From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/08-5
Published on Sunday, January 8, 2012 by CommonDreams.org
In the latest issue of Orion Magazine, environmental activists Derrick Jensen and Paul Kingsnorth both express their frustrations with the current environmental movement.
Jensen takes movement organizers to task for their drift towards actions that are "fun and sexy." "The fact that so many people routinely call for environmentalism to be more fun and more sexy reveals not only the weakness of our movement but also the utter lack of seriousness with which even many activists approach the problems we face,” he says bitterly. “When it comes to stopping the murder of the planet, too many environmentalists act more like they're planning a party than building a movement.”
But let’s face it, there are a lot of people on this planet who find the issues addressed by environmentalism just too scary and depressing to deal with. The environmentalist party-planners are trying to reach these folks, who have been suckled from birth on cheery feel-good media, by presenting environmental action as fun and upbeat, rather than as doom-driven and angst-ridden. It's environmentalism on anti-depressants, and it fits a big swath of our population, who don't want to dwell on anything sad or upsetting, unless maybe it's a movie guaranteed to ultimately have a happy ending.
Paul Kingsnorth, whose long article in Orion, "Confessions of Recovering Environmentalist," will be the subject of an open conference phone callon January 18, is critical of the environmental movement not for being too party-oriented, but for being too "utilitarian."
Kingsnorth deplores environmentalists who have happily jumped on the technological fix bandwagon--the solar farm, wind farm, sustainable energy crowd. He sees these folks as engaged in finding new ways to continue our same old depredation of the environment--just more sustainably.
Continue reading at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/08-5
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