I participate in several groups whose members would probably describe themselves as environmentalists, degrowthers, or similar terms. I don’t remember, but I probably would have described myself as an environmentalist in the past, but now clarify that I’m not. I didn’t come up with the distinction out of the blue or for small reasons. I’ll post elsewhere more of my reasons, but wanted to illustrate one of many reasons why based on a recent experience.
Some background
I will mention that the change came from action and actual hands-on practical experience.
I’m not an environmentalist like Abraham Lincoln wasn’t an abolitionist. Abolitionists started one of the great movements of all time, but by William Lloyd Garrison’s time, he burned the Constitution and called it “a Covenant with Death, an Agreement with Hell.” Frederick Douglass read the same words in that Constitution as Garrison but broke with him and came to call it a “glorious liberty document.”
The Declaration and Constitution were Lincoln’s and Douglass’s path to save the Union and actually end slavery. They have become my path to solve today’s greatest problems. As I posted in The Scale and Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People: Here, now, not future projections and The Timeline for Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People, pollution, depletion, and plunder are causing much more suffering and death than US slavery did. I see the Constitution as a path to solve our pollution, depletion, and plunder problems.
Even though I as far back as I can remember, I knew of environmental problems, I never acted on them. I don’t see many environmentalists trying to reduce their impact on the environment either. I ask many people if they know of any well-known environmentalists who are trying to reduce their pollution, depletion, or plunder and none know any. A while ago, some mentioned Greta Thunberg, but she doesn’t seem to be an environmentalist any more, leaving zero.
I only acted when I realized that my actions hurt people. I’m not “saving the planet.” I started to take personal responsibility for my actions.
A meeting of environmentalists
I took some notes during a recent meeting:
They saw people who pollute and have many children as opponents who just didn’t know the facts.
They described them as
- “Idiots”
- “Evil”
- “Ignorant”
- “Tools of an evil cabal,” meaning billionaires who manipulate the public
Yet in this group, one person promotes involuntarily sterilizing 8 billion people, saving 50 million to repopulate the Earth with. This person’s views and plans are closer to fictional characters Dr. Strangelove and Dr. Evil than any person I know.
I have not heard anyone in the group besides me denounce this person. I think most disagree, but I haven’t heard them say it out loud.
People in the group say that if the curtain were pulled back on the people pulling the strings on society, then regular people would see how they were being manipulated, I think for profit. Yet this group contains behavior that others would find repulsive if the curtain were pulled back on them (calling others idiots etc, plus tolerating someone planning to sterilize billions).
They say others should follow the science, yet they don’t follow science themselves. In particular, while I wouldn’t call the practice of leadership a hard science, you can experiment and predict. For decades they have been practicing behaviors that don’t work: lecturing facts, saying what people should do, etc and not getting the results they want. They aren’t revising their theories of what works. They aren’t experimenting with other practices.
Its members don’t change, as following the science suggests.
When I suggest they change, they rhetorically ask, “What’s the solution?” but don’t seek to answer. When I suggest learning to lead, which takes time and practice, as best I can tell they don’t listen. They fall back on their old behaviors.
What they could do differently
Want to learn how to influence people to abandon counterproductive behaviors and find solutions?
Do it yourselves! Learn to change your counterproductive behaviors so you learn what it takes.
Learn that the problem isn’t a lack of birth control or educating kids. It’s cultural beliefs and internal beliefs, expectations, etc. If you don’t change those cultural and internal beliefs, expectations, and so on, tools like technology and legislation will end up serving culture and accelerating it.
I’m not saying it’s easy, but doing what works beats doing what causes the opposite of your goal.
I also recommend not allowing plans that violate consent, such as involuntary sterilization of even one person, let alone 8 billion. Have some spine and talk to people with such plans and reject them if they stick with it. I don’t think it should be hard to disallow illegal plans. I can’t believe anyone would have to write this paragraph.