Author: Kendall Jefferys (Page 2 of 2)

Is the author an activist? Historically books have incited change in movements from civil rights to environmental and climate justice. If books inspire and instigate change, if books have the power to penetrate another’s mind, to speak to someone in a way that rallying at a podium could not, then books are activism, and the authors that write them – they’re activists. But writing takes time, while pressing environmental issues offer marginal, if any, time.

When Tim DeChristopher of Bidder 70 is told that the past generation has failed him, failed to protect his future from destructive disequilibrium of climate change, he does not despair or adopt “live like you’re dying” approach to the planet. He acts. While DeChristopher’s actions did not immediately stop the oil and gas industry, his story still inspires peaceful protests against the industries he attempts to thwart.

The story lights the movement. The story draws people in. Imagine if the documentary had not been made: I wouldn’t have known of Tim’s actions, learned the power of one person, or thought about the importance of actions matching sentiment. We learn from stories; storytelling is an innate and deeply ingrained form of passing down histories and knowledge. Knowledge is power, and even if knowledge is slow to be shared, there remains power in the slow movement, in the daily actions, the little actions, the slowly crafted stories and films that work their way into our hearts and minds. The heart and mind: Is that not what the environmentalist seeks to change?

I don’t know if this blog is the best place for amateur poetry, but I was feeling the need to creatively compress my thoughts about class so far.

The author is the activist.

Act first you say?

Ideas first, the writer says

writing makes sense of

the clouds in mind

the acts we fail to define.

Who is the true activist?

Write and you will learn

What the initial draft could never teach

See where the words start to turn

masses, you could reach

Write the story.

Visit the act

of the activist

Tell the story.

Speak. On your knees –

For the trees

Like Harriet Beecher Stowe

Like there’s a story we need to know

Like Carson on the silent spring,

Spring us to action

Let knowledge ring!

Too slow is the story you say?

I say, it may not be instant,

But constant

Writing, reading, inciting, dreaming.

The book, the film, the artwork – the acts

that keep on acting

So, pick up your pencils, your cameras, your paints

It’s time for some monkeywrenching.

What is activism? Our scatterplot across the room demonstrated the variety in our ideas and ideals of what activism is. I like to say an effective activist is informed and acts with good intent.
First: being informed. If you are going to march for climate change, then reading up on the science, the arguments, the counterarguments, enhances your credibility as an activist. It is hard to persuade someone of your cause if you do not understand its cause, which is why spending the first few classes defining and learning about climate change set us up to go into activism. Information comes before the act like a thought becomes before movement. If we are going to be activists, we need to understand what we are acting for and against.

Second: intent. Looking at the rhino picture, I was uncertain of its scale of activism because I could not pinpoint the intent of the photographer. Did they take the picture because they care deeply about the plight of rhinos and want to people to look at this picture and care? Did they want the money, the attention, the prestige? How did they capture such a powerful photo? Where they there when the violence happened? Did they try and stop it? There are endless questions that come to mind when I see this picture. I want to know the intent, but I cannot know this from a photograph. For some this may not be a problem; it is a powerful picture and people should know such atrocities are happening. But I think this form of activism is inaccessible to most. It’s hard to act off a photograph, we aren’t given any information about the situation. We can be passive on-lookers and feel deeply, but what are we supposed to do?

The Monkey Wrench Gang, though destructive, acts from good intentions, which allows my conscious accept their actions as activism though they are destructive. The gang does what is within their power to change their situation – they are removing the “anthills” (tractors, bridges, coal cars) of their wilderness. “The anthill, is the model in microcosm of what we must find a way to oppose and halt” (Abbey 84). In the minds of the gang, they are improving their surroundings, and it’s hard not to respect the intent of their actions as well as the fact that they are, indeed, acting.

Abbey, Edward. Money Wrench Gang. HarperCollins, 1975.

I was surprised how hard it was to answer the question “what is climate change?”. Mulling over the implications of such a global problem, our verbal paralysis likely stems from the sheer scale of climate change, what it encompasses, and what it has changed. To understand and define climate change broadly we must comprehend complex systems and the interconnections of all life forms with their environment, knowing in the back of our minds that even a scientific understanding does not shield us from doubts and criticisms of those who deny climate change. Such doubts bring back the concept of the “believable.” Believing or not believing in science sounds obscure. As fun as flying sounds, we do not have the choice of believing or not believing in gravity – we are subjected to the laws of nature. Somehow climate change has not made it to that same realm of certainty among the human population.

In Climate Change is Everything Change by Margaret Atwood, the “believable” picture was picture 3, which showed few deviations from current politics and thought; it was believable because we know people tend to resist change.

Perhaps making climate change more believable and spurring change requires a closer look. We find a connection between most things and climate (except dancing). It is hard to comprehend such a vast problem, but looking closer, we find seemingly small examples that bring striking clarity to the implications of climate change: researchers found that warmer temperatures change the social structures of ant colonies, and soil “can play a role in cleaning and storing water, supporting biodiversity and regulating our climate.” Thus, in the ground we walk on each day lies the evidence for climate change and its affects. Like how small actions add up to real change, small examples add up to a clearer picture of climate change. A clearer picture (and definition) of climate change is crucial, because only from a point of understanding can we act.

Name: Kendall Jefferys

Hometown: Keller, TX

Major: Environmental Science and Policy

Three topics that intrigue me: Coral reefs and ocean acidification, environmental literature, painting

Interesting news I read lately: The decline in whale and seabird populations has decreased the flow of nutrients such as phosphorus from ocean to land.