Evaluation: Environmentalism is an ideology that is spreading throughout the world. Promoting conservation of nature and its resources it has captured the attention of the political spectrum. In Wendell Berry’s “Getting Along with Nature”, he suggests that one of the great flaws in our human interaction with nature is that we as a culture tend to establish a kind of partisanship, those who ignorantly exploit nature and those who seek to separate from nature as a means of saving it from exploitation. William Ophuls feels that given the interaction of ecological, economic, and social factors, the disruption of ecosystems will have economic and social consequences. Also, fundamental changes in the economic and social subsystems will lead to changes in the ecosystem. In Dolbeare and Medcalf’s American Ideologies Today, they speak of the impact environmentalism has brought into the American life than any other set of beliefs. Both authors provide an insight into the distinctions ecology and the environment; they introduce different belief systems such as the Gaians, Ecofeminists, and the most noted Greens; and provide the different strategies and tactics enacted by the environmentalist movement.
Explanation: In Wendell Berry’s “Getting Along with Nature” people cannot live apart from nature … And yet, people cannot live in nature without changing it’. He speaks of preserving wildness, if it is to survive, but this preservation may not be enough. If our cities cannot be preserved than wildness cannot be preserved either. Berry states that nature and human nature are interdependent. If humans want wildness to be possible they must make it possible. Berry emphasizes that we can be true to nature only by being true to human nature. However, the work by which good humans and natural possibilities are preserved is complex and difficult, and it probably cannot be accomplished by raw intelligence and information. Berry concludes by saying that to achieve continuity between the natural and the human, we have only two sources of instruction. The first being nature herself, and the second being our cultural tradition. Berry also states that no good thing is destroyed by goodness. However, good things are destroyed by wickedness. William Ophuls applied himself to the question whether our current political institutions, or the liberal democratic basis for our social order as a whole, are tenable in an age of ecological scarcity.
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In essence, he concluded that many of the basic principles of modern societies, free markets, individual liberty, and democratic government among them would be undermined as ecological scarcity worsens. To “tame Leviathan,” or control the competitive exploitation of resources and the struggle within and between societies over scarce goods, he regretfully concluded that states will likely return to a pre-modern, or more coercive and authoritarian form. Even assuming the ‘war of all against all’ is avoided and people cooperatively move towards this new environmentally-sound state, Ophuls argues that the complexity of the environmental problems, policy solutions, and alternative technologies involved in the transition will force the replacement of democratic institutions by a “technocratic government” run by experts, or elites, who share the necessary knowledge and technical competence. While he outlines possible ways to mitigate the worst consequences of the society we or future generations might inhabit, his pessimism is rooted in his belief that “scarcity is the root of political evil.” Dolbeare and Medcalf explain how environmentalism is molding itself to being a potential ideology for the future. As early as the 1980’s environmentalism was noted as being a possible impact player in the political spectrum of ideologies. From the Gaian hypothesis of the world being a living organism, to social ecologist who believe the worlds ecological problems are due to social behavior, to the infamous Greens who have efforts of bringing together people who hold ecological views, environmentalism has made a name for itself both politically and economically. All of these themes of deep ecology, Gaian thought, and so forth, that have been outlined in Dolbeare and Medcalf’s text have all shared reconstructive ecological premises and a potentially transformative impact on traditional American values and ways of thinking.
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Nature and human have always interacted throughout history, and the interaction of the two forces has evolved into a series of demands that people have put on nature to survive and develop. By contrast a minority of people have questioned the state of things and tried to figure out how humanity and nature can interact and develop together, and through their questioning they have come to define ...
Orientation: One would align themselves on the conservative side of environmentalism. It seems as if conservatism and environmentalism work off one another and seem to blend in well with most of the others ideas. Environmentalism challenges liberalism’s ideas yet as mentioned in Dolbeare and Medcalf’s text, these two ideologies must be bridged since “environmentalist have no choice” but to try to do so. However most environmentalist would say, such as the Greens, they are neither left nor right but in front. It is very difficult to pinpoint an orientation because environmentalism seems to be constantly reconstructing itself and reforming itself. The ways of thinking for environmentalism, I would say, go beyond left or right.
Political Program: Reform environmentalism seems the better way of accomplishing traditional goals, according to Dolbeare and Medcalf. Environmentalism can be seen as a potential replacement for liberalism as the progressive ideology of the future. However, as far as the Greens go, they promote democracy in both politics and economics. We must be smart with the resources that our environment provides us other wise we will be the victims of scarce resources. Nature is a part of humans as humans are a part of nature and each works in compliance with the other it seems. Ophuls sense the rise of an elite running government who will run the show. It just seems that the environmentalism needs authoritarian rule, at least according to Ophuls it appears that way. Environmentalism fits well within the liberal or reform liberal framework.
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Human Nature: It is human nature to take the environment for granted. One does not ponder on what nature is feeling as they tend to their business throughout the day. Yet, humans change nature because it is necessary to change nature in order to live in it. No matter what, humans are going to change natures design, or natural image, into something that conforms to their way of living.
Related Readings: As mentioned before, environmentalism challenges liberalism, but in the context of its acceptance of the economic market. So I am assuming a reform liberalist environmentalist would challenge Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ notion. These readings don’t seem to be too distant from any of the other ideologies. It would almost seem as if this ideology of environmentalism picked out ideas from many different ideologies and constructed them into a manner that fit their own. It seems to be conservative, yet I can see some liberal ties within the framework as well.
