I am he as you are he as you are we and we are all together

In keeping with my past posts I am going to talk very little about the reading/topic directly, in favor of discussing the 'big picture' if you will, of the situation we find ourselves in as environmentalists. The challenges we face are not modern, there are examples of the struggle to form a society that works with nature throughout history. While not directly related to the environment, I feel that this quote from Machiavelli's The Prince is extremely apt:

“There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit from the new order. The lukewarmness arises partly from fear of their adversaries who have law in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.”

BAM! Machiavelli! I find that this quote, from what is essentially a (in my opinion sarcastic) 'how to be an ultimate all powerful ruler' hand guide, totally captures one of the biggest challenges for environmental reformation. Fear, uncertainty and profit, these things seem to be key drivers/impedements of mass social change. People just do not like to be uncomfortable, and they do not like to be unsure. It makes sense. I think a large part of this is some kind of hard wired survival instinct, which ironically has led to what is possibly our downfall, and has been in the past- Easter Island for example (though honestly I know so little about the history of Easter Island that I should probably not be using it as an example). The issue is 'survival of the fittest ' the placement of the individual over the group. Everyone is ultimately working towards their own personal benefit, their own security. Relation to the whole is a by product of working for your own benefit in a society. I do not think everyone is like this, I'm just stating a mass trend that I perceive.

When I read articles, such as Maude Barlow's 'Where Has All the Water Gone?' and Lester Brown's 'The Global Food Crisis' and Stephen Meyer's 'The End of the Wild', I grow disparaged by the monstrous size of the issues, particularly in relation to the number of people actively working to correct them. It is crucial, I think, to remember that we are a small group, and there is a whole world with various concerns outside of us. For example last week I went to the talk by Francis Fukuyama, the discussion and questions were very interesting, but I continuously went back to the relation of the discussion to the environment and sustainability. None of the questions even touched on sustainability or natural resources, and I felt that if I were to ask a question pertaining to environmental issues it would probably be percieved as irrelevant by a majority of the audience. 

As we have discussed in class there are also differences among environmentalists. Which I witnessed first hand just two days ago. I went on a field trip with an MSSM class (Masters of Science in Sustainable Management) to a North Carolina solar farm. The farm we went to is one of the three farms that American University, George Washington University and George Washington University Hospital are purchasing power from in order to fulfill their sustainability pledges. On the field trip we met with the heads and employees of the three companies involved in this project- Customer First Renewables, Duke Energy Renewables, and Sun Energy 1. We met with business men. They were all wearing business clothes, and carrying business cards, and talking about business things. The conversation revolved around the function of each of the companies with this project, and our questions probed, trying to determine how this agreement really worked. At one point I made the error of stating that something seemed a bit 'sketchy,' the selling of RECs, which are basically documents stating that energy was created at a particular location. AU has purchased RECs from Sun Energy 1 (or perhaps from Duke) to show that the school has purchased sustainable energy. AU will retire the RECs they purchase, but other companies buy RECs in order to sell them again... this seems a little 'sketchy' to me. My comment caused people in the room to laugh, but also was met by a clear point- RECs are not sketchy, but are rather a legitimate part of the functioning of this energy business. I realized a few things at the  moment I was 'corrected'. I realized that it was less than tactful of me to say that (I am not generally given to tact, a personal trait I'm working on) , I realized that this whole field trip was to create publicity for the AU/GW/GW Hospital move to sustainable energy, (as well as an educational experience), and that these companies wanted to create a positive impression of themselves on us. The companies were actually delightfully candid, and very open to questions, but my 'sketchy' comment was perhaps slightly out of line. Anyway, all of this reaffirmed the point that there are gradations to everything, including environmentalists, and that these men, might consider themselves to be environmentalists (well, actually I feel that most of the men in that room would have called themselves 'business men' but are certainly also aware of the benefits for the environment that their work creates), but I wouldn't perceive them as such simply because the environment did not seem to be their main concern. 

Basically what I'm getting at here is that the world is vast, and that the number of people in it looking at things the way we are is minute in comparison.  


Just to wrap up with some water to make this applicable, I love water (I drink 2-4 liters a day, and if I don't I get irritable, I am concerned that I might have diabetes) and I think that the issues of water stem from some of what I am discussing in this post, as well as the issues with international water law in particular. I do feel that it is somewhat indicative, that the IWRM stresses a holistic approach to water governance, water governance focusing on the whole not the individual. People are aware of this downfall of human nature, of focusing on the individual, the question is can we overcome it.