserves and the like).

9. Which part of humanity? • The previous 2 strains of current environmentalism make strong assumptions about universal human experience. But, of course, human experience is quite variable in the contemporary world.

10. Environmentalism of the Poor • Disciplinary complement (not underpinning): anthropology, rural sociology/economy, political ecology, ecological economics (in this case, these do not guide real-world action so much as track real-world action). • Environmental justice/environmental racism movements; address of urbanization of humanity.

11. Environmentalism of the Poor • Cultural motives: ethical • Geographical displacement of “sources” and “sinks” • Policy recommendations: political and legislative change to deal with ecological distribution conflicts

12. Key relationship: humans to humans • Environmentalism of the poor is a majority movement. The first two (cult of wilderness and eco-efficiency) are important and better-known, but are in fact minority movements. This is under-recognized because this third strain does not always use an “environmental idiom” in order to articulate its agendas.

13. Next time • Use p. 14 of the Martinez-Alier as a study guide. • Next essay is a pdf. What we have covered today are “global” perspectives on the environment. Thursday’s reading presents a particular, local perspective.