Those examples celebrating the migration of salmon and salamander reminded me of one of Durkheim's insights.
To better understand religion, he tried to find its most elementary form. This brought him to some indigenous groups in Australia. One common practice he found with these groups was they each had some ritual that encouraged the fertility of their totemic species (the animal or plant they used to symbolically represent their group).
By encouraging the reproduction of animals or plants they identified with, they encouraged the reproduction of themselves. Periodic assemblies of these kinds rekindled senses of community, sacredness, and the bonds with the natural world on which those assembling depended. It also revived the idea of the group in each member's mind, and this perpetual reawakening and regeneration is what held our ancestors together. In a way, religion enabled relationship (at least in the way Durkheim conceived it).
Love the Thich by the way! His book Understanding Our Mind is great.
Great post! Having grown up in a one stoplight town, my high school surrounded by corn fields, I've always been puzzled by the environmental movement.
Of course I love nature--I grew up surrounded by it. It's the folks who grew up in cities, where soil was replaced with concrete, who fly in private jets and lecture about how to treat nature.
I like your point here about not having a tenable path forward. I think that I'd take it a step further than that and say that almost every aspect of society has been designed to deny us a tenable path forward.
This is true as far as your main points (like burnout) go. But also, I remember having a conversation with a friend about a news article, noting that the article was written in a way that systematically deprived its readers of almost every contextual detail that would make it useful. What was left was a morality tale that was meant only to encourage people to support the political part of the article's author. At the end of the article, the reader's only real options were to agree or to throw the article away.
I've been thinking about that for a long time. All of the details that might have been helpful--that might have helped a reader understand the workings of their government, or the bill that was being written about, and its consequences, and what one could do to communicate about it--were just gone. Most of the news is like that. Most everything is like that. It's sad.
Hey, just started reading your stuff, and this one’s really good. I think you hit it right on with fostering the greater connection, meditating on our relationship with the natural world . . . but also each other. I once lived in a high-rise and knew none of my neighbors, and then lived in a ranch and knew everyone within a 20-mile radius extremely well.
There’s this quote from David Petersen that goes: “cities create crowding, crowding promotes estrangement, strangers spread fear, fear breeds contempt.”
Way too much contempt out there for one another. Hopefully work like yours will soften people up.
Actually had a similar experience moving from New York to a more rural area. There was a way better sense of community so I think there’s really something to it!
Cities are obviously amazing in so many ways, but man they’re exhausting, too. Maybe the same exhaustion that keeps people from doing what’s right environmentally is what keeps people from meeting each other, in cities, dating, whatever
I've heard talk of "the environment" for 30-plus years. The term has little meaning. It's too broad.
What are we talking about? Recycling? Climate change? Sustainable agriculture? Cleaning the oceans? Building healthier communities?
One reason people become anxious when thinking about or discussing "the environment" is that it's a giant amorphous topic that needs to be reduced and redefined into specific subtopics.
It's impossible to take constructive action to deal with such an umbrella term, but it's possible to think of solutions to particular problems.
This is a well-written, nuanced essay. I loved reading it...and usually I steer far, far away from anything remotely related to climate change for the exact reasons you describe... a rotting sense of hopelessness..a push back against the feeling that "extinction of our species is the only solution..." which I deeply disagree with (I think the solution, if any, might lie somewhere in foreign policy...but I digress..) ... Anyway, I am interested in your country club prospect. I will try to remember to sign up to that list/ form...writing this comment on the go and want to have a moment to five that form the attention it deserves.
I'll put it simply. The environmental movement is simply a political façade that seeks to exercise control over people. I've had these conversations in the past with people trying to be smart and usually *one* question suffices to demonstrate their hypocrisy. I am not saying that to boast, I am saying that to demonstrate how ridiculous the arguments are that these people are fed and then parrot.
Let's take The Netherlands for example. The greens complain about pollution; I ask why public transport is so expensive that it's better to travel by car? Make buses and trains cheaper and it would solve your pollution problem, we'd spend less money on roads, and on top of that there would be fewer traffic jams.
The same people come up with idiotic ideas like quotas for cattle ownership, meanwhile half the country travels to Prague by plane for a weekend (the famous Dutch "Weekendje Praag"). I actually was on a plane to Prague two weeks ago to visit a friend in Czechia, I can confirm it still happens A LOT.
If you want people to change, incentivise it. Trying to brainwash and coerce only gets you so far.
The only sensible thing I've seen so far in The Netherlands is how the garbage system is set up: you pay quite a hefty price per bag (instead of a flat amount of tax). Makes sense and is also fair; use more, pay more. Plus it incentivises people to produce less waste.
Thank you for this. As someone who just moved from the city to the country and who also opened a (now failed) sustainable/refill shop, this is so top of mind for me. Im constantly trying to balance my desire to make change for this earth with the realistic notion of our current society and my exhaustion. It’s also important what you note about it being a relationship with the earth. I encourage you to check out Kate Kavanaugh if you don’t know her already. She’s been a great guide for me in reshaping how I view my relationship with the earth and as she beautifully puts it, “figuring out what it means to be human woven into this earth.”
These are the things I like to think about and write about. Refreshing and inspiring to find your writing.
Awesome post. The environmental movement needs fewer logos and more substance.
If you were to put people in communities they cared about, with friends they cooperated with, and less screen time, they'd do better for the environment automatically. Especially if you could also lift people out of poverty in that area.
If you make people culturally (and economically) prosperous, they will start caring about the environment simply because they can. When you're poor and distracted and miserable, you can't.
