The topic of the environment has gripped me since Al Gore's documentary. Increasingly, I see it bearing in everything I do. Notwithstanding my dedication to protecting the environment, the critical scholar of religion in me emerged while reading this wonderfully written piece.
The obvious: the current environmentalist rhetoric (the movement for protecting the environment), its sense of urgency, its totalitarian impulses, together with the movement's tendency towards fragmentation, fits naturally within the Western eschatological tradition.
And perhaps, this is even more so within the United States' model. Those familiar with the Millenarianism texts of the so-called Second Great Awaking, particularly those of the Millerist type (William Miller), will recognize the similar emotional effect of doom. It was not until the disaster-like pitch subsided and gave way to more practical and social concerns (i.e., social health, family issues) that these movements became lauded reforming forces in society (i.e. Adventism).
Some of the most interesting current environmental literature seems closer to a particular action-driven Abolitionist/Anti-slavery rhetoric. The 1820s began seeing a grassroots reaction against the traditional gradualist approach. Some Black and White anti-slavery/abolitionists began putting forward freedom projects with broad appeal among Blacks that challenged the status quo (Unfortunately, social and political structural problems particular to the U.S. highjacked this collaborative movement). Abolitionism, in all its forms, is doubtlessly part of the Christian eschatological tradition, but for the most part it placed more emphasis on a rhetoric of action than on annihilation. This experience may serve us well today.
As we near the imminent environmental crisis an increasing number of films and publications will hammer on our sense of guilt and fear, pressing those primal buttons of horror, and crippling those who consume it. In a way, we have been here before. The inevitable result, unfortunately, will be what is currently starting to happen:
Running against the pro-environmental education is an ever growing dubious yet popular literate of deniers. And then, there is the large majority of people who simply cannot be bothered with issues they feel out of their control.
Instead, we should develop a rhetoric that would accompany a broad and practical campaign for change and reform. It should be one that empowers people and clearly show them a path they can take. Shedding the extreme sense of doom for a more action-led vocabulary should be the first step.
