Introvert vs Extrovert Environmentalism

The term 'environmentalists' has negative effects on society. As all you know, I ask my mother about everything (mommas boy) so I asked her what she thought of them. She stated, "i'm an environmentalist, but I do it in my own way." She said, " I don't protest or make everyone know how much I love it, I just respect and enjoy nature personally." She is an introverted person. So how would you label her? Could you find a term that fits under that? I couldn't.......so lets make one up......ummmm how about environpersonalist! What i'm trying to say is that society places groups of people in 'boxes.' Because she doesn't speak out, does that mean she's an anti environmentalist? Do you have to speak out to be one? NO. There are groups out there who do speak out. There are people out there who do speak up from all kinds of races and sexes. However, I feel the term environmentalist coined by society, enforces just that. You need to be loud, proud and productive to be one. It just makes the public look at them and go "you're a freak" and only separates the loud ones from the quite ones. Society should adopt that it is the 'environment' were dealing with, not the juicy gossip of the group itself. Again, these groups are started by personal choices and not everyone had to be labeled under the same term.

Patrick

Patrick's Thoughts

Last night, I was doing some hard thinking (like always) and I came to a weird conclusion about the whole "green campaign" that is marketed just about all over the world. Kitty had mentioned about this and how it's like a big scam but I think it's more than just that. When we look at the marketing conglomerates today and how they feed off everything green and twist it to so it makes their product look 'greener,' we're not looking at the big picture. Basically the marketing of green is just that, it involves products. I feel like the only education people are getting about the environment is from the products being sold itself! It's like a new discovery that society stubbled upon on.......there's an environment!........now buy this product. What we need is environmental education for everyone and it has start at an early age. Just like social studies, math and biology, the Canadian government needs to create a mandatory program in schools that teaches about the very thing that keeps us alive, the biosphere. Children at a young age need to be taught that the biosphere is to be respected and cared for, like a living being. As you can tell, most parents probably don't know more than how to recycle when it comes to respecting the environment. As a child, how can you learn to respect it and love it when the environment is not taught in school and your parents don't know anything about it either. Im not saying that the present generation is a write off, Im saying that the public needs to be properly educated, either by educated professionals or by elders who have experienced the nature 'out there.' When you are born, there is not a little voice in your head that tells you, "see that tree, don't chop it down." Respect for anything arises from education. If there is a society somewhere that believes in cutting trees well maybe that society wont last long, ever heard of Easter Island? Having Walmart and Toyota telling us what is good for the environment is injustice on so many levels. Instead of buying green, the public needs to buy the words of teachers and people like David Suzuki who can tell you what is important to keep the human body alive and ensuring the existence of future generations.

What We Are About

Welcome to our brand spankin' new Blog! Let us tell you a bit about ourselves..

We are a group of 5 wonderful, intelligent and devilishly handsome group of York University students who happen to consider themselves environmentalists. Environmentalists. Yes, you heard us right. What image comes to mind? What do you think we look like? Do one of us have dreadlocks? Do you think we chain ourselves to trees? Or are we just the same people you see walking on the streets everyday?

So yes folks, this is what our blog is all about - questioning the label of who environmentalists really are. It's about challenging the notions of the environmental ''movement'' , it's about going beyond the preconceived image , it's about digging deep and the getting to the core of the real issues at hand.