Within all lies, there are shreds of truth.
I started this post as a fun April Fool’s, let’s-get-back-into-things kind of blog post, but I quickly came to realize that the truth makes for a more important topic. While these are my personal opinions and observations as an American (with sources/statistics cited where appropriate), I think it opens a very important discussion for those in environmentalism. I’d encourage you to let me know your thoughts in the comments, through our socials, or by emailing us because I want to know how things compare to where you live and what you think the future will bring. Okay, on to the post.
A new era
There is no mistaking it: the world has entered a new era of environmentalism. This latest shift comes on the heels of the second Trump presidency and highlights the widespread change in public opinion. Executive orders, political appointments, and introduced legislation have started to align the government with the President’s objectives. Campaign promises of eliminating government departments, expanding fossil fuel extraction, and reducing environmental oversight scared even the fiercest eco-warriors, but now they are starting to become reality. Already, cuts to the National Parks Service (NPS), rollbacks of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies, and an exit from Paris Climate Accord leave the future of environmentalism in question. Even large corporations are following suit, pulling their promises of emission reductions, cutting philanthropic funding, and putting transitions to sustainable practices on hold.
Of course, the political shift we’re living through couldn’t have spawned on its own. The public’s mind has changed: the new focus is less about “progress” and more for “stability”. “Uniformity” and “efficiency” are in, while “innovation” and “diversity” are out. But how did we get here? How did environmentalism come to being – dare I say – a fading concern?
What never was
Hindsight is 20/20, and that’s no more apparent than with Biden’s presidency (ironically, just after the year 2020). America may not have known it, but we were (in my opinion) at the beginning of a mini-golden age of conservation. We’ll gloss over most of the details (because this isn’t a history lesson), but the environmental trials and tribulations of the first Trump presidency (environmental program cuts, pipeline construction, and endangered species protection rollbacks) gave way to an administration that promised to invest in the opposite (which it did most of the time). The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act were two of the largest sources of funding to ever come through for fighting climate change. The funding was meant to go towards everything from public transportation, park maintenance, energy efficiency – you name it. It was far from a blank check, but I think it’s the closest Mother Nature has ever gotten to getting one.
But even with the success, this mini-golden age never fully blossomed. With so much money comes so much red tape, and even for the projects that receive these funds, many aren’t the types of projects that can be completed in a couple of years. Ultimately, things went somewhat stagnant during Biden’s presidency. The public focused on whatever was in the news cycle, he didn’t get the political points he desperately needed, and the spending ultimately became another thing that fueled the ideological rift in America.
Everything, everywhere, all at once
Enter the elephant in the room. It’s sad to say, but I think one of the biggest reasons why the environment has become somewhat of a “fading concern” is because there are so many other issues that are screaming for our attention. I will not list all of the issues we currently face in America (because holy cow), but the debacle goes something like,
“If I’m spending all of my time worrying about [enter issue of survival here], then how am I also supposed to lead the fight for the environment?”
I had a great discussion about exactly this with a writer for the Washington Post last year (still can’t believe that happened..). It doesn’t feel good to say that only the privileged can worry about the environment, but in how our society is set up – yeah, it’s kind of true. If you are worried about your survival today and the foreseeable future, you don’t have time to worry about your quality of life later on. The government should ideally have our best interests in mind, but with a system drawn along party lines, that clearly means different things to different people. Plus, if most of the constituents are busy trying to survive, who is going to tell the representatives what the people want, not just what the constituents that don’t have to struggle want.
If you are just scraping by because the cost of living keeps going up, facing policies that challenge your right to be in your home country, or fighting to even be acknowledged as a person with rights (trans rights are human rights), how can you have the capacity to take on more? Combined with the aforementioned political climate, and it not only feels like environmentalism is unsupported, but hopeless. If the government doesn’t lend you the tools for being environmentally minded (like supplying recycle bins in public places), it’s that much harder to get started.
Was I privileged?
I never really thought of myself as this kind of “privileged” until only recently – and even so, in the past tense. After the election, after Trump announced his plans for his next term, and after he came into office, I felt hopeless about the environment and worried about the future of our company, Terrabyte. No more were the talks of “what are we going to do next” but rather “what’s going to happen next?” I have a variety of other stressors that I won’t name here, but the compounding stress of everything is, in a word, a lot (two I guess). I long for those days where I didn’t have to stress about as much as I do now (it was only bills, business, and my relationships; not those plus finances, fear for plenty of people I know, and the future of environmentalism in the country). So, I guess I’ve first-handedly become accustomed with why environmentalism has become a fading concern – it’s because there’s so much to worry about. You can’t take on more than you can take on (and the people that have the ability to are likely supporters of this new system).
I think the biggest thing that gives me hope today is an Instagram Reel I saw awhile back (I wish I had the link to share). The person in the video said something like, “Throughout history, we have seen a ‘two steps forward and one step back’ trend come from societal changes. Right now, there is a lot changing in the world (Trans rights, gay rights, BIPOC racism, several warfronts, book bans, gun rights, climate change and conservation – social issues galore!), and though there has been a lot of progress, there is the culture that fights for taking that step back. There will always be resurgences of past beliefs, customs, and trends – but overall, the progress still plows forward with those two steps. So, even if it’s not a year for progress, it doesn’t mean progress will never be seen again.”
This blog post was entirely wrote using renewable energy from our solar array! I love highlighting this whenever a full post can be made when powered by solar, but hopefully one day, that’ll just be how every post is. ❤️🌎