One thing that bothers me
About the environmental movement
Is that it's focusing on the effects
And secondary causes of climate change
Not on its root causes.
It's like a cartoon where you see all these
Innovative efforts to take care of a river :
Wetlands management, being nice to beavers,
Picking up trash, educating river-communities,
Even spiritual types are praying by the water
(Visualizing beautiful scenes of sliver fish leaping clear
Of pools where otters are playing)
While the whole picture shows that upstream
There is a landfill where the garbage is leaching into the stream
And across from that a condemned paint manufacturing plant
Surrounded by a tall sagging fence
With a sign saying "Super Fund Site"
With old chemical drums corroding on the riverbank.
Cartoon, but also a fair depiction of our reality.
I love my environmental friends and associates
And love their dedication to the cause
But we have to go after the root causes.
Why is this not being done?
I think it is because of the scale of the causes,
The scale of the causes of climate change
Are cataclysmic.
They are not in human-scale.
I think that is why the environmental movement
Has a hard time enlisting the support
Of concerned citizens
Who I believe constitute a majority in our land.
The causes are way bigger than human scale.
They are as big as world views,
Certainly bigger than governments,
As big as histories, as big as countries
As big as legacies, as big as religions,
As big as economies, as big as worldwide modes of production
And consumption, as big as pathologies.
More and more as I get older
I feel like I was groomed to be an idiot (!),
Groomed to think that this half-assed, two-faced,
Way of living, as if everything is either gunna be all right
Or is out of my control, is my fate.
If you feel the same way,
I have a suggestion.
If you want to support a cause
Or someone who is doing good work
Ask yourself if the cause is fundamental,
If the work or mission of an organization
Is taking on a root cause.
If it is, support it, promote it,
Even join it.
Time is of the essence.
Look for root causes.
The river of life will flow on
Regardless of what we do
But if we want to be in the future
We need to look upstream.
We need to go upstream
And look around.
It's not pretty.
But we need to do this.
We need to reorient.
For reflection, questions: What is the root cause of the polluted river really?
Is it the factory?
Is it the landfill?
Is it corporate advertising for unnecessary unrecyclable products?
Is it how I was educated to see the river as
Recreation/drinking water/hydro-electric power?
Is it them?
Is it me?
For further reflection:
Maybe we need to fix what is broken in ourselves
Before we can fix the environment.
............
Right after posting this I received this link to an article from my brother:
This is also upstream! But as far as tracking root causes go, this pre-history of homo sapiens (as a genocidal and assimilative species, bearing original and full responsibility for the Sixth Extinction), might qualify as, not a root cause of Climate Change, but the root cause. Here is one of those times when I need to press pause because I wrote the above poem from the perspective that scanning "upstream", (scanning for root causes), though painful and possibly profoundly discouraging, is something we can manage, if we do it together, but should do because it might lead to an empowering reorientation of the environmental movement. But, after reading this article, "Were other humans the first victims of the sixth mass extinction?" by Nick Longrich, University of Bath, I began to see my "Up stream" poem as a bit naive. For me, it doesn't undermine the conversation but merely deepens and broadens it, and I feel more convinced than ever that it is a conversation we need to have. There is no shame in being naive but there is . . . danger, and there is danger in ignoring facts.
(Article changed on Jun 13, 2024 at 12:06 PM EDT)
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