Next month is the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. We’ve held celebrations every April since 1970 to honor environmental protections, but WTF have we actually accomplished since then? I would be remiss if I didn’t honor all the hard work, passion, sacrifice and accomplishments of the people in the environmental movement up to this point. This isn’t about ego or arrogance. This is about assessment of strategy, and a pushback on the resistance to change strategy.

The Environmental Movement Needs A New Strategy

One could argue that the best strategy still might wield these horrific results, but changing strategy would only make it worse. This reasoning would argue that if we stay the course, eventually we will turn the tide of public opinion and society will change.

The reality is that whatever has been protected is vastly outweighed by what is being destroyed. Oil production hasn’t peaked. President Obama presided over the largest increase in oil production in history and that pattern isn’t even hinting at being changed. Whatever growth in alternative energies there are, they can’t keep up with growth in demand.

Ecosystems on land and in water are collapsing. We are amidst what scientists are calling the 6th Great Extinction, where plants and animal species are disappearing at 1,000 times the background rate of extinction. Just this year the Chinese Paddlefish, pictured above, disappeared forever. This goes beyond fossil fuel consumption, and goes into habitat destruction and overconsumption.

“Current rates of extinction are about 1000 times the background rate of extinction. These are higher than previously estimated and likely still underestimated. Future rates will depend on many factors and are poised to increase. Finally, although there has been rapid progress in developing protected areas, such efforts are not ecologically representative, nor do they optimally protect biodiversity.” Pimm, S. L., The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection, Science Magazine, May 2014

To use a cliché sports analogy if I may, there isn’t time left in the game for punting. We are losing badly. It’s the 4th Quarter. It’s time to go for it with everything we’ve got because the risk of losing is minimal… we are already losing so badly.

A Better Strategy For The Environmentalist

I have many thoughts on this. I will write more, and btw there is already a ton written about this out there. What I want people to take away from this particular article is not a specific strategy, but a recognition that what we are doing now isn’t working. Let’s start by asking ourselves some questions.

At what point did the American colonists start wondering if going along to get along with King George III was not working? When did abolitionists start wondering if the American South was ever going to voluntarily hand over their slaves? When did the Irish decide that negotiating with the British to convince them they ought to voluntarily leave their country was a failed strategy? Or people in India? When did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr realize that lobbying the Birmingham city council or Alabama state government for desegregation was a fool’s errand?

The answer to all above is they never waited until there was a tipping point in public opinion. They didn’t sit around waiting for their lobbyists to turn the tide on government policy. Each of these scenarios required people thinking outside the box, and taking on strategies that weren’t popular or comfortable. They had to.

I would submit to you that having a planet that can sustain life is vastly more important than any of the aforementioned causes. Yet most people in the environmental movement are resigned to old and failing strategies of lobbying, petitions and token holidays.

I work with people in these movements. They are doing hard, thankless jobs, and they do accomplish important victories. This isn’t in any way a slam on that vital work. It’s a call to expand our strategy and start thinking outside the box. It’s a call for urgency… for a 4th quarter strategy.

This is a pronouncement that the rich and powerful aren’t going to voluntarily give up the things making them rich and powerful, the things that are destroying the planet, so forget about trying to convince them. A planet where ecosystems can thrive is something to demand without any hesitation.

What Is The Goal of Environmentalism?

Ultimately, we must define our goal. In the previous movements mentioned, there were differences of goals, from expelling a foreign power to dismantling a domestic system of power or economics.

For too long, the environmental movement has had the goal of sustaining the power and economic systems of this country and the world, while negotiating concessions on environmental protections.

What if these very power and economic systems aren’t compatible with a world where ecosystems thrive? What if they are at the root of our demise? That would require a shift in goal to dismantling those systems. That’s the shift people in the environmental movement aren’t often willing to make, let alone acknowledge or even talk about. Partially this has to do with the fact that the non-profit industrial complex is mostly funded by those systems of power and economics.

That’s why I’m having this conversation today. It’s not a very comfortable conversation. This represents a dramatic paradigm shift for me personally in recent years. To speak openly about this isn’t easy, but I do it because I love this planet and the life living on it. They are worth the discomfort. I say these things because I know there is a far better way of living for humans and for the planet.

Perhaps the points in this article has raised more questions for you than it has answered. If so, it has served its purpose. If you want more answers, I will tell you what someone once told me: check out the works of authors like Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, Stephanie McMillan and Ward Churchill. This conversation is happening already. If you care about the environment, you owe it to yourself and to the planet to seriously consider these questions and engage in these discussions at the very least. I promise that you won’t regret it. Now you must choose…