Environmental education revisited

Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101482/1/39015009921027.pd

Canaries In The Anthropocene: Storytelling As Degentrification In Urban Community Sustainability

This article examines contrasting stories—or cautionary tales—about the environmental crises facing the planet and how these stories enable different theories of “sustainability” and responses to these crises. The story of the Anthropocene is one of the contemporary narratives guiding modern sustainability initiatives, and it assumes a pan-human responsibility for the climate crisis calling for the adoption of technocratic fixes to address the problem. This is not enough, argue many environmental justice critics, who assert that the story itself is fatally flawed. Rather, they insist that the goal should be to “change the story” to imagine and create alternative pathways toward more just, interdependent, and sustainable futures. Instead, many environmental justice activists and scholars deploy the story of the “miner’s canary,” a cautionary tale used as a metaphor for how the awareness of the suffering of those who are most vulnerable may provide early warning signals of imminent environmental collapse in the broader society. The miner’s canary story argues that by noticing and caring for those most at risk, all communities and environments are protected. The final section of the article discusses my own story of working with community groups who see themselves as “canaries” in the current global crisis fueled by climate change. I describe how I engage community building across differences with the hopes of co-producing a model for a more just sustainability—or a story of a “degentrified” model of sustainability that insists we address in tandem the social and environmental crises of our times

Seaweed, Soul-ar Panels And Other Entanglements

Storytelling in the elds of Environmental Studies and Environmental Humanities under the sign of the ‘Anthropocene’ resounds with litanies of trauma, disaster and extirpation; it is at once doleful and apocalyptic. The typical Environmental Studies syllabus rehearses these familiar tropes of ruination and decline, and despite my best efforts to avert the collective numbness and the disabling environment associated with ‘well-informed futility syndrome,’ in my own classroom I am regularly accused of triggering despair and hopelessness. Endeavouring to address this ongoing pedagogical dilemma, in 2014 I developed a course at Swarthmore College focusing on the literary genre of life-narrative. I assigned texts comprised primarily of activist memoirs, autobiographies and memoir-esque novels. I reasoned that having students read life-writing produced by diverse scholars and activists who tell stories about living and acting in and through trauma would inspire ‘hope’. The kind of hope I was aiming for, the hope one must embrace when the world is falling apart – ‘hope in the dark,’ as Rebecca Solnit puts it – is not about denial, delusion and crossing one’s ngers while hoping for the best. Solnit explains: [Hope] is not the belief that everything was, is, or will be ne. The evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and tremendous destruction. The hope I’m interested in is about broad perspectives with specic possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act … You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings

Mobilizing ‘Intersectionality’ In Environmental Justice Research And Action In A Time Of Crisis

This chapter reviews the concept of “intersectionality,” describing its roots in Black feminist thought and social justice activism, and its focus on the synergistic relationship between critical inquiry and critical praxis. It examines how scholars and activists use intersectionality to reveal multiple and interlocking identities and injustices that, when made visible, enable coalition building to eliminate all systems of oppression across a wide spectrum of social movements. I analyze how environmental justice activists mobilize intersectionality for environmental change by building coalitions across racial, gender/sexual, class, ethnic, and national differences, contrasting this approach with mainstream environmental and climate movements’ use of the universalizing discourse of the “global commons.” Further, drawing on the social and political construct of the “undercommons,” a critical, abolitionist praxis focused on dismantling colonial institutions and co-creating new forms of research and action, I conclude with examples from my engagement with intersectional environmental justice theory and coalition building with my students and community partners in Philadelphia

AMBIENTALISMOS DE LA VIDA COTIDIANA: POLÍTICAS DE COALICIÓN, REPRODUCCIÓN SOCIAL Y JUSTICIA AMBIENTAL

Este artículo examina la política de coalición intersectorial forjada por activistas en organizaciones estadounidenses de justicia ambiental y de derechos de las mujeres. Esta política de coalición articula preocupaciones ecologistas y feministas y rechaza las limitaciones de políticas con enfoques estrechos en favor de una visión de cambio social y ambiental más estratégica y relacional. Formulada desde el concepto marxista-feminista de “reproducción social”, el análisis aborda las maneras complejas en que el capitalismo globalizado ha transformado las responsabilidades corporativas y del estado para la reproducción social. Las políticas neoliberales de privatización y desregulación han erosionado la garantía de un salario digno, seguro de salud asequible, decente educación, aire respirable y agua limpia. Basado en varios ejemplos de movimientos de base y organizaciones comunitarias, el ensayo discute cómo diversas mujeres activistas conectan conceptualmente la justicia ambiental y los problemas sobre derechos reproductivos con las luchas de sus comunidades, para así sostener la vida cotidiana (o para lograr la “reproducción social”). La innovadora política de coalición de organizaciones como las Comunidades Asiáticas por Justicia Reproductiva y la Coalición de Justicia Ambiental y Cambio Climático está generando dinámicos “ambientalismos” con suficiente visión política y “sensatez” comunal para construir una amplia colaboración social-ambiental que tenga la oportunidad de atraer a gente a tomar acciones más fuertes para frenar problemas tan grandes como el calentamiento global

Connecting Sustainability and Environmental Justice

This talk explores the "three pillars" of sustainability (ecology, economics, and equity) through the critical lens of environmental justice. What do we mean when we talk about sustainability? How do different groups of people understand and define the goals and visions of sustainability? This presentation provides examples of sustainability initiatives led by environmental justice organizations focusing on local agriculture, food security, energy and climate justice. It also discusses local partnerships and student-led community-based learning projects with community groups in Philadelphia and Chester, Pa