As I sat among a crowd of
Namibians listening to panel discussion on plant genetic resources, I began to
re-consider the privilege of environmentalism.
I am proud to call myself and environmentalist, and having been born in
Montana and raised in Colorado, I met many others who climb 14ers, backpack,
and just generally love spending time in nature. But environmentalism isn’t solely connected
to the nature-loving hobbies, but rather is defined by a sustainable
lifestyle. For example, the ideal environmentalist
might eat organic local food, install solar panels on his/her roof, utilize
grey water to water their garden, have a low-water requiring yard, use reusable
grocery bags, use public transportation when possible, drive a hybrid car,
listen to NPR, and pay to be a member of the Sierra Club. These are likely the actions most people
correlate with environmentalism.
However, this version of environmentalism is extremely Western oriented,
not to mention privileged. How many
people in the world, let alone the US, can afford a solar energy system?
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| Loving nature from an early age |
And again, I return to
Namibia. What does it mean to be an
environmentalist in a developing country?
Development requires resources, and therefore is detrimental to the
environment. Sustainable development is
not development that does not harm the environment, but rather development that
harms the environment at a rate that ensures future use of the resource at the
same rate. Sustainable development,
therefore, requires a country to slow down and think of the bigger
picture. Western countries call for
sustainable development all the time.
But who are we to call for other countries to slow down when we never
did. In fact, the environment is only
now in such a precarious position due to the careless actions of Western
countries in the 1900s. It seems pretty
hypocritical of us to make others slow down to reduce the impact of a problem
that we created.
Uranium mining contributes to
about 7.5% of the Namibian GDP. Further,
mining provides over 14,000 jobs in the country, which is expected to grow
significantly with the development of the world’s second largest uranium mine
in the coming years (which will be Chinese owned… an entire potential blog post
of its own). Mining is nearly synonymous
with development in Namibia. To slow
mining down to account for the environment means to slow down development. Is it worth it? White Southern Africans and foreigners that
I’ve heard from on the topic (who aren’t funded by mining) have been adamantly
against mining. But black Namibians who
are counting on development to raise their standard of living deserve at least
as much of a say as the white German environmental scientists.
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| Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine |
Environmentalism is a
privilege. One can only think of
conserving their resources once they have an excess. Is the person who pays big dollars to drive a
hybrid car with a big “LIVING GREEN” bumper sticker on the back more of an
environmentalist than the person who takes public transportation because they
cannot afford a used car? Is the person
who buys organic food at the grocery store at twice the price more of an
environmentalist than the indigenous person who harvests endemic fruits at an
unsustainable rate to survive? And who
am I, fitting into the privileged category of environmentalists, one to tell
the indigenous man to harvest more sustainably?
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| Topnaar family harvesting the !Nara melon |
As I sat amongst a crowd of
Namibians listening to a panel discussion about plant genetic resources, I felt
ashamed to be an American, and ashamed to be a privileged
environmentalist. The panel debated the
pros and cons of growing cash crops like wheat, corn, and rice in place of
native crops like mahangu, a Namibian strain of pearl millet. One of the proposed solutions was to begin
advertising native crops to Western environmentalists and health nuts. Mahangu is gluten free and full of protein,
fiber, and various important vitamins, nutrients, and amino acids. One only need look at quinoa, which is
originally from several countries in South America, as an example of the effect
this might have. Quinoa was a cheap
product for mostly poor South Americans to eat a healthy meal. As soon as this crop took off in Western
countries as a “health food”, the value of quinoa increased substantially,
ultimately making it harder for people in South America to purchase. These rural South Americans now must buy
cheaper cash crops, which do not provide the same nutritional value, and are
still more expensive than native crops used to be.
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| Panel discussion on plant genetic resources |
In sum, the
options for Namibian farmers (and farmers in developing countries worldwide)
include:
1. Continue growing native crops and
selling to a local market ultimately going broke.
2. Continue growing native crops and
cater to the Western healthy organic market ultimately surviving, but no longer
see locals eating the once staple foods.
3. Stop growing native crops, and
instead plant cash crops like wheat, corn, and rice ultimately surviving, but
allowing native crops to disappear entirely.
It comes down to an essential
question: How can we provide incentives to farmers to grow native crops without
catering to a Western market? I honestly
have no answer for that question, and have yet to hear a good one.
The solutions to these problems
cannot come from the West. So this begs
the question: what can I do, as a privileged American environmentalist, to help
solve these problems? Here’s the best I
could come up with:
1. Check, but do not feel guilty about,
my privileged environmentalism, and understand the inability of most of the
world to meet the standards of Western environmentalism.
2. Understand where the resources I use
come from, and the consequences my use of them might have on the environment
and other people, rather than simply feeling happy with the “GREEN” label on
all my products.
3. Encourage and participate in
capacity building in developing countries rather than [thinking I’m] solving
the world’s problems with my own limited world view.
4. Be open-minded about different
versions of environmentalism that do not fit within my Western cannon.
5. Be critical of those who are privileged
enough to be environmentalists, but who still ignore the need for change. These rich corporate CIS men (generalizing)
need to change much more than the Topnaar man harvesting too many !nara melons
each season.
I’m sure I missed about a
million things, and I would love to hear some other people’s thoughts on this
matter. But for now, I am even more
excited to ship out with the Peace Corps in a year to work in an environmental
placement in a developing country. I
have so much to learn, and truly think this will be the perfect opportunity to
widen my environmentalist perspective and branch out. I also strongly believe that by living in
other countries as an environmental worker, I can become a better
environmentalist, and ultimately be a better instigator of change in the US and
the West.
