Making Environmental Action Personal
Workshop explores the individual relationship to sustainability
by Julia Litzky '12Science and Technology Editor
November 13, 2009
Half of all species on Earth may be extinct within 50 years. Seventy percent of the world's forests have been destroyed, 60 percent of atmospheric ozone has been depleted and 90 percent of all large fish that once lived in the ocean are gone. On Friday, Nov. 5, students attending the "Awakening the Dreamer" workshop were presented with a "medical report on Earth." The workshop was sponsored by Hamilton Environmental Action Group, Amnesty International, the Womyn's Center, the Dean of Student's office, the Diversity Initiatives Fund and the Chaplaincy. The goal of the workshop was "to create an environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling human presence on this planet; recognizing that these are not separate issues but three interrelated aspects of one profoundly interconnected whole." To do so, the workshop leaders led participants through four segments: "Where are we now?", "How did we get here?", "What's possible for the future?" and "Where do we go from here?" These topics were explored through video clips, discussion, songs and interactive activities.
The workshop began by establishing the difficulties our planet and society face. Although this included environmental problems, it also focused on how social justice problems create both environmental and cultural upsets. Through video clips of interviews with a variety of activists, the presenters argued that individuals in our society has become overly self-focused and alone. The video clips explained that "you need other human beings in order to be," but we have lost sight of others among the rush of everyday life. As a result, "people believe that [possessions] will fix the hunger in the human heart." The over-consumption in our society, the presenters argue, is a result of this "hunger," which in reality can only be fixed by others and not by objects.
The next step in the workshop was understanding how we got to where we are. Thomas Berry, a cultural historian, Roman Catholic priest and self-proclaimed geologist, explained through video clips that the "primary problem with western civilization is that it creates a separation between the human world and the natural world." This separation was referred to as a trance, through which we do not fully see the level of our consumption or the state of our society.
This trance prevents us from seeing the true nature of our actions, and allows for society to arrive at the present state. For example, few people realize that every day, Americans throw out 350 million cans, 2.7 million paper bags, and 537 million plastic bottles. As activist Julia Butterfly Hill (famous for living in a giant redwood for two years to prevent deforestation) explained, "When you say you're going to throw something away, where is away? There is no away." By simply throwing our waste in the trash, we forget how much we have consumed, and are able to ignore our overuse of resources. However, as Hill continued, "just because we don't see a problem, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
To awaken from this, participants were encouraged to discuss what assumptions induce the trance. These included that "clean coal is clean," that "it's okay to recycle next time," that "technology will fix all of our problems without any inconvenience to us," and that "we have a lot of time to save the planet." These assumptions, however, are at least somewhat false. To escape, we must all recognize the assumptions that hold us in the trance and overthrow them.
The presentation of such information left many students with unpleasant emotions. "It made me feel guilty that I had been so oblivious to everything that is happening to our environment," explained Tiffany Schreck '12. The presenters did not leave participants there, though. The final two sections were uplifting and encouraging, reestablishing hope among participants and providing practical and personal ways to help fix the problems our world face.
The third section began to create such hope by asking "what's possible for the future?" It began with video clips of Paul Hawken, whose work was fundamental in the development of the idea of ecological footprint. He argued that the environmental movement is "fundamentally a civil rights movement, a human rights movement," and therefore falls under the class of social justice. This makes it part of "the largest social movement in the history of humankind." Currently, there are between one and two million organizations in the world working toward social justice. "It was inspiring to see how the problems of the environment and social justice are intertwined," explained Nate Schneck '11. "Our world view as a generation has to change to understand that connection and to bring healing to the world."
Hawken stressed that there are no single issues. The problem of air pollution in a poor neighborhood is connected to the issue of suppression of women in Iran and to genocide in Africa. All are related to the trance created by society that prevents us from seeing the severity of the situation. However, "we need to translate between" these different problems, combining them into one so that they can be addressed by all.
To conclude, the workshop focused on "where do we go from here?" – a personal contemplation as to what each individual can do based on their interests and skills. This didn't mean recycling or shorter showers, but rather an introspective look at your interests in life and how they can be applied to helping the world. The section began by encouraging participants to understand the power they hold. In a video clip, Van Jones, author of Green World Economy, explained that "when you stand up, you license other people to stand up…have you ever seen a standing ovation? It starts with one [person] standing up."
To figure out how they can help, participants were handed a worksheet containing a series of questions designed to guide them to an answer. The first was "What makes you come alive? What are your passions? What does your heart love to do?" The second was "What is needed most at this time? What are the most urgent challenges facing our planet and its inhabitants?" Participants were encouraged to combine their answers and figure out how to use their passions to address what is needed most. The guiding questions were "What is yours to do? What is waiting to happen through you? What is calling you?"
Individuals' answers were not shared, but left to be personal goals and realizations. However, the process helped overcome the weight of the state of the earth, with the feeling that there was more that could be done, and was practical to do, than simply standard environmental activism.
Participant Chris Rider '12 described the experience as "a unique approach to familiar problems. Through various emotional and spiritual exercises it led one to appreciate the severity of world issues, namely overpopulation and deforestation, and to fully accept their implications."