Related Posts
Creationism and climate change skepticism: Not so strange bedfellows
The politicization of science class in the American public education system is nothing new, the main issue of...
The Dark Mountain Project: Post environmentalism begets dystopian realism
Everything's not going to be all right. No matter what we do, things will not turn out OK....
The Goode Family: Mike Judge Tackles Bourgeois Environmentalism
The Goode Family is a new animated series created by Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Kind of...
Swedish tree house hotel offers unique ecotourism experience
In the remote sylvan village of Harads in northern Sweden, a unique design themed hotel is set to...
Thomas Friedman says Americans should embrace a fuel tax
Thomas Friedman is a respected American journalist known for his articles for the New York Times. He has...
Tip of the Day
Keep eggs out of the fridge to save energy when cooking them
Tree-hugging hippies and bloodthirsty killers – environmentalism makes strange bedfellows
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
You wouldn’t expect Greens, who often refuse to eat animals, to have much in common with hunters, who enjoy shooting and eating them. But shared perspectives on factory farming, personal responsibility and an affinity for nature are providing much needed common ground in order to bring about important political and societal change concerning environmental issues. Funny how looming disasters have a way of bringing some people together.
The ecology movements around the world have diverse origins in terms of politics, philosophy and lifestyle. This shouldn’t be too surprising considering we have to share the planet and perhaps contrary to our behavior, it is in all our interests to keep it healthy. Though the philosophy of the Green movement in the United States owes a lot to Henry David Thoreau (1817-62), a vegetarian and political radical who practiced civil disobedience, American style conservationism also has its roots in individualism and survivalism.
Of course these days environmentalism is generally a more accepted and public concern. This can be attributed in part the so-called Green movement of the 1980s, especially in Europe, but in America, environmental legislation was first spurred on by hunters known as ‘gentleman sportsmen’ such as president Theodore Roosevelt. In the 1960s environmentalism reached a broad spectrum of Americans, prompting significant lawmaking by the early 1970s, such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, effectively incorporating Green concerns into the federal government. But the Green movement itself had a harder time in America than in Europe and was at worst successfully portrayed by business interests as a bunch of flaky ‘tree huggers’ who stood in the way of development and progress.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Into the new millennium, the American Green movement has made inroads by courting the interests of those traditionally less comfortable with the ‘environmentalist’ label, such as hunters, labor unions and religious groups. There is surely still disagreement and some bad blood between opposite ends of the environmentally-conscious spectrum, but lets hope cooperation continues if it means affecting important, positive change. Group hug anyone? No, I didn’t think so.
By Graham Land
Additional resources:
Christina Larson “The Emerging Environmental Majority”, Washington Monthly, May, 2006
Matt Miller “Hunters, Anglers and Climate Change” from nature.org
Tags: environmentalism, Green, Green movement, hunters, treehuggers
4 Comments
You can also log in to post a comment.
Other Greenfudge.org posts
You Otter Get Involved With Sea Otter Awareness Week
This week marks the annual Sea Otter Awareness Week, started and sponsored by the Defenders of Wildlife organization. Sea Otters are listed as an endangered species, which makes this particular week very important. During this week, there are a lot of events taking place that will teach people about the otters, promote research and conservation, and have a number of activities involved. Most of these events are in the US, such as the Sea Otter Awareness Celebration in Pittsburgh, games...
India Announces Plans to use New Tiger Tracking System
Earlier this week, India announced plans to use a new tiger tracking system in order to crack down on “lazy” wildlife guards. Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, explained that when it comes to patrolling wildlife sanctuary areas, “many field officers are too lazy”. He also adds that “they make up data instead of surveying the field”. Fortunately, the new tracking system should put a stop to that. The new tracking system involves fitting tigers with radio collars. A GPRS (general packet...
What will Britain look like in 2100? Marek Kohn confronts a warmer future
Marek Kohn is a British science writer who has written about topics including evolution and drug use. In his latest book, Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles will Change as the World Heats Up, Kohn takes on the topic of climate change and how Britain and Ireland might turn out after a century of global warming. A review in the Independent summarizes Kohn's vision of London 2100's: His account of London is sobering. The best guess is that the metropolis will...
Lavatories to provide methane fuel for refugee camps
We’ve all got to worry about our environment, even refugees. Actually, especially refugees: they often live in squalid conditions with poor sanitation and lack basic resources. Environmental engineers at the University of Weimar in Germany are working on a solution to sewage problems at refugee camps by converting it into something else they need: fuel. No shit? Yes, shit. I'm thinking of using this biogas for cooking purposes. The energy could also be used for other purposes. Lighting is also a huge problem...
