Me, My Dad, and the Battle Against Ridiculous Conservative Radio Stations

My father loves nature. He loves everything about the trees, the grass, and generally being outdoors. He also loves saving money. This includes turning off lights, using less water, less unnecessary heat and air conditioning, and simply does not like to waste. Yet, when he listens to obnoxious conservative radio stations (he's a moderate conservative stuck in a large family of ultra liberals)that still try to argue that there is little realistic action humans can do to fight global warming, my buttons get pushed. Although normally I prefer not to talk about Al Gore and global warming with my father, when his radio station started bashing Gore for all of the money that he is making from these campaigns, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go over the course's Thanksgiving homework. And so I began.

"Dad, you know this is crap, right?" -me

"Did you know that a whole group of local meteorologists just came out saying that global warming is not occuring? That it is just natural cycles of changes in weather patterns?" -Dad

"Dad, you're joking. I know you know that's a load of bull" -me

"I'm not saying anything one way or another. I'm just telling you the facts. The facts are that a whole group of local, well known meteorologists came out saying that global warming is not occurring. I just thought it was interesting, that's all.

"Wow..... (I go on long schpeil about End of the Wild statistics and current state of environment)

Fast forward to Politics:

"China owns us, you know. And that is not good for any of us. Including the environment. I don't know what you think is going to happen under Obama, but the reality is that the economy is in the toilet and government can't afford to get into more debt with all of these new green projects. --he said something about Hoover and the Great Depression, but I zoned out----

"(I go into schpiel about green collar jobs and how Obama isn't doing enough. Environment as way to reboost and redesign economic structures. We can fix this, it's easy--McDunough comes out---now is the time to demand big changes......

"Cheryl, I hope you're right, I really do. But it just doesn't seem realistic at this time. I see what you're saying, but the economic benefit will not show up until the longterm, at which time our debt would grow considerably.....9more on CHina and the economy and such.

At least I made some progress with my dad. He gets what I'm saying, sees my arguments, but I think it is too far-fetched for him to think that all of this is realistic, although when I told him that I would do much more than Obama if I had the opportunity, he seemed pretty interested. Overall good conversation, but not worth having again for at least a few years.

Thanksgiving Discussion with my Dad

So while I was driving up to Massachusetts with my Dad to go to my Grandparents for Thanksgiving (we did so much driving over break... i really increased my carbon footprint and I feel really guilty about it) dinner, so I decided to talk to him about the current state of the economy and how the environment can offer us a way out of recession. I thought it was important to talk about it in terms of economy because my Dad is a big business man and a market liberal who thinks the market will just take care of everything. We discussed Obama's ideas about the creation of green collar jobs, using the market as a tool for change and government policies. While my Dad isn't an environmentalist and loves his chain saw and cutting down trees in my back yard, he does believe that the market will change to accommodate environmental reform but he thinks that its going to be a lot harder to make this change happen quickly. He says there's enough doom's dayers out there, like me, to remind us that we need to take quick environmental action, that the change will eventually take place. My Dad's biggest concern is where is all the money going to come from to create these new green collar jobs and green industries. He doesn't like how the US is printing money to try and get us out of recession, since it just creates deflation. He wants a lot of Washington programs and lobbyist groups to be cut since they are a waste of money. It was an enlightening conversation and it's always interesting talking to him, because he relates everything back to the economy, which is something I'm starting to grasp. Overall I enjoyed my conversation and I know I'll get him to invest in these new green industries once they emerge, because no matter what they have to be our future.

Thanksgiving (of knowledge..,?)

So, I decided to talk to m sister. She has said to me that she feels she's a very involved person. she cares about politics, civil rights, human rights, laws, injustice, etc. She calls herself an activist. However, I have heard her say that while she feels adamant about almost every problem in the United States, she doesn't really feel or care much for the environment. She laughed when I asked her about it, and admitted with something like pride that the environment was the one thing she just didn't care about. Really, this happened.

I spoke with her for a while and I came to understand two things. Katie, my sister, didn't want to sacrifice. What turned her off about the environment was the idea that she, as a consumer, should have to sacrifice her comfort for some distant problem that isn't hurting her or anyone else for hundreds of years. I also came to understand that she had never considered the connections between the environment and other social problems. I tried to explain the environmentalism wasn't only about the earth, or animals. I admitted I myself am not truly affected by those sad dying polar bears.

I explained to her that human rights and environmental activism were the same thing, I tried to explain how every problem, every solution, is somehow connected to the environment, and she could not claim to care about one problem without first gaining an understanding of the environment, and the challenges we are facing today. I also told her that she was not alone in her fear of sacrifice, and invoked for her the argument of consumer verses citizen. I told her that if she herself did not want to change her ways perhaps she could instead demand that her government change its ways. Instead of giving up her comforts she could demand that these comforts become greener and more environmentally-effective.

I showed her Cradle to Cradle as an example of a better future, where we as humans do good instead of simply trying to do less bad. I also pointed out that this was a book she could read in the shower (Katie has read and ruined many a traditional paper-back book, in the shower). I felt this was a perfect way to demonstrate how green could not only be better for the environment but also better for her. She was impressed.

