Emancipatory Care Approach for Sustainability
I had been feeling some sort of lethargy about certain takes on climate change. I think, mainly because I feel so powerless and it kind of enlarge my eco-anxiety and frustration on my powerlessness.
I feel I have been gaslighted, and people doing tiny things are pretty useless. Other than that, I reckon that this is what it is and we are trapped. Urban sprawl and burning plastic. This is us. The nauseating rotation of consumption and disposal, all to sustain our unquenchable appetite for more and more.
Not until long ago, Kurzgezagt validated my feeling. The thing that I have discussed with my friends is, at least from their data is accurate and makes sense. It is not a judgemental video as usual but Kurzgezagt always portrays any situation in a realistic approach. This is the title and the answer in a nutshell.
With everything that is happening, it is difficult for me not to bleak; not to turn into a doomer mentality that we’re all f*cked. Especially when the video mentioned “We need politicians who take science seriously.” — AHAHA; We are all going to die horribly, aren’t we?
The ice caps are melting. Oh well. The ocean is on fire. Oh well. What can we do anyway? Substituting plastic straws. Sure. Lately, I take every event/webinar/article about sustainability with a grain of salt; but I keep attending them anyway. I have this slight of hope for no absolute reason. Maybe simply because I still care.
Last night I attended a KAIL class by Isak Stoddard. It’s been a long time since I was fully focused and engaged in the discussion in an online class. It is nice to have a keynote speaker that acknowledges such an unjust solution for an environmental issue. The decision-maker has been dealing with it… unsatisfactory. The dichotomy between rich countries and the poor (read: developed and developing) country created an even wider disperse among them. We have colonial issues that need to be taken an account, and I know I hate classist take as such. He mentioned a blog he read, and it emphasizes an alternative way of dealing with sustainability issues; emancipatory care.
So far, the way we talk about climate catastrophe is through the Technocratic approach; we use evidence-based policy, trust the scientist and we can “control” and mitigate this hellscape that people before us created. Despite the best intentions and good faith in science, maybe there is another way of dealing with it. Cited from the blog: Social and political challenges are addressed herein sometimes in manipulative and authoritarian ways, more often presuming than challenging incumbent patterns of privilege and power. For instance, people are understood less as civic actors in their own right, than as targets for action. ‘Caring struggle’, by contrast, are pressures exercised ‘upwards’ from citizen participation, collective action and democratic deliberation. This is about caring for a naturally changing climate, rather than controlling global average temperature.
Even though this sounds like more work, and honestly, I don’t even know what I can work but I do want to work it out; I know it’s pretty much useless but I still have this drive to do things, I would feel guilty if I just accept the status quo. It’s a view I struggle with.
I just finished a book by Robin Wall Kimmerer, called Braiding Sweetgrass and it’s such a gentle take on the environment. The book consists of her insight about how indigenous people live in harmony with plants, the scientific background that supports it, and how we should see the world as something that has given us love. The book is a coherent and compelling call for what she describes as “restorative reciprocity”, an appreciation of gifts and the responsibilities that come with them, and how gratitude can be medicine for our sick, capitalistic world. I cried several times reading it, honestly, it feels like a warm hug by your mother after something catastrophic happens. It resonates with me because I realized, we’ve been taking things for granted. We think we own it, as an object of possession, we spend our time worrying about what we can get from it, and what if we lose it. But if we treat it with love, I think it’s just simply respect, and we just want to thrive and flourish together.
“You cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that you can do”
I don’t know much about environmental science and I don’t think I will be able to make much difference, although I feel my attempt to live less consumptive, respecting the trees, the soil is worth doing; despite it might be pointless at the end. I still care, and that’s what matters. Emancipatory care is something that resonates more with me.
Further read:
The blog Isak mentioned: https://steps-centre.org/blog/thriving-in-an-ever-changing-world-from-technocratic-control-to-emancipatory-care/
Interview with Robin about Braiding Sweetgrass: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/23/robin-wall-kimmerer-people-cant-understand-the-world-as-a-gift-unless-someone-shows-them-how
