Alternet has published a compelling essay by Orson Aguilar of The Greenlining Institute titled “Why I Am Not an Environmentalist.” Aguilar brings up many of the same arguments I published here by Michael K. Dorsey; he’s much more friendly to “The Death of Environmentalism,” however. The crux of his argument, though, is one that still needs repeating — those of us who call ourselves environmentalists have to stop thinking of the environment as some seperate entity, and start addressing its connections to other items on the progressive agenda, namely poverty, urban blight and racial injustice. Aguilar makes it clear that we’ve got potential allies out there that share many of our goals — we now have to reflect on our own mindset and how it often fails to address their needs and desires.
Technorati tags: environmentalism, progressive