Saving the Planet Without Self-Loathing
Humans are an environment-making species — and that’s okay. The real challenge of environmentalism and the Green New Deal is not to retreat and let the ecology be, but to change how we make environments.
Yuccas burst forth very large stalks of flowers as a heavy wildflower bloom along the Angeles Crest Highway on June 21, 2005 in the Angeles National Forest northwest of La Canada, California.David McNew / Getty
What is the fundamental relationship between Homo sapiens and our environment? Western environmentalism has long suffered from an implicit Malthusianism that casts humans as intruders upon a harmonious and static thing called “nature.”
This worldview has driven much of conservationism. It is at the heart of the concern with “overpopulation.” It lurks within the common left anxiety about “development” and “growth.” And it is found in the “jobs vs. environment” debate.
The truth is, we are not intruders. In reality, humans have always been an environment-making species. In fact, every species is.
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