No. 50: How to be an environmental advocate
A few ideas to help you get started!
Hi, and happy issue 50! We’re coming up on the one-year birthday/anniversary of G&S! If you’re enjoying it, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, chat, notes or reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you!
Habits to help you better advocate for the planet
While there is no real difference between being an environmentalist and an environmental advocate, advocating for what you believe can have a stronger, lasting message.
The image behind an environmentalist has been skewed over the past few decades, morphing into a white, upper-middle class person living in California with an electric car.
But we can adopt effective strategies from indigenous ways of life, for example.
Such examples of sustainable practices from indigenous communities (worldwide) include:
Terrace farming - Ancient argicultural method from the Incas (Graber, 2011), Wari, and Andean people, it involves buildng terraces or “steps” on hilly areas to prevent nutrient loss caused by rain run-off. It also reduces soil erosion and water loss (Mazzocchi, 2020). Pictured above.
From taking to giving - A common ideal in Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, this crucial indigenous concept of giving back to nature solidies a mutually beneficial relationship we should have with Earth. For example, for sweetgrass to flourish, it must be harvested properly, where we come in. Claiming only what you need and leaving the rest is something we can all learn from in our modern capitalistic society.
When searching this phrase, the results often yield suggestions like, ‘degrees you can earn’ and ‘careers you can have,’ but really, advocating for our planet can exist in all professions, degrees and walks of life. While I’m pursuing environmental programs this summer (which I’m super excited about, and will defnitely cover in future issues) and a college degree down the road, you don’t have to change everything.
Find what events you’re passionate about: I often discuss the same suggestions we as individuals can do to lessen our impacts, but striving to uplift community solutions are just as good, if not better options. If you have time and interest, you could host a clothing swap (even if it’s just for your friends), help your friends starts a compost, host a clean-up event, or hike, anything that allows for the strengthening of one’s connection with nature or seeks to reverse systemic issues. (I would also LOVE to see your endeavors!!) My donation boxes at my local college have collected a variety of things, from SO much clothing (to be used in my clothing swap), to books, to Christmas decorations, to two working printers. (The non-clothing items will be donated to responsible, local organizations!) While I won’t be able to save everything, it’s small actions like these that can encourage and promote sustainable behavior. Plus, it’s fun!
Strive for inclusivity: It’s important to remember we can all bring something to this movement, but we should also strive to be inclusive as possible. So many minorities have perspectives we have the honor of hearing, and it would be incredibly uncool to ignore them. (And why are we so obsessed with exclusivity in the first place? Is this to blame for the lack of freedoms that still exist today, or is it due to with the modern consumer culture movement?).
14 Closed Loop Beauty Programs You Should Know About (Sustainable Baddie)
Where allergy season is getting longer (Axios)
A Supreme Court Ruling the Fossil-Fuel Industry Doesn’t Like (The New Yorker)
How “Sponge Cities” Seek to Prevent Droughts and Flooding (Active Sustainability)
Wrap-up
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