Some time ago (okay in college), I thought that when I grew up, I wanted to be an environmentalist. I wanted to work for an environmental organization. I wanted to advocate for environmental protections. I wanted to protect nature from humans.
My departure from this belief has been slow and steady, starting with the first and only environmental non-profit for which I worked. It was not terribly well run, nepotistic, feuding with the national organizations, preaching against grazing without addressing ranchers' needs, and saw government as the enemy. And yet the people were fantastic and had the best of intentions.
Prior to working for this non-profit, I had already interned with two national and one state resource management agencies, where I had also encountered fantastic people with the best of intentions.
While in New Mexico, I associated with people intimately-connected to a nonprofit similar to the one for which I had worked, and I volunteered for them. I found deceivingly similar nepotism and questionable business practices.
I then went to work for the state and encountered environmental organizations that told flat out lies about the state government (although the state did not help itself) and once again ignored the needs of their ranching and farming community members. Even after I stood up for my agency (possibly against my own better judgment), called on my card-carrying environmentalist values, and tried to make friends with the enviros, I found more incorrect propaganda on the internet from a prominent and trusted national organization being spoon fed by the local one. I can handle persuasiveness; I can't handle outright lying. My last straw.
I have always thought that environmental organizations could improve their usefulness and success by adopting for-profit business models. Pay your employees a decent wage ($25,000 does not cut it, now matter how virtuous the cause!), hire people who will do a good job (not just your buddies), and make meaningful alliances with others including corporations (and some organizations, like the Environmental Defense Fund, do this successfully).
"Break Through" has just confirmed and expanded many of my thoughts about environmentalism. By regarding humans as separate from nature, and all human development an intrusion, environmentalists isolate and push away a large portion of society. All the farmers and ranchers I have met during many jobs were upstanding, smart, thoughtful, and inspiring citizens. Meeting with them and hearing their stories was one of my very favorite parts of my job, even when I had to drive hours to do so. They were true red and I true blue, and they knew it because I can't keep my mouth shut, but that did not affect their opinions of me. I believe they were truly interested in compromising on issues to protect the environment and their livelihoods. The environmentalists working with them were not interested in compromising, and will possibly drive them from their farms, inviting whole new realms of exurban development. I believe that more environmentalists need to see the environment as inclusive of human society, and figure out how to work cooperatively with all types of people in all types of places and careers to achieve mutual benefits. Let's call it win-win-win.
Environmentalists have also been loath to embrace the use of economics as a way to achieve their goals. As my disenchantment with the enviros was hardening, I read a book by the Stonyfield Farms CEO and became convinced that working for a corporation could be one of the very best ways to intigate environmental and social sustainability. Corporations must play a leading role in mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. We can't just stand back and tell them they are bad. We must work with them to innovate. Economics is a powerful driving force, and the environment is not separate from it.
Well, this has turned into a missive. (Have I posted about my disillusion with environmentalism previously?) I am tired of the subcategorization and segregation of issues and people that should go hand in hand. I am tired of environmental organizations that won't hire me because I have worked for the government and vice versa. We all have learned by now, I am sure, that I am jaded. But "Break Though" gives me hope for the future. Although I will still support environmental causes, I need to make sure that comprehensive and holistic approaches are being taken to solving problems, even if those approaches are "non-environmental."
But I still don't know what to be when I grow up.
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