Effective conservation must stay clear about its mission — protect and restore the more than human world but it can’t pretend that mission exists outside of human history. The roots of American conservation are tangled with exclusion and eugenics, so dismantling white supremacy isn’t a distraction from the mission; it’s a way of ensuring that the mission finally serves everyone. The task now isn’t to choose between focus and justice, but to integrate both so that our stewardship reflects the world we actually live in.
This critique of the Sierra Club could have been clear and concise to point out the problem of ideological focus distracting from effective conservation. Instead, you alienated half of the political spectrum, many of which do get their hands dirty and bloody in the conservation realm. I would view myself as an issue and time specific voter, but many of my friends are self proclaimed leftists and kill more deer and spend more time on the mountain than most of my friends who claim to be right wing conservationists. And I have many more left wing friends who don’t hunt or fish who are actually seeking out effective ways to live with and off the land in a real and sustainable way that does not include political posturing. You just shut the door on all of them.
Conservation historically has been largely bipartisan. I even hate that term, because it alludes to only two sides agreeing on one thing. To make real and lasting change, we need to be looking for allies wherever we can find them. This article does not do that. At the root of it, it boils back down to “we are right and they are wrong”.
While large funding missions like the Sierra Club are helpful tools in the Conservation movement. We must all be on guard against greenwashing from large Corporations and special interest groups. These well funded entities will use powerful marketing strategies to hide their greed or true purpose. So many people want to just donate money instead of their time. Paying $20 to a big ThinkTank to run commercials cannot compare to spending 2 hours picking up trash in your community. Many of us simply don't have access to the money or influence to drive policy change. But here are things we can do: remove waste, observe for pollutants and those violating regulations, stay vigilant at local government to ensure special interests aren't leveraging nature for short term profit, finding ways to be efficient instead of throwing everything away.
Make no mistake, a lot of the climate issues are from corporate pollution, and I don't want to shift blame onto individuals. Merely that in the absence of good policy from a federal level, it is up to us to restore and maintain what we have. And without that local involvement we cede our natural places to the greedy and short sighted.
Stop the finger pointing. It does no good . Sure, an organization may have lost their way. But now is the time to understand how this happened, but this is not the time to pile on. Conservation is a big tent. All should be welcomed. Comparing yourself to others and patting yourself on the back has never, and I mean never, forwarded a cause.
Effective conservation must stay clear about its mission — protect and restore the more than human world but it can’t pretend that mission exists outside of human history. The roots of American conservation are tangled with exclusion and eugenics, so dismantling white supremacy isn’t a distraction from the mission; it’s a way of ensuring that the mission finally serves everyone. The task now isn’t to choose between focus and justice, but to integrate both so that our stewardship reflects the world we actually live in.
Hello Aiden John, I’ll keep praying to the lord that your heart opens to compassion.
This critique of the Sierra Club could have been clear and concise to point out the problem of ideological focus distracting from effective conservation. Instead, you alienated half of the political spectrum, many of which do get their hands dirty and bloody in the conservation realm. I would view myself as an issue and time specific voter, but many of my friends are self proclaimed leftists and kill more deer and spend more time on the mountain than most of my friends who claim to be right wing conservationists. And I have many more left wing friends who don’t hunt or fish who are actually seeking out effective ways to live with and off the land in a real and sustainable way that does not include political posturing. You just shut the door on all of them.
Conservation historically has been largely bipartisan. I even hate that term, because it alludes to only two sides agreeing on one thing. To make real and lasting change, we need to be looking for allies wherever we can find them. This article does not do that. At the root of it, it boils back down to “we are right and they are wrong”.
That isn’t going to help.
While large funding missions like the Sierra Club are helpful tools in the Conservation movement. We must all be on guard against greenwashing from large Corporations and special interest groups. These well funded entities will use powerful marketing strategies to hide their greed or true purpose. So many people want to just donate money instead of their time. Paying $20 to a big ThinkTank to run commercials cannot compare to spending 2 hours picking up trash in your community. Many of us simply don't have access to the money or influence to drive policy change. But here are things we can do: remove waste, observe for pollutants and those violating regulations, stay vigilant at local government to ensure special interests aren't leveraging nature for short term profit, finding ways to be efficient instead of throwing everything away.
Make no mistake, a lot of the climate issues are from corporate pollution, and I don't want to shift blame onto individuals. Merely that in the absence of good policy from a federal level, it is up to us to restore and maintain what we have. And without that local involvement we cede our natural places to the greedy and short sighted.
Stop the finger pointing. It does no good . Sure, an organization may have lost their way. But now is the time to understand how this happened, but this is not the time to pile on. Conservation is a big tent. All should be welcomed. Comparing yourself to others and patting yourself on the back has never, and I mean never, forwarded a cause.