I will post a collection of papers I've written recently.
They are extended, so I didn't want to post them on my main page.
Please consider, these papers had pretty strict guidelines,
which left me a bit confined for topic, structure, length and freedom.
Enjoy!
“A growing culture of consumption created mountains of solid waste and rivers of sewage.
Poisonous chemicals were carelessly buried or left in leaking steel drums to
contaminate underground water supplies; one river burst into flame.
The production of hazardous substances made workplaces dangerous, even deadly.
The country’s crops were drenched in insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers,
its livestock infused with synthetic chemicals and hormones...
There was a growing suspicion that something was amiss in our affluent society,
that we were fouling our own nest and poisoning our own wells.”
(Shabecoff on postwar America)
In the 1960’s a movement began which aspired to give voice to the world we live within. This movement began with environmental ideologies, “beliefs that are used, often deliberately, to justify a desire for change. Environmentalists have produced a social, economic, and philosophical literature of remarkable breadth, depth, and variety that has significantly shaped the political and administrative agendas - if not the actual operation - of many nations of the world”(Harper 2001). The objectives of this movement include,
1) Sustainable management of resources and
2) Protection of natural environment,
through changes in public policy and individual behaviour, “intended to change the way people relate to the environment. It includes individual purposive action, but more significantly, it means the collective action of many individuals as they form groups and organizations intended to transform the way communities, companies, and societies impact their environments. In other words, collective action results in environmental movements” (Harper 2001). Throughout the past fifty, and most notably, the past twenty years, environmentalism has failed to achieve these objectives due to its outlook (on society and the natural world), disjointed environmental institutions and its narrow political framework which fails to integrate societal values with the issues.
OUTLOOK
“Eco- comes from the Greek word oikos, meaning home.
Ecology is the study of home, while economics is the management of home. Ecologists attempt to define the conditions and principles that govern life’s ability to flourish through time and change. Societies and our constructs, like economics, must adapt to those fundamentals defined by ecology.
The challenge today is to put ‘eco’ back into economics
and every aspect of our lives.”
(Suzuki, 2007)
The first reason environmentalism has failed is terminology; the terms ‘environmental problem’ or ‘pollution’ are no longer useful. Current problems are complex, solutions should be addressed as a new vision for the future, not a left-wing exasperated issue. The term ‘pollution’ depends on the concept of nature as pure and separate from humans, nature being contaminated and violated by human development, while the term ‘environment’ removes humans from the rest of the world. “Environmentalists imagine that nature, like God, is outside of us and all powerful, and like God, Nature is telling us what to do” (Nordhaus 2007). ‘Nature’ is portrayed as a harmonious, righteous entity which we exist outside of, not within, again distancing society from nature in many ways. Environmentalists have mistakingly used these key terms as analytical and moral concepts, continuously removing society from nature and creating resentment toward the human world. The concept of ‘environment’ excluding humans is politically suicidal and unnecessary, “The ecological crises we face are more global, complex and tied to the basic functioning of the economy than were the problems environmentalism was created to address forty years ago. Global warming threatens human civilization so fundamentally that it can not be understood as a straight forward pollution problem, but instead as an existential one. Its impacts will be so enormous that it is better understood as a problem of evolution, not pollution” (Nordhaus 2007). Climate change is represented as an environmental issue, when it is not a question of survival of the planet, but the survival of humanity and other species, as we know it. This re-calibration would garnish much more socio-economic support, “Many environmentalists imagine overcoming global warming to be about saving the planet. But the fate of the planet is not in question. The earth has survived meteorites and ice ages. It will certainly survive us” (Nordhaus 2007). We need to address the problem of Climate Change no longer as an environmental problem, and adjust our scope of understanding to it’s true cause and effect. It is not a question of stopping global warming, but minimizing and preparing for it, through cooperative action to allow humans and other life to overcome this planet change.
Martin Luther King Jr. used feelings of fear and repression in his famous speech, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’...” but transitioned to an aspirational message of hope, “...Let us not wallow in the valley of despair... I have a dream that one day this Nation will rise up..” (King Jr. 1963).
