30 May Reflections on A Fierce Green Fire

Tuesday was the showing of the documentary A Fierce Green Fire, thanks to Allison and Michael Cullup who organized the screening here. The documentary followed the timeline of the environmental movement in the US with the start of the Sierra Club and moved through to the movement internationally, concluding in the global political fight against what my friend Margot Clarke aptly calls "Climate Disruption". It was incredibly inspiring to see footage of all the struggles that have happened over the years, the various victories, and the resounding message that there is so much more to be done.

The year I was born, 1988, happened to be an important year in Environmentalist History. On June 23rd, 1988, Dr. James E. Hansen of NASA gave his first testimony to Congress saying that global temperatures were higher than the range of natural variability. The drought during this year helped some to elevate this issue into the public consciousness.

November, 1988 George W. Bush Sr. was elected into office on the campaign of being the "Environmental Candidate" and pushing mainly market based approaches to things like clean air and water. 

Dec. 22nd, 1988 Chico Mendez, the leader of the rubber tapper movement for land protection against ranchers and deforestation in the Amazon, was assassinated. 

Things were looking bleak and global warming wasn't seen as a political issue quite yet. Since then, the issues of climate disruption has become so strongly politicized it is seen more as a political issue than a social issue, which hasn't exactly helped us. The movie stated that environmentalists haven't quite gotten their arms around it, or been able to organize well enough to make a substantial impact to stopping or reversing the damage. The movement has become somewhat fragmented and distracted by all there is to fight against, sometimes including each other.  

We are all environmentalists because we all live in and depend on the environment. Starting from the platform that we ARE all in this together can help to shape compassion and understanding in the conversations that we have and the way we win our battles. Sometimes it is us versus them, but often there is enough common ground that folks can work together to build strong coalitions like we saw in the past but haven't seen much of since. 

We in the Austin EcoCommunity could still do a better job at supporting one another. While the aim of the Austin EcoNetwork is to bring together the Environmental Community and provide an online platform for promotions and communications, there are still huge issues with this. The example came up of the recent issue with Hausbar Farms and the neighbors that were concerned about the impacts of having on site slaughtering happening near them. While some discussion was had, many in the neighborhood were damned by those in the foodie community, which overlaps quite a bit with the EcoCommunity. Folks, we could have done a better job at facilitating dialog and trying to understand where people were coming from. It was and still is a great opportunity for learning from each other, and potentially improving the processes of on-site meat production to increase the strength, accessibility, and safety of local food. 

One of the resounding issues in the movie was the stewardship of the commons, everything that we share "in common" also referred to as our common wealth, and the people's fight to protect them against large industrial interests. The fight against "industry" was also another common theme of the movie. Most environmental fights that were won were done so with a strong, unwavering stance against some for of industrial development – like the dams on public lands. To me, there seems to have been a shift in our stance, ever so slightly, towards "sustainable growth" by whatever means necessary. To me the phrase is a blatant contradiction, yet many environs bend to the rhetoric and don't want to be seen as "anti-growth", as our Mayor Lee Leffingwell has deemed many of us. All of it is rhetoric. 

In conclusion, the movie urged you to join the fight, whatever that means to you, and don't back down. Even if you get kicked out of the organization you are in, like some of those in Sierra Club's and Greenpeace's histories, you are doing good work. Important, world changing work. Most people who identify as environmentalists do so with a more visceral reaction to the destruction of Nature for the "progress" of mankind. This is a good thing! We are the warning sirens for humanity. It's time we get a bit noisier, together.