Those examples celebrating the migration of salmon and salamander reminded me of one of Durkheim's insights.
To better understand religion, he tried to find its most elementary form. This brought him to some indigenous groups in Australia. One common practice he found with these groups was they each had some ritual that encouraged the fertility of their totemic species (the animal or plant they used to symbolically represent their group).
By encouraging the reproduction of animals or plants they identified with, they encouraged the reproduction of themselves. Periodic assemblies of these kinds rekindled senses of community, sacredness, and the bonds with the natural world on which those assembling depended. It also revived the idea of the group in each member's mind, and this perpetual reawakening and regeneration is what held our ancestors together. In a way, religion enabled relationship (at least in the way Durkheim conceived it).
Love the Thich by the way! His book Understanding Our Mind is great.
Beautifully said
Fantastic piece Melissa.
Great post! Having grown up in a one stoplight town, my high school surrounded by corn fields, I've always been puzzled by the environmental movement.
Of course I love nature--I grew up surrounded by it. It's the folks who grew up in cities, where soil was replaced with concrete, who fly in private jets and lecture about how to treat nature.
I like your point here about not having a tenable path forward. I think that I'd take it a step further than that and say that almost every aspect of society has been designed to deny us a tenable path forward.
This is true as far as your main points (like burnout) go. But also, I remember having a conversation with a friend about a news article, noting that the article was written in a way that systematically deprived its readers of almost every contextual detail that would make it useful. What was left was a morality tale that was meant only to encourage people to support the political part of the article's author. At the end of the article, the reader's only real options were to agree or to throw the article away.
I've been thinking about that for a long time. All of the details that might have been helpful--that might have helped a reader understand the workings of their government, or the bill that was being written about, and its consequences, and what one could do to communicate about it--were just gone. Most of the news is like that. Most everything is like that. It's sad.
Hey, just started reading your stuff, and this one’s really good. I think you hit it right on with fostering the greater connection, meditating on our relationship with the natural world . . . but also each other. I once lived in a high-rise and knew none of my neighbors, and then lived in a ranch and knew everyone within a 20-mile radius extremely well.
There’s this quote from David Petersen that goes: “cities create crowding, crowding promotes estrangement, strangers spread fear, fear breeds contempt.”
Way too much contempt out there for one another. Hopefully work like yours will soften people up.
Thank you for the kind words!
Actually had a similar experience moving from New York to a more rural area. There was a way better sense of community so I think there’s really something to it!
Cities are obviously amazing in so many ways, but man they’re exhausting, too. Maybe the same exhaustion that keeps people from doing what’s right environmentally is what keeps people from meeting each other, in cities, dating, whatever
I've heard talk of "the environment" for 30-plus years. The term has little meaning. It's too broad.
What are we talking about? Recycling? Climate change? Sustainable agriculture? Cleaning the oceans? Building healthier communities?
One reason people become anxious when thinking about or discussing "the environment" is that it's a giant amorphous topic that needs to be reduced and redefined into specific subtopics.
It's impossible to take constructive action to deal with such an umbrella term, but it's possible to think of solutions to particular problems.
This is a well-written, nuanced essay. I loved reading it...and usually I steer far, far away from anything remotely related to climate change for the exact reasons you describe... a rotting sense of hopelessness..a push back against the feeling that "extinction of our species is the only solution..." which I deeply disagree with (I think the solution, if any, might lie somewhere in foreign policy...but I digress..) ... Anyway, I am interested in your country club prospect. I will try to remember to sign up to that list/ form...writing this comment on the go and want to have a moment to five that form the attention it deserves.
I'll put it simply. The environmental movement is simply a political façade that seeks to exercise control over people. I've had these conversations in the past with people trying to be smart and usually *one* question suffices to demonstrate their hypocrisy. I am not saying that to boast, I am saying that to demonstrate how ridiculous the arguments are that these people are fed and then parrot.
Let's take The Netherlands for example. The greens complain about pollution; I ask why public transport is so expensive that it's better to travel by car? Make buses and trains cheaper and it would solve your pollution problem, we'd spend less money on roads, and on top of that there would be fewer traffic jams.
The same people come up with idiotic ideas like quotas for cattle ownership, meanwhile half the country travels to Prague by plane for a weekend (the famous Dutch "Weekendje Praag"). I actually was on a plane to Prague two weeks ago to visit a friend in Czechia, I can confirm it still happens A LOT.
If you want people to change, incentivise it. Trying to brainwash and coerce only gets you so far.
The only sensible thing I've seen so far in The Netherlands is how the garbage system is set up: you pay quite a hefty price per bag (instead of a flat amount of tax). Makes sense and is also fair; use more, pay more. Plus it incentivises people to produce less waste.
Thank you for this. As someone who just moved from the city to the country and who also opened a (now failed) sustainable/refill shop, this is so top of mind for me. Im constantly trying to balance my desire to make change for this earth with the realistic notion of our current society and my exhaustion. It’s also important what you note about it being a relationship with the earth. I encourage you to check out Kate Kavanaugh if you don’t know her already. She’s been a great guide for me in reshaping how I view my relationship with the earth and as she beautifully puts it, “figuring out what it means to be human woven into this earth.”
These are the things I like to think about and write about. Refreshing and inspiring to find your writing.
Awesome post. The environmental movement needs fewer logos and more substance.
If you were to put people in communities they cared about, with friends they cooperated with, and less screen time, they'd do better for the environment automatically. Especially if you could also lift people out of poverty in that area.
If you make people culturally (and economically) prosperous, they will start caring about the environment simply because they can. When you're poor and distracted and miserable, you can't.