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Gray-Areas in Green Politics

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Gray-Areas in Green Politics Thresl)oliis 14 Gray-areas in Green Politics: Reflections on the Modern Environmental Movement Panayiota Pyla "The phrase 'only one earth' was born on the Apollo 8 mission circling the moon..- The Image of the tiny earth with the moon In the fore- ground, simultaneously shown on TV sets around the globe, changed man's cosmic view of his home"' The environmental consciousness that emerged in the ronmental movement of the 1960s. This book demon- 1960s as scientific research brought to the forefront the strates that far from being "universal," conceptions of reaUties of the earth's finite resources has in the past few nature are tacitly associated with political structures of years come under scrutiny, while the ecological movements cultural domination, racial biases, social beliefs, class divi- of that time now seem unsophisticated in their enthusi- sions or gender politics. Each of the book's articles reveals asm, and ideologically suspect. Key contributions to earlier the complex entanglement of the "natural" with the ecological movements, such as Rachel Carson's Silent "human" world and uncovers how the constructed dualism Spring (1962), known as the "watershed of the modern between the two is not simply false but politically preju- environmental movement" because it infiltrated public diced. William Cronon's article, for example, demonstrates sentiment by exposing the excesses of industrial agricul- that wealthy suburbanites who protest the farmers who ture; Buckminster Fuller's Whole Earth Catalog which "exploit nature," do not represent an untainted concern for emphasized the fear of ecological crisis; and Constantinos the destruction of nature's "balance." Rather, their "envi- Doxiades's Ekistics (1968) which aimed to define how built ronmental" arguments are predicated on class biases, and settlements would be sensitive to the global ecosystem: in their in their righteous protectionism threaten to each of these positions assumed that the natural environ- deprive the farmer of his/her living.' Similarly, Candace ment has a stable "ecological balance" which needs to be Slater's article "Amazonia as Edenic Narrative" uncovers preserved, and each sought to establish a "harmonious" how popular notions which pigeonhole the Yanomani interdependence among humans and nature. Indians as ah intrinsic part of their "natural" environment fail to recognize the needs of this tribe as a human culture. The assumptions behind modern environmental move- Dominant tendencies to exoticize this tribe of Amazonia as ments, contemporary critics argue, obscure "the social "natural," Slater argues, are predicated on romantic relations and priorities that go into environmental prac- paradisal and Edenic images, and dehumanize a place with tices"^ and depoliticize environmental matters. The book thousands of inhabitants, (fig. 1) Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (edited by William Cronon, 1995), which is a collection of essays by Expositions of tacit political and power dynamics, such as leading environmentalists across disciplines, presents some those of Uncommon Ground, promise to empower those the most persuasive challenges against the modern envi- who have been suppressed by essentializing concepts of Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00550 by guest on 01 October 2021 Brazil Creates Reserve for Imperiled Amazon Tribe By JAMES ROOXE Collor igjKirvd ecoDomK oblK !• hy mining com|Mnte . for e and puniy of cam* raised by governor* ol two iiaie* ritmliuj> It nplOKed in order to kpep where the park will be locatnj. Amaio- dormani the {niefillal of tV SratUtan and Roralma 10 spproval by Indi- Pfwidnil FrrTundo CoHof Jr Mello Amaion, warned a reiml study :icti in gold, (m. by diamoTHlt and rinc. Id medial wn by Bra (ui mov«4 10 ,c,ci,<T Ihe Superior War Colkrte. Braillielile park area u virtually papered with KmchoT Am* imn iitency, Funai nature. Yet these insights are at once enHghtening and ton rajn lornl «, a ti«n,planil lor Ihr Yanomafni Iniitns a iniM vinually Dewrnblng Indian and other re- unUtichRj bv RKidam tlvilnairan serves aj ittieraled Bonei ' under irt- wlnw wayi 4«ic (rom ihe Sl<mr Aftc rmalional roAlroJ. Ihe miliiary docu- hindering for the purposes of environmentalism.' In nr t«w reserve, cnupkd wilh a meni pmlKtrd, 11 would like a great aJtBhiJv arnalkr parti acro&, Itw Inr Brazilian eflon lor iheir ellminaiHai, ' dcr. HI Vannuela. <aUI allow thr Yani> probably resoniog to >a( II, SouU, Aman<a Bui Ihe army't pollliul tiandlnglwt uncovering the political partialities of earlier environ- tjeeti weakened in r«c«ni dav» by news- 6aj]l vjuar wililrr paper reporu ol fixed bKldlng prac- tices lor equipnicnl praairemenl:> mental movements