Environmentalists are caught in an ‘I have a nightmare’ mentality, focused on shaming and doomsday tactics instead of promoting an aspirational, future-oriented mentality. The use of eco-tragic narratives successfully provoke fatalist and survivalist mentalities over the intended embrace of environmentalism policies, “What extensive research finds is that the more scared people become about social instability and death, the less likely they are to change the way they think” (Nordhaus 2007). “Fear of death, engenders a defense of one’s cultural worldview” (Jost 2003). Also, the use of nostalgic narratives, insisting past methods of human existence was better and more harmonious with nature, is evidence of the movement’s tendency to look back, instead of looking forward.
“Few things have hampered environmentalism more than its longstanding position that limits to growth are the remedy for ecological crises” (Nordhaus 2007). Environmentalists have created inappropriate resentment toward the human world, linking economic success and progression with ecological deterioration. They view economic growth as the cause, not the solution to ecological crises and ignore that “thinking ecologically depends on prospering economically” (Nordhaus 2007). Environmentalists have tried to constrain human ambition through limits rather than redirect them, while gaining corporate opponents due to their failure to address the economy as a partner for change. Environmentalist organizations haven’t advanced the argument that action on the environment is a way to stimulate growth and create jobs because it is outside their ‘policy of limits’.
ENVIRONMENTAL INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR NARROW POLITICAL FRAMEWORK
From reform environmentalism in the 1960s, came a network of old and new environmental organizations with varying strategies “some engaged in pro-environment lobbying; some developed the expertise and scientific capability for educational programs and advocacy research; some specialized in litigation to shape the development and enforcement of environmental policy; some purchased land to set aside for wilderness preserves” (Harper 2001). Amongst different environmental organizations and individuals, a lack of cohesive objectives, mandate, methods, unity and organization persists. Since environmentalism is prone to a narrow focus, superiority complexes easily develop between issues and remedies, further distancing many interconnected issues and organizations. Current institutions work in contradictory ways and it is evident that cohesion is necessary, the possibility of “expand(ing) the concerns of various groups to see their common purpose, and creat(ing) the potential for greater collective action” (Harper 2001).
“The transition to a clean-energy economy should be modeled not on pollution
control efforts, like the one on acid rain, but rather on past investments in
infrastructure, such as railroads and highways, as well as on research and
development - microchips, medicines and the internet... This innovation-centered
framework makes sense not only for the long-term expansion of individual freedom,
possibility and choice that characterize modern democratic nations, but also for the
cultural peculiarities of the United States”
(Harper 2001).
Environmentalists have constructed personal and institutional mandates from past successes and they are unwilling to move to alternative strategies, example, environmentalism’s affinity with using images to expose humans’ impact on ‘nature’ from oil spills, deforestation, and mining for resources, but global warming is ‘invisible’, dynamic, and a prolonged process. “Local environmental activism was stimulated by clear and present community health hazards rather than by abstract concerns such as protecting wilderness areas or declining biodiversity” (Harper 2001). Since the 1960s, the world has changed in many ways, while environmental interest groups have not, “Our unprecedented wealth and freedom have profoundly changed what we care about, aspire to, and believe in, so it’s no wonder that the old political and moral fault lines no longer apply...(past) cutting-edge movements are now established special interests” (Nordhaus 2007). Environmentalism saw success during the early years and trusts the ‘tried and true’ method while ignoring the reasons for environmentalism’s success at that time in history, and how society has changed since, “Environmentalism and other progressive social movements of the 1960s were born of the prosperity of the postwar era and the widespread emergence of higher-order, postmaterial needs” (Nordhaus 2007).
Environmentalists’ single essential causes inhibit the ability to create a broad coalition necessary to achieve goals, and their policy proposals ignore the power of compromise, “Critics of grassroots movements often charge that their concerns are narrow and self-interested, ignoring broader obligations to society... Significant societal change in environmental standards requires a coordinated, nationwide coalition of local environmental organizations” (Harper 2001). Environmentalist policies do not address causal factors outside the environment and fail to include them in their mandate. The narrow mandate ignores connected factors, example, many overlook Brazil’s debt as a factor in the deforestation of the Amazon. A project which combines business, labour and environment, and pushes for invention and moral purpose is seen to be a vice by environmentalists but voter interest favors clean-energy jobs, freedom from oil and green infrastructure over a purely environmentalist agenda. “But environmental leaders thought our non-environmental and non-regulatory focus was a vice, not a virtue” (Nordhaus 2007). Environmentalists are unwilling to speak to what matters to voters out of fear for forced concessions, and as a result, the perception of the environment as a political issue has deteriorated. “Without effective grassroots support, such movement organizations can become distant from the very constituencies they claim to represent and often find their capacity for independent action compromised” (Harper 2001).
