We need to plant the seeds for a collective response to the sustainability crisis. Photo courtesy of rawpixel.

JOHN DUNN | OPINION COLUMNIST | jcdunn@butler.edu 

In 2015, as a 7th grader, I remember watching a CNN student news clip during class about a technology that turned human excrement into water. My friends and I giggled about “poop water” jokes for the rest of the semester. The jokes reflected my — and my community’s — impression of environmental activists: overbearing, condescending and out-of-touch with the problems of real working people. 

Fortunately for the future of our planet, environmentally sustainable technology has made massive strides in the past decade. Eco-friendly practices are, barring a few notable exceptions, relatively popular, and more cost-effective than antiquated, unsustainable alternatives. 

However, I have found that — while people are willing to adopt sustainability practices for economic reasons — deep feelings of ambivalence, irritation and distrust toward “elitist” environmental activists do not diminish as new practices are implemented.  

I am sympathetic to why one would have such sentiments, as someone who used to largely share the same beliefs. However, I now believe such an opinion is reflective of a bygone era, and the time is right for environmental activism to receive a public opinion makeover. 

Junior psychology major Connor Brennan is one of many who picture environmentalists as out-of-touch dreamers.

“I usually think of someone who is totally green and will probably give you a hard time if you don’t recycle,” Brennan said. “They are going to talk about different environmental issues, and are really on top of everything. They just want everyone to care about the problems the same amount as [they] do. I definitely see where they are coming from, and support them in their efforts. I just can’t change what I am doing for so long on a whim for them.”

When climate change was much more poorly understood and many more Americans lived in blatant denial, there needed to be loud activists who forced people to acknowledge the issue. So in the past, loud and disconcerting personalities — like the ones many today try to avoid — were necessary.

Today there are still environmentalists who aim to keep environmental issues at the front of people’s minds. Since these personalities are more visible to the general public, one may be inclined to think it is business as usual. However, beneath the visible tip of the metaphorical iceberg, modern environmental activism is totally different than many would expect.

Jesse Van Gerven, an assistant professor of science, technology and environmental studies, spoke on the realities of solving environmental issues in a manner that inspires a truly collective response. 

“Solving any environmental problem, including the big one of climate change, is going to involve the needs of people,” Van Gerven said. “The idea that we are going to solve the environmental problem separate from the problems of rural poverty, farm income, racism or anything else is wrong.”

This sentiment is fundamentally contradictory to the notion that environmentalists are out of touch with the needs of working people. Instead, it shows that environmental activists and scientists have changed and updated their persuasive tactics to be more accommodating to different perspectives and different levels of environmental awareness and concern. 

If everyone in the world were willing to make the sacrifice needed to solve climate change without incentivization, much more radical corrective efforts would already be underway. Instead, it is clear that the more effective strategy is to promote sustainable practices in a way that the average person would have begun the practice regardless of its sustainability. 

Van Gerven spoke further on how environmental activists are approaching the problem.

“[Environmental activists] are not just thinking about protecting the water or air as abstractions,” Van Gerven said. “It’s about protecting water and air in a way that’s consistent with cities and the economic activities of people.”  

Examples of these sustainable, yet problem-solving advancements, some technological, some operational and some cultural are popping up all over. My home county’s shift is a great example, but other advancements are happening much closer to Hinkle. 

Junior chemistry major Paige Horsley is a research assistant in the Butler Chemistry lab. She described the sustainable lab reactions she is developing, which are currently drawing attention in chemistry circles. 

“I’m working on developing a reaction for the organic chemistry teaching labs, where [the reaction] is completely green,” Horsley said. “We use carrots and water to do the reactions, and then when [the experiment] is done … you can just take the carrots right out and compost them. [Currently, students] are just creating a reaction with a bunch of harmful [chemicals] and then washing out their deep bottom flasks when they’re done. We have specific waste containers that get shipped off to agencies … but this way [students] can put all their reaction waste in a bucket and compost it.”

Butler — and other college campuses — are the perfect place for environmental activism’s makeover to begin. As Horsley’s achievements highlight, college campuses are prime locations for the development of sustainability solutions. However, it is also a place where the conversation around sustainability should begin to change. Upon graduation, college graduates will join ranks in every industry in the country, thus encouraging the proliferation of new sentiments toward environmental activism. 

There is significant work still to be done if climate change and the other myriad of environmental issues are to be solved. Annual global carbon emissions are still increasing, pollution is still being dumped into the ocean and it still seems like such issues are often put on the backburner in Washington. 

Removing the stigma associated with environmental activists by members on the opposite end of the climate response spectrum is the first step towards solving climate change and other sustainability concerns in a cohesive manner.

Environmental activism is not a hobby of a pretentious social elite who has nothing better to do. It is the future. However, to get to that point, environmental activism needs a makeover in the minds of the late adopters, and that makeover starts with us.