Southern White Rhinos Become Latest Target of Kenyan Poachers
In Africa, even private lands are no longer safe for endangered species. A Southern White Rhinoceros was killed by a group of poachers in a privately owned ranch located in central Kenya. The Kenya Wildlife Service sent out rangers to track the suspected poachers and buyers on Sunday; both were caught with two rhino horns weighing more than 16 pounds (7 kg) and $8,500 (647,000 Kenyan shillings) in cash, which is believed to be part of the money given to the...
The hitch between solar projects and water conservation
The continued quest for renewable energy sources through solar farms has posed another glitch because it consumes huge amounts of water for cooling purposes. A large solar farm uses a minimum of 500 million gallons of water annually in order to function efficiently. Most solar plants are fighting with state regulators to get the water they need amid disapproval among conservation enthusiasts. An alternative “dry cooling” technique which uses ninety percent less water compared to “wet cooling” is available, but it...
Meanwhile, deep sea drilling underway in UK waters
The aborted 10:10 campaign film ‘No Pressure’ has elicited a lot of hate, anger – or at least pretend outrage – because of its questionable attempt at satire. Meanwhile, some actual, dangerous behavior is happening off the UK coast, near the Shetland Islands, in the form of deep sea oil drilling. Where is the outrage and vitriol about that? The Gulf of Mexico recently got fouled and workers died – actual people rather than pretend characters in a short film. Billions of...
One dead in Wales coal mine tragedy as rescue efforts continue
Of the four miners trapped 300 feet (100 meters) down in a flooded coal mine in Wales, UK since yesterday, one has been reported dead. The three remaining miners are still caught behind a water and debris inside the Gleision Colliery in Wales’ Swansea Valley. So far rescue efforts by divers, aided by fire fighters and other emergency services, have been unsuccessful. South Wales Police officers, along with fire and ambulance crews, are called to the colliery after four people were trapped....
Top interesting facts about the one-horned rhino
One-horned Rhinos in kaziranga National park, Photo credit: Debabrata Bandyopadhyay Wildlife enthusiasts love to flaunt their knowledge about different species. If you are from the same group or wish to be a part of it, then have a look at the top interesting facts about the one-horned rhinoceros and sharpen your knowledge base. Rhino horn is not a bone but a compacted mass of hairs Keratin is the substance that makes the horn of rhinos. It is the same material that is...
Watch The Age of Stupid online
Our friends at SnagFilms are currently featuring a great must-see movie for everyone concerned about climate change and it's effects on the environment. For a two-week period, the movie will be available online for free. So if you haven't seen it before, or if you want to see it again, here is your chance! The Age of Stupid is set in 2055, when runaway climate change has ravaged the planet. In the movie Pete Postlethwaite plays the founder of The...
View all articles
Hi fishsnorkel. I’m not sure that I said conservation is ethics. Traditionally it has been about human enjoyment. That’s how it started in the US: by preserving parks so people could enjoy them. It is still that way in many instances. It has also taken the form of health and survival: as a fight to protect clean water, food and air.
If algal blooms are as important as any other form of life including human, than that is your belief, but if it is human welfare you are chiefly concerned with, don’t you find many forms of conservation and aspects of “living green” to be beneficial to humanity?
Hi Graham. That’s fine. But is it objective natural history? I don’t care what people say or do, but I do care about the subjective corruption of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and I do care about Life’s reputation, because, as I’m sure you will agree, Life has been portrayed as a pathetic Homo-dependent infant by the conservation community and, considering that it has survived uninterrupted for 3.5 billion years (i.e. about 90 million times longer than conservation has even existed)that is appallingly disingenuous. If conservation is ethics as you suggest, then it is not objective natural history and should not be presented as such.
Yes, some Greens want to eradicate some invasive species, while some are vegans, or just advocates of recycling. In other words, there are different ideologies and practical applications of ideology within green or conservationist causes.
Re: “Greens, who often refuse to eat animals”, why do they often kill animals as well then? Indeed, they’re always trying to eradicate invasive species and, given that all animals want to survive, I can’t see any intrinsic difference between meat animals and any other animals. Yes, there is a difference to people who think external appearance is important, but I would like to suggest that life is life regardless of what it looks like, and that death is death regardless of how many remain.