Environmental concern and ‘willingness-to-pay’ reside in the post-materialistic needs of human society and so “our political goal must be to create a kind of prosperity that moves everyone up Maslow’s pyramid as quickly as possible while also achieving our ecological goals” (Nordhaus 2007). An individual who is troubled over hunger, security and status is not capable of concerning them self with environmental issues, regardless of scale and impact, but Environmentalists tend to have a low opinion of society, John Gray stating that humans are ruled by “the needs of the moment” (Nordhaus 2007). This outlook ignores fifty-plus years of psychological and sociological influence on societal values and behaviours. The globalization of the postindustrial economy has created unprecedented material wealth and spending power but also outsourcing, downsizing, insecure i) employment, ii) retirement, iii) healthcare and iv) community. The insecure affluent population tend to overcompensate their insecurity by flaunting material wealth and refusing to believe their lifestyle is unaffordable. The rise of insecure affluence has caused the development of two social values,
i) the movement away from fulfillment values (liberal concerns) to lower-order ‘survival’ values (manifested as status competition, thrill-seeking and self-indulgence) triggering a cultural backlash, and
ii) the shift away from traditional forms of religion, familial and political authority to individuality (manifested with the creation of new identities) which produce an absence of social contract and common good, the focus being on self-interest.
“Even self-identified environmentalists prioritize other issues - gay marriage, abortion
and illegal immigration- ahead of environment”
(Nordhaus 2007).
The disregard of social driving forces makes it impossible to develop a vision that resonates with the general public, “the vast majority of ecological scientists did not examine the social and political causes of ecological degradation... The problem is not that the analysis is wrong, but that it is partial. Hence, reform environmentalism has been unable to develop a meaningful political vision of how to create a more sustainable society. Without such a vision, reform environmentalism is politically naive and perhaps irrelevant” (Harper 2001). Current societal values are focused on the individual over the group. We must create a new social contract which provides enough security to support a new ecological era, “addressing environmental problems effectively means fundamental social change based on the empowerment of local communities” (Harper 2001).
CONCLUSION
This is a short offering of the reasons for environmentalism’s failure. While going ‘green’ and feeling a deeper connection with self, nature, and the world, is a driving factor for most environmentalists, the ‘golden rule’ mentality gets the movement only so far. To be successful, environmentalism must re-brand its self as a future-oriented plan of action for economy, society, the natural world and the individual, framing its policy on science, as well as socio-economic values, and presenting this new vision in the stimulating light of positivity.
PS - The requirements for this essay were to focus on the negatives, the failures of environmentalism within the United States. The more research I did, the more I wanted to write a paper on the direction Environmentalism should be going in. I've compiled some notes, and I'm planning to write a report on that topic in my downtime.
WORKS CITED
Gray, John, “Straw Dogs”, London, Granta 2002
Harper, Charles, L. “Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues” Prentice Hall, 2001.
Jost, John T. et al, “Political Conservatism as motivated social cognition”, Psychological Bulletin 129, no. 3 (2003): 339-75
King, Martin Luther Jr. “I have a Dream” Speech at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.
Nordhaus, Ted, Shellenberger, Michael, “Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility”. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2007
Shabecoff, Philip, “Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century”. Island Press, 2001.
Suzuki, David, “The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering our place in Nature” Greystone Books, 2007.
Title Page photo - Iris at York University webpage, Toronto, Canada. http://www.irisyorku.ca/
“It’s not just sticking something in front of a building.