After explaining to Katie the ways the environment affected all those issues she did care about, and showing her the ways she could care about the environment, and enact change without having to sacrifice the life she has grown accustomed to I felt better. I hoped she had at least begun to understand the far reaching implications of environmental apathy. However she came up with a new reason to ignore the environment. She pointed out that if the government started to control what we consumed based on its environmental income then it was really playing big brother. She told me she worried environmental laws and policy could mean that the human rights and liberties, the very core of her activism, could be endangered.

I was frustrated, she was poking holes in my argument just so she had an excuse not to care. WHY couldn't she just admit that she was being lazy and silly and should change her ways; should care. Still, I stayed calm and tried to understand. I suggested that instead of denying people their liberties, or denying them the basic goods and services which they want, the government should be required to find new and better ways to provide these things. That way everyone wins, I assured her it was possible, pointed out the shower-ready book once again. Still, she didn't seem convinced. What I realized was that people won't care; will find reasons not to care, until they see the effects themselves. Perhaps if she was more afraid of environmental degradation she would stop making excuses? All I know is, I had run out of patience and arguments, she would feel the way she wanted to.

I tried professor! But I'm just not sure I changed her mind!
-Tess

Thanksgivng Discussion

This assignment was hard for me. Growing up among educated parents in the liberal city of San Francisco, it was hard to find much resistance about the growing need to find better solutions to the environment. With so much of California industries and culture is centered around the forests of Northern California as well as the huge agricultural areas of the Central Valley, keeping the environment healthy is a concert on everyone’s mind. If anything that was discussed around the thanksgiving dinner table was the fact that many in my family might take a too extreme approach to dealing with the environment. My sister runs a non profit in Portland Oregon that works to restore the Columbia river so she is real rabid about the need to fix the environment. My father, a small business owner is always weary about new laws and taxes that will hurt his businesses.
There was much discussion about the future of the environment and what seemed to be the overall theme was that any future changes need to be pragmatic and not too destructive to the local economy. Among these new solutions can be the practical tools such as new energy efficient light bulbs that do a lot to conserve energy. Because of many in my family feeling taxes and other environmental regulation already puts a large burden on business, conservation of energy seems like a much more practical solution then radical approaches. Small changes such as insulated windows and better mass transportation.
There was optimism for the future and that the fear of massive global warming and rising of the oceans was nothing but fear mongering. There was no doubt a belief that more is needed to be done, but the key was to make it manageable and not draconian top down decisions.

Discussion with My Roommate

I did not go home over the break, so I had a discussion about the global environment with my roommate. My roommate, who is also Japanese, thinks that the United States has to get involved with the environmental movement more. She pointed out the lack of people's awareness in the United States, so she insisted that they have to educate people in the United States. Thus, my roommate's opinion is that the Human Nature in the pyramid is the most important part. However, for me, the most crucial part in the pyramid is the Social Change. I know that it is difficult to get everyone on board and seems too idealistic, yet in order to improve the environment, people need strong leadership who make a change in the society so that people can be aware of the problems. I talked about the lack of leadership of the Bush administration in terms of the global environmental problems and green collar jobs that Obama is planning to provide as an example. Still, I agree with my roommate's opinion, because in Japan, people, especially children, are unconsciously educated about the environmental problems. Many elementary schools and junior high schools in Japan requires garbage collecting as a field trip, but I do not see so many American kids are collecting garbage. Also, unlike in the United States, many Japanese students have to clean up their classrooms by themselves almost everyday, so they naturally learn how to recycle garbage and reduce waste as much as possible. Though we were not totally disagreed, I enjoyed discussing about the environment with my roommate.

Although a bit late, my two cents on Prof. Manitates and his "trinity of despair"
These three variables do a good job of showing the different views on our decisions to participate in environmental change. The fact is however some of these factors are much more important and influential then others.

Although human nature and environmental strategy are measures that are easy to understand but the idea of social change presented by the professor is a bit complicated and is worth discussing. In his presentation notes, he described his disdain for patch work approach towards change by small dedicated groups and rather suggests a change of "system" thought. I feel this is an optimistic and unrealistic approach to understanding the social contect of promoting change. All change in the world has not come by an all of a sudden change in mentality, it takes the pushing and hard work by leaders and innovators. It takes this push by a few to create the pr and publicty that in turn will take these actions into the mainstream. Just like with securing rights for African Americans in the 1960s, it took the courage of a few to get the ball rolling to create enough controversy that the issue of rights became a mainstream discussion. The same can be seen with environmental groups today who are setting new ideas into the concious and discussion of everyday people.

The Solution: Make it Easy to do the Right Thing!

I found his argument especially interesting because it provides a different framework to think about how social change in fact happens. It is a misconception (one that I am guilty of having held) that in order to affect change,the masses need to be on board. But that simply is not true and this triangle clearly shows that. It is more important to have a strong dedicated core that can focus on setting agendas and later galvanizing the masses. This is evident when looking at all types of lobbying success. We need to stop acting like individuals and start acting like citizens otherwise the problems and at least the roots of the problems will continue to exist because we live with flawed systems and structures that allow these problems to exist. Overall I thought that the Triangle was very interesting and fairly accurate.