The scientific evidence of global warming is overwhelming, and there is no reason not to act. We ought to be rethinking and reducing oil dependency as it’s obvious that we must act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to provide a cleaner planet for future generations. There are many other sources of renewable energy, but every option comes with concern about public participation.
A new book, The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice, challenges the widely held assumption that people will not sacrifice for environmental goals. In his own take on the topic, Worldwatch senior researcher Erick Assadourian observes that even the word “sacrifice” has become taboo – associated more with violent rituals (think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) than with its root meaning, “to make “sacred.”
“The idea of sacrifice is the unspoken issue of environmental politics. Politicians, the media, and many environmentalists assume that well-off populations won’t make sacrifices now for future environmental benefits and won’t change their patterns and perceptions of consumption to make ecological room for the world’s three billion or so poor eager to improve their standard of living. The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice challenges these assumptions, arguing that they limit our policy options, weaken our ability to imagine bold action for change, and blind us to the ways sacrifice already figures in everyday life. The concept of sacrifice has been curiously unexamined in both activist and academic conversations about environmental politics, and this book is the first to confront it directly.
The chapters bring a variety of disciplinary perspectives to the topic. Contributors offer alternatives to the conventional wisdom on sacrifice; identify connections between sacrifice and human fulfillment in everyday life, finding such concrete examples as parents’ sacrifices in raising children, religious practice, artists’ pursuit of their art, and soldiers and police officers who risk their lives to do their jobs; and examine particular policies and practices that shape our understanding of environmental problems, including the carbon tax, incentives for cyclists, and the perils of green consumption.
The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice puts “sacrifice” firmly into the conversation about effective environmental politics and policies, insisting that activists and scholars do more than change the subject when the idea is introduced.” Read: Erick Assadourian’s take on What Would You Sacrifice for a Secure Future?
In their book The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice Michael Maniates, John Meyer and their ten fellow-contributors urge students, activists, scholars and citizens to ask, and keep asking, why sacrifice should be pushed to the margins, why narrow assumptions about the capacity and willingness of humans to sacrifice should prevail, why leaders remain reluctant to call on our ability to sacrifice on behalf of public aims.
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“Sacrifice” to give up something individually for the greater good. That’s my take on it anyway.
I am a firm believer that all changes start with the individual – just as you describe in your grass roots approach. We can all make a difference.
My husband and I are committed re-cyclers – our local council has a very pro-active recycling policy. But we recycle more than just the usual stuff. I found out about some charities that take our discarded white goods, service them and then ship them out to countries in need. Items such as fridges make it to hospitals in the Sudan and Kenya, computers go to India. I know these appliances still use energy, but its a form of recycling all the same.
We use low energy light bulbs and have a wood burning stove in which we burn wood from our own woodlands, we collect rain water in butts for the garden and have a very active compost heap – the badgers see to that.
However, we do still run 2 cars. Living out in the countryside with no public transport it would be nigh on impossible to live here without a car. Up until a year ago, we had 3, so I suppose we have made an imoprovement on that!
@Juliana,
I believe there are many people like us who are making changes at the individual level. We have had official recycling for around 18 years where I live and unoffically for generations before that. We converted our lightbilbs 7 years ago and have done and are doing far too many things to list here.
What amazes me is that there those who seem to be lobbying against taking individual action. Just take a look at the feedback I got on the discussion thread I posted on BC Connect to witness what I mean. Note also that those who had the most to say there did NOT even click into read this post prior to commenting there.
Yes, sacrifice is a word hardly anyone wants to hear because it’s about giving up something for a greater cause. We live in a era where it’s all about what we want and not what is important. We get caught up with the media hype and we think we need to have the latest of all things. How about what our enviroment needs?
My hubby and I do sacrifice to improve our world. To help improve the enviroment, we have to start in our own backyard. We are thinking of ways all the time of how to conserve resources. One of the latest thing we are having installed in our house are solar panels. It cost a lot of money but we know it’s something that will benefit the enviroment and us in the future. After the solar panel, we will have this big giant drum connected to our house gutter to collect rain water for the garden.
These are just little things we can do to help enviroment. Hopefully a lot more people will follow suit.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. :)
I’m so happy to hear about the solar panels and rain barrels – we are on the same track here. Yes, there are many small things we can do that reflect our desire to respect the planet and IMO that’s where environmentalism stems from. The realization that we humans are not separate and apart from the environment, that we are a destructive, consumptive and greedy species, and that we have ability to radically change our thinking and our actions and live up to our sacred responsibility is an uplifting an empowering one. Here’s to change!