It’s all about problem-solving”
-Susan Schelle on Public Art
Public Art and Monuments serve as a pedestrian’s first intimate welcome to a city. When I first moved to Vancouver, I saw the mountains, the ocean, the tall trees of Stanley Park, but as I walked around my new neighbourhood, I was greeted by the public art on display. At first, my imagination created meanings for each piece and I came to recognize them as landmarks among the cityscape. Oppenheim’s The device to root out evil[i] in Coal Harbour and Engagement[ii] at Sunset Beach greeted me every morning on runs and many evenings walking with friends. As I met people and learned about my new city, I discovered other interpretations for each piece and I was tied into the history of people, places and ideas. This experience clearly displays the benefit of public art in an urban setting. The art forms a connection between the individual and the world they live in, allowing for a better understanding of self, place, problems and neighbours. Public Art also engages individuals and small groups to create personal interactions and discussions.
Regardless of the problems tied to a particular city, public art is one vehicle to generate solutions, either recreational in nature or ideological. Positive change begins with the inspired idea of an individual and its rippled effect throughout their society.
Description of Space
The first example of Public Art in Toronto is Susan Schelle’s “The Salmon Run”. Located in the Stadium Precinct District, which includes the Roundhouse, CN Tower and Rogers Centre near Rosenfeld Park on Bremmer Boulevard. The fountain, with built-in benches and made of bronze and granite, was commissioned as a part of Toronto’s Percent for Public Art Private Developer Program and unveiled in the spring of 1991. The fountain is composed to two sections; the front[iii], the salmons’ fight to spawn upstream, forging through the cascading waterfall of 3,000-4,000 gallons of water a minute, and the side[iv], a tranquil pool, full of resting, successful salmon. The plight of the salmon is an example of an immense struggle to accomplish a fundamental goal. Inspiration for the fountain came from the desire to create an oasis amongst the large concrete buildings, provide comfort and relaxation and remind passers-by of the rich ecological history of the area, a tribute to Canada’s Atlantic Salmon. The fountain displays the natural and the urban environments,
“Nature is what we’re known for. Why not put something that celebrates nature in an urban landscape and make it beautiful and make it a place where people want to sit”
-Susan Schelle.
The second example of Public Art in Toronto is the WSIB Simcoe Park Workers Monument. It is located in Simcoe Place’s courtyard at 200 Front Street W. Unveiled November 1, 2000, the monument is a memorial to Ontarians who have lost their lives in work related accidents between 1900-2000. The monument is composed to two pieces that work together; 1) “Anonymity of Prevention”[v] by Derek Lo and Lana Winkler, a “bronze statue of a worker kneeling by a large granite wall, chiseling the words ‘Remembering Our Past… Building a Safe Future’ “ (Evans, 2005), and 2) “100 Workers”[vi] by John Scott, a granite wall extending the entire length of the courtyard with 100 plaques, 100 names, 100 years of victims of workplace accidents.
“Whereas landscapes often exist in general categories,
monuments focus attention on specific places and events and are central to this endeavor of constructing symbolic landscapes of power”
(Osborne page 50).
Collective Identity
If the purpose of Public Art is problem solving, what are the problems facing Toronto? On a general level there are many; too much geography and too little history, too much space and too little time, as stated by Mackenzie King. The context of two founding nations with a growing diversity of the current population’s race, culture, religion, social status, language and politics, pulls the city apart. For the city to thrive, there must be attempts to “integrate a people separated by geography, history, ethnicity, class and gender by constructing an identity that is, among other things, self-consciously aware of place” (Osborne page 40).
The solution that is offered by public art is in the connection with its audience and the messages being communicated. The messages communicated are related to specific social values using commonly held symbolic meanings to reinforce the accepted norm or sometimes push to question it. Public art creates common identity within the society by creating emotional bonds between the art and audience “nurturing a sense of common history and heritage that is shared by people who have never seen or heard of one another… a sense of mutual historical experience” (Osborne page 55). The common identity connects all members of society because while people build the city and inhabit the neighbourhoods, so much of one’s identity comes from the places they exist within, “people are constituted through place” (McDowell, 1997). So while Toronto has a diverse population in every sense, public art is a tool to connect all the dots and cultivate a sense of unity, pride and common identity,
“Knowledge of places is therefore closely linked to knowledge of the self,
to grasping one’s position in the larger scheme of things,
including one’s own community,
and securing a confident sense of who one is as a person”
(Basso, page 34).
“The nurturing of a collective memory and putative social cohesion through landscapes and inscapes, myths and memories, monuments and commemorations, quotidian practices and public ritual. When these are ‘placed’ in context, they constituted the geography of identity”
(Osborne page 39).
