Founded as a successor to the now-defunct student group Earth, Equality, Education (E3), the Environmental Organizers Network (EON) is a coalition of student groups dedicated to solving today’s environmental issues through multi-disciplinary activism and education on campus and, on a larger level, within the global community. I would like to address two broad subjects that are integral (in my opinion) to the mission of EON. Each reflection begins with an indispensable quote.
First, as Albert Einstein said, “Today’s problems cannot be solved if we still think the way we thought when we created them.”
Environmental issues are one of the great common denominators of our world. In one form or another, environmental issues affect everyone, are pertinent to every academic discipline, and engage every aspect of society. Natural resources and ecosystem services power our economies, inspire the human mind, and make this planet inhabitable. The choice to engage with environmental issues is therefore a choice to engage simultaneously with the myriad social, political, economic, and biological issues that form the fabric of our local and global societies.
Environmental activism acts as one “lens,” (which is inextricably layered atop many others), through which to educate ourselves and others about the oppression and injustices that are incorporated into our evolving relationship with our physical and natural surroundings.
The insight acquired from examining the world through such a lens can elucidate the ways that factors such as class, race, and region further oppression in our society. Such considerations can in turn equip us to act as informed and active global citizens. It’s time that we recognize fully the interdisciplinary nature that is inherent in environmentalism and move beyond our cynical view of environmentalism as being concerned solely with the well-being of endangered species and wilderness conservation.
Though these issues are important on their own, they are also inextricably linked to matters of environmental and social justice. Environmental activism in the broadest sense ought to be harnessed as a means to effect positive social change transcendent to the “traditional” agenda of environmentalism. Not surprisingly, environmental activism at Wesleyan attempts to do just this.
The second reflection begins with this quote by African environmentalist Baba Dioum: “In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”
Education is the key to informed and active citizenship. No one will be incentivized to work for the protection of something (i.e. a healthy ecosystem or a human right) until they can understand its value for themselves. Through education, we give ourselves the power to empower others. If engaging in environmental activism allows us to understand our relationship to our environment and society, the value of environmental activism speaks for itself. And what better place for the spread of knowledge than in an energetic community like Wesleyan that is rich in curiosity and dialogue?
One of the fundamental visions of the Environmental Organizers Network is to empower others through the spread of information. We do this by facilitating dialogue, pairing students with physical and human resources, organizing for direct action, and finding opportunities to unite student groups across campus for the achievement of common goals.
“I don’t think you have to do a lot, just a little bit,” Michael Moore said this week in an address to Georgetown University addressing how students can get involved in social justice. “Don’t turn your head the other way.”
One Georgetown student interviewed later was surprised at Moore’s lack of “foaming radicalism,” apparently moved by Moore’s unadorned defense of informed and engaged citizenship.
Activism in its purest form is just that: people empowering other people through education. If you want to make a difference, the first step is to learn about what’s happening on campus. We at EON welcome you to join us.
EON’s next meeting is happening concurrently with VEG OUT that starts at Earth House this Saturday @ 6:30 p.m.