Actually everything is related. Sacrifice is not an attractive word for people. But i think it applies to everything. It’s like when we sacrifice something for the sake of having great careers and achieving goals. It’s something to do with looking at the bigger picture and not being selfish. But there are those who choose the path of instant gratification and thus forfeiting future bliss.
I agree that everything is related and I think Einstein hit the nail on the head (see my sidebar for his quote). Generations of humans have been hung up on thinking we are separate from the environment when we most certainly are part of it. Generations of humans have thought their role was to conquer the environment rather than working in harmonious cooperation with it. Generations of humans have mistakenly placed satisfying their own greed not need, and that path has led to compromising the ability of the planet to continue to deliver the resources required for the health and life or all interconnected species.
Most particularly, in North America we have been seduced into pursuing the so-called American dream, which has created the highest levels of poverty ever, and the never ending wars for resources. It has also created unrealistic expectations in immigrants, who arrive on the Golden Mountain finding they have fallen prey to skillful propaganda that threatens to ensnare their children in the never ending cycle of self-gratifying climb over others to get to the top.
Never before have there been so much wealth in the hands of so few and the few are fixated on appeasing their own desires rather than sharing what they have, and leaving a healthy planet for upcoming generations.
The time to change and regulate the corpocracy is NOW. The place to begin to change is between our ears.
Hi TiTi!
So, certain things that each of us can do to prevent a disaster could be so many, like installing low energy light bulbs, recycling waste, or turn off lights when we don’t need them, pull the plug mobile charger when not in use , close the tap when brushing our teeth, try to go more on walking and cycling, so reduce the emission of carbon dioxide that our car emits.. these are some simple things we can do each of us and before we leave a lit light bulb without use, to think about our children’s future.
We know that the effects of global warming will be: the emergence of hunger, malaria, floods, storms, lack of water, rising sea levels due to melting glaciers and large ice sheet and would be but I think this would be enough to lead to the extinction of the human species .
But for all our needs and habits nature provides a variety of alternative energy production, the only problem is how we transform sunlight, wind, biomass, geothermal energy or water power into electricity and heat in an environmentally friendly way to see what measures are being taken to the situation this.(I recommend watching the documentary Zeitgeist Addedendum.)
Your article is interesting and wonderful as usual. It seems that you care about our planet and people.
Kisses & Hugs
Dy,
xo
fi there,
My husband and I have made many changes in our everyday life to reduce oil dependency. n fact you have listed most of them. We find the greatest challenge is to rid our life od plastics – they are ubiquitous. Sandra Lee has published an excellent and very helpful post here 11 ways to reduce your oil use. Thanks so much for sharing what you learned in the documentary. I see that it’s available on youtube and I will watch it this weekend.
timethief, It is incumbent upon us all to take whatever measures possible, I agree. Unfortunately it may need to be a grass-roots effort due to many politicians being financed by huge oil companies at the expense of our planet. For those who try to debunk global warming and who negate our excesses, I suggest they read the material you have provided here. Quite a worthy read! Thank you for raising awareness of such an important issue.
Maybe I’m off-base but where I live we discovered a mobilized population who were active in politics at the grassroots level have been able to achieve change. At the grassroots level where a majority of citizens are involved in the decision-making process the strength of numbers has resulted in electing representatives who are not the puppets of industry. They have regulated industry and IMHO even more regulation is needed.
timethief – It’s fascinating to learn the real meaning of “sacrifice.” I appreciate this unique perspective on the environmental challenges we face. I would happily “sacrifice” quite a lot to contribute to bringing more balance back into our world.
@Sandra
I found this to be a fascinating read also. I sincerely doubt that most people know the derivation of the word or have ever contemplated it. I would willing sacrifice to leave a legacy of a better future for the next generation, and I am confident that many others would do the same and be the change they want to see as well.
I would sacrifice every iota of stability in the house of cards we call the global economy to ensure that humanity lives on.
What do I mean by that? I mean if I had a technology that completely obsoleted all fossil fuels I would zealously drop them all on the market as fast as humanly possible with no regard for financial success beyond what is necessary to keep producing more.
What would my goal be? To obliterate the oil industry within one month.
I’d be cheering you on and helping in every way I could. Thanks for the comment.