In addition to a collective identity, a collective memory is essential in building a unified society. A shared account of history is critical in confirming a society appreciates compatible values, goals and ideals. Public Art is a crucial vehicle of memory, both those related to hardships and celebrations, and urban space grounds and articulates these important messages. Guatemalan photographer and human rights activist Daniel Hernandez-Salazar used his “Street Angels”[vii] to demonstrate the important relationship between collective memory and urban space. Hernandez-Salazar was committed to fighting the ‘forgetfulness’ of his country’s past human rights violations, but the ‘ghosts’ of all cities pasts are equally essential to the present and future. Memorials often serve as a constant reminder of hardships, and although sometimes upsetting, the key to future successes is in remembrances of the past,
“Historical memory is always in conflict with equally powerful forces to forget…
at the highly charged intersection of memory and forgetting, is where ghosts do their important work… Ghosts of the past remind their viewers of things that some would prefer to forget… but ghosts only appear when summoned”
(Hoelscher page 214).
Discussion of issues surrounding the sites
Schelle’s Salmon Run has received positive and negative media attention. Upon its unveiling, the Toronto Star described the fountain as “a focal point, a unique break from the concrete sterility that abounds SkyDome… physically comfortable, visually appealing, intellectually stimulating, entertaining and reassuring… its sole function is to enhance our experience of the city, to enliven Toronto’s utilitarian hardness and remind us of our humanity… an act of unabashed optimism, a visible success” (Hume, 1991). In 2005, the Toronto Star commented on how the fountain’s pump system needed extensive repairs but reassuringly stated, “The fountain is a place for recreation, and can be immediately recognized as a part of Canadian culture” (Black, 2005). Over the past year, the fountain has again fallen into disrepair, stopping the flow of water due to a leak in the pipes, which seeped into a parking garage below Rogers Centre. A supervisor of capital projects for parks stated “A contractor has been hired to find the leak, which involves excavating and remote-control cameras, they hope to start work later this week and have it fixed this summer” (Lakey, 2011). The tourist spot has been negatively impacted by the fountain’s malfunction, and one woman said “it would be much nicer with water for the fish” (Lakey, 2011).
The WSIB Simcoe Park Workers Monument has received positive public review, Co-creator of Anonymity of Prevention, Derek Lo stated, “The message behind the statue is the little things can make big changes”. The memorial was commissioned by the WSIB’s Board of Directors, “as a millennium project for Simcoe Park to serve as a daily reminder to everyone of our commitment to the prevention of workplace injury and illness” (Evans, 2005). Creator of 100 Workers, John Scott went on to receive the first Governor General Award for Visual Arts in April of 2000 (Evans, 2005).
Conclusions
Public Art is a tool for problem solving and so much more. From recreation, relaxation and remembrances to stimulating important discussions, enforcing social values and enriching public unity, the benefits of public art far outweigh the cost of creation and maintenance. Whether it is funded by the city or installed in the dead of night to inspire a democratic discussion, art in an urban setting allows the citizens to feel connected to their city and gives space to reimagine a better future.
– Daniel Hernandez-Salazar
Bibliography
Basso, Keith H., “Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache”, University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Black, Debra, “Celebration of nature found deep in urban jungle”, Toronto Star, August 12, 2005.
Evans, Patrick, “A memorial to those workers who paid the ultimate price”, Toronto Star, September 5, 2005.
Hoelscher, Steven, “Angels of Memory: Photography and haunting in Guatemala City”, GeoJournal 2008, 73:195-217.
Hume, Christopher, “Urban peaks give way to greener valleys”, Toronto Star, July 19, 1991.
Lakey, Jack, “Fake fish flounder in dusty fountain; Complains began after water shut off last year”, Toronto Star, June 8, 2011.
McDowell, Linda, “Undoing Place? A Geographical Reader”, London Arnold, 1997.
Minty, Zayd, “Post-apartheid Public Art in Cape Town: Symbolic Reparations and Public Space”, Urban Studies, February 2006, Vol. 43, No. 2:421-440
Osborne, Brain S., “Landscapes, Memory, Monuments, and Commemoration: Putting Identity in its Place”, Canadian Ethnic Studies, Vol. 33 No.3, 2001.