and in uprooting any transcultural Vr angg\ra lot St yvan lor wtui RetMifftng the irmy*i oaiMvia] jrcu h» ]uii happmrd,*' uid Claudia Ando' riiy arRutnemi. Mr CoUor s anrmunce- |ar coordinaior of ihr CornmivUun for meni came en the natknal holiday ih* Creiiion of a Yanomami Part, 4 marking the mililary'i afaolilKn ol - understanding of nature, current analyzes do not only rela- private gtrojp bawd hrrr Brazli'i mourchy m 1184 WHh the lair ol South Ameneai Braillian "sovereignty roniinuei in- ,000 YanDinami an mlcmaliocul lacti and even reiriforoed." Mr Collor relativize luic. Napolwn A >7hignon, an Anwn- uid of the park Two weeks agOi tivize nature, but also the concerns about the carianthrDpoloBiti.K-tion] wK]<'^p^ralJ approved 71 othei Indian reiervei.i Amrrltan and European mphona enng 41,471 M)uare mllev *hen h« uid today me iFkepfionc inlc- environment, and may end up turning them into political vtrv TNit will go • long icay to mali- init culiur.1l lurvivil ol ihe Yarramami " a rrai (KHSibllily issues alone. MIKtaiy RolM* M«vr But noi rveryone wii clapping in Sratilia un Friday when Mr Colbi siped a d«rr(« mcrving I prrctnl of Bmil'i land mau lor ihraancm'snii natrd 9,IIM Yanomami Ai thr ligning Single'HUndedlv The predicament behind the politics of environmentalism ceremony. <ien Clarloi TinoMi. the Armv MmUler. (loinlaily abiuowd Invented by Bieguct, the ']urn> Hour" automatic waich from louiint iht- appli with houf duf^ay aitd minute KanJ Crafted in plaimurn with was most striking in a recent BBC-World Service Report a porcebin dial, fmm a limited lenei numbeie>) Ky the m3ta.M«.000 EnUiged in t)uw detail Yanomaffii naiton. mnuemialelnnenu of Braiil's military htve argued thai Braul about an international nuclear proliferation. ihould clear a I Imilr-'Wide bor summit on ifcr nlrip to leparale Braill's Yano- moini fnrfn Veneniela > YBnomamt TiFFANY&CO. Sesrchitig lor a mtaioa aflef (he The radio correspondent meticulously accounted for all collapse ol ml emai tonal CJHnmunlsm. Braul't ronlerVdUvi' grtterali are in ciraungly laking naiwnalisi siands on ai»W*«- •*.• ;- «a-^<i'»oK3Bni3ft~[a5Eai the positions voiced by the parties at the summit: The Russian representative asserted that nuclear reactors in nature," many of the authors in fig 1 /^ New York Times article that promotes the common preconcep- Russia vifere operating within "established safety specifica- Uncommon Ground, point out that tion that the Yanomani Indians are tions"; the British prime minister, in turn, doubted this "nature" as the non-human world "natural" parts of the land Slater refers to it and also points to the assertion; the French envoy confined himself to impossibly does, after all, exist. Along with her irony that this article is accompanied ambiguous remarks; and "the Environmentalists," the BBC expositions of the gender biases by a Tiffany S Co advertisement, which underlines the rigid juxtaposi- correspondent continued, categorically demanded that behind modern meta-narratives tion between the Yanomani as part most of the nuclear reactors scattered around the former about nature, Carolyn Merchant, of nature, and the "modern civiliza- tion " as part of "culture." USSR countries be closed immediately because they are for instance, also declares that "the older and in worse condition than Chernobyl. environmental crisis is real" and that "the vanishing frogs, fish, songbirds are telling us the It may be a substantial success for those "environmental- truth."' This warning exemplifies the ambivalence of the ists" represented in the summit to have their voice heard author who recognizes that once nature is presented as an along with the opinions of top Government officials from ideologically determined concept, and the protection of many countries. However, by inserting themselves within the environment is perceived as a political tactic, then the international political spectrum, these environmental- there is a danger that we lose sight of threats that are ists were constituted as a political entity, and their position caused by the destruction of the environment, threats that was represented in the media as one of the many political exist beyond the realm of relativity and the politics of voices. In the process, environmental concerns become a knowledge. political posture, which obscures the fact that if another "Chernobyl-type" disaster happens, everybody (whatever To tackle this predicament, I propose to reconsider the their politics) will be affected. premises of the modern environmental movement and to explore how its insights could help rethink environmental- This predicament is acknowledged by the authors of ism as a critical attitude for the present. Using "Ekistics" as Uncommon Ground. Despite their systematic expositions of a representative case for the environmental
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