Today’s environmentalist movement can find its roots within the pages of “Silent Spring,” a 1962 book written by experienced marine biologist and zoologist Dr. Rachel Carson about the detrimental effects of pesticides on our planet. The book resulted in the banning of the lethal pesticide DDT and was thus seen as a great victory for the environmentalist movement during this time. Never before in the U.S. had public opinion believed so strongly that industry needed to be regulated to preserve the environment, creating what we know as environmentalism. Depending on context, environmentalism can hold many different meanings. The general definition of environmentalism is “concern about and action aimed at protecting the environment.” While this definition is a simple one, there is a lot of ambiguity about what exactly “concern” and “action” might look like. Environmentalist action means something different to people in different places, and it’s important to understand that environmentalism is not the same everywhere you go. Therefore, environmentalism is dependent on context.
Within the broader U.S. context of environmentalism, there seems to be two main ways we view and act on behalf of environmentalism. Within one context, environmentalism is seen as a method to help impoverished communities that lack the resources to be environmentally sustainable on their own. Within the other … environmentalism means buying organic groceries, recycling as much as possible, driving an electric car, and overall just changing the way we consume goods to make our consumption less impactful on the environment. According to Dr. Alexander Huezo, a professor of ethnic studies and currently teaching a course on environmental racism at UC San Diego, there is a major problem within this two-context paradigm. He labeled it as a “false dichotomy” of what environmentalism fundamentally represented. To view the full article visit the Guardian.