Environmentalism

Education, Sciences and Technology, Politics

Good article from findarticle.com

Environmentalism, like almost everything else, does not work by the Julian calendar. The big shift took place from 1986 to 1988. The next decade will refine, define, and combine the consequences of these events, not create whole new scenarios.

In 1986, Chernobyl blew. Global atmospherics made it abundantly clear that thinking globally and acting locally were not enough. We had to act and think both locally and globally. Chernobyl was water-cooled; we could no longer think that energy and water flows were separate, or that energy policy and water policy were discrete channels of thought.

Chernobyl taught the dangers of unaccountable government and suppressed info, helping to fuse the environmental and democracy movements to achieve greater transparency, accountability, and participation. In the same time period, the Danube movement against further channelization and dams helped Hungary and Czechoslovakia move “greenness” and democracy into mainstream politics.

Much of the world no longer vigorously distinguishes among environmentalism, democracy, empowering marginalized communities, and promoting civil and women’s rights. The new Europe, with its green parties, is the region to watch. What the EU turns into law is another indicator of the fate of the Earth. The US lags pitifully in holistic imagination.

Yes, thinking globally and acting locally were not enough!!

Let us “greening” our earth.

kakahelmy @ October 6, 2007