By Ken Wu
I have an optimistic and resilient outlook on life. I feel fortunate that I have always tended towards this mindset, which has helped me with my environmental activism and with life in general. But, like billions of people around the world, there was a period recently when I experienced a feeling of major despair and a foreboding that very hard times are coming for the planet and humanity – so much so that I even stopped looking at the news for a week (which I never do).
As you may have guessed, the November 5th election results in the most powerful country on Earth was the source of my concern and temporary despair. Like dominoes falling across western democracies, including Canada, we are likely headed for similar scenarios for several years as the pendulum swings towards far-right regimes that are at odds with environmental and social harmony, climate progress, nature protection and often, democracy.
I do believe very challenging times are ahead – perhaps the greatest in history. But I’ve become increasingly convinced that challenges can also lay the seeds for potential leaps forward in progress if we wake up and work hard to learn from them. Right now we have a huge opportunity to reset much of the environmental movement and also progressive politics in the West – this has to be done. And nature is a huge part of the solution.
Here are some initial thoughts for now on the challenges and why there is hope in this era.
First, a brief look at what is driving the swing towards the politics of extreme selfishness, ignorance and increased authoritarianism that threatens the planet. I believe some key factors include:
- Disinformation on social media on a scale never before seen. A huge expansion of disinformation and crazy conspiracy theories on social media especially since the pandemic, a culture of embracing “alternative facts” (ie. made-up already disproven falsehoods) exacerbated by Trump, and the development of social media “silos” where identity groups are divorced from other information sources (including those rooted in facts and science) – have huge parts of the population believing lies and convinced that black is white. Democracy ultimately can’t succeed when overwhelmingly steeped in false information and lies.
- A general increase in anxiety and a feeling of unwellness across society – in large part driven by deepening online addictions via cell phones and computers and the resulting social isolation, particularly among younger to middle-aged demographics. Addictions are never good, nor is loneliness, and coming from a place of anxiety and fear tends to impair good judgement. To be well, humans need nature, the outdoors, and real social connections with real people in the real world. Looking at screens all the time just doesn’t cut it and is hugely driving this mass societal misery. The anxious and fearful tend to be vulnerable to purveyors of change who are peddling false information, scapegoating, and selfishness.
- Economic factors, many of which are well-studied and often exacerbated by corporate greed, including the loss of blue-collar jobs to mechanization and globalization and increases in the cost of living. Again, coming from a place of fear, insecurity and anxiety is typically not the basis for good judgement, and this includes in politics.
- Environmental and progressive movements failing to connect to most people and their core needs, inadvertently assisting the rise of the far-right. Today, large parts of these movements are stuck in their niche activist silos steeped in a performative call-out culture focused on shaming and guilting individuals often based on words and language, thus increasing their social standing within their own social media audiences – while failing to connect to the vast majority of people on the things they care about outside these niche silos. By ceding the economy and the working class, businesses, and faith to the far-right, environmentalists and progressives have paved the path for their irrelevancy to most people and for their shortcomings in changing outcomes.
Of course there are other factors, but these are some that I think that are key.
What are some remedies to all this? Here are a few:
- Nature. The connection to and protection of nature cuts across the left to right political spectrum. This means that even far right and conservative governments are vulnerable in many cases to pressure within their electoral bases when they partake in environmental destruction. Why is concern for nature so pervasive? Because it’s rooted in our evolution as humans and as animals having lived in nature for millions of years. It’s in our biology.
It's not enough to always talk about the broader issues of the climate and extinction crises. We must show how environmentalism and nature protection are about meeting the daily proximate needs of the average person, and not limited to polar bears in 2100 or spotted owls or our children’s children’s futures, much as they matter. Nature matters right here and now to everyone.
Nature is vital for our health and well-being - the science shows that even breathing in the air in a forest brings in “phytoncides”, plant compounds that boost our immune systems to remove virus-infected and cancerous cells from our bodies, along with a plethora of psychological benefits that bring associated physical benefits to our health too. We need a bigger campaign to get people outside more often and off their phones.
Economically, studies show that major protected areas typically bolster local economies by fostering and attracting tourism, recreation, real estate values, skilled labour (and associated industries), non-timber forest products, carbon projects, and ecosystem services that also support businesses (eg. clean water and habitat that support commercial and recreational fishing).
- Having a positive economic agenda in general for both businesses and workers - and making this central, not a marginal concern. In addition to the benefits of a nature-positive economy, in general a smart, modernized economy based on clean energy and increased efficiency can both create more jobs and lower the land-use footprint of many industries compared to the older, dirtier, inefficient resource industries. Workers need both jobs in new, clean, sustainable industries and conservation-based economies - and often “just transition” strategies and safety nets to help get them there. We can protect old-growth forests while ensuring a value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry, and energy workers can transition to solar, wind, geothermal and other clean industries from fossil fuels, but will often need support and regulations from governments – otherwise they will be more readily used by the destructive and dirty industries as soldiers in the culture war to prolong the unsustainable and destructive status quo.
- Non-traditional allies engagement. To expand the breadth and strength of the environmental movement, we need to engage those far beyond our environmental activist echo-chambers, based on where their interests overlap with ours. Businesses, unions, faith groups, outdoor recreation groups, and diverse cultures especially in the larger cities – all of these diverse groups have a stake in nature protection and environmentalism for their own reasons, but we must listen, learn, and make the effort to reach out. The core environmental movement is way too small to change outcomes based on itself – yet it is within their own echo chamber where the vast majority of environmentalists spend their time.
- Supporting First Nations to establish new protected areas that sustain their ecosystems, cultures and their economies. First Nations have been here for thousands of years and will remain rooted with a sense of place through it all, including through more environmentally regressive conservative regimes. When connected and re-connected to their ecosystems and their cultures, they fight harder than the rest of us to protect and maintain them. However, to establish “Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas” (IPCAs) they often need practical and significant financial support - not just verbal platitudes and land acknowledgements - for their capacity needs and for economic alternatives to their dependencies on industrial resource industries, such as logging, as do most rural communities in general.
- Large scale education and outreach efforts. Today, social media has supplanted much of the traditional news media as the main source of information for much of society - which has also scaled-up the level of misinformation, as there are no factual accuracy standards on social media. Environmentalists and progressives have been far behind the far-right in reaching people via social media platforms – our followings tend to be exponentially smaller as the far-right and its backers have prioritized mass outreach, unlike the detached progressives. In addition, a much deeper and pervasive level of ecological education is needed throughout society, as well as educational campaigns on how to spot and discern disinformation (Finland’s educational system has been at the forefront of this for a while now: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/05/16/news/finland-visionary-fight-disinformation-teaches-citizens-question-online) - if democracy and the planet are to survive.
Of course, the solutions to our challenges will take more than this, but these are some items that I believe are key.
The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance is working to build a movement that emphasizes nature protection for our health and well-being, a sustainable economy, the engagement of diverse non-traditional allies, tangible support for many First Nations communities via conservation financing initiatives for new protected areas, nature exploration, and ecological literacy on a much larger scale. I believe we will play a vital and leading role in pioneering this approach during this challenging era. Please support us to help us grow our organization’s capacity – go to: https://www.endangeredecosystemsalliance.org/donation
Ken Wu is the founder and executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. He has worked for over 30 years to protect old-growth forests in BC and endangered ecosystems in Canada.