When you commodify environmentalists for your Earth Month strategy, you are dehumanizing our culture, values, and work. While we may have heard greenwashing used, Earth Washing focuses on the mass production based on raising awareness for the protection of the planet. Unfortunately, the extraction rate to create products such as Earth Day T-Shirts, posters, or Earth Day collections is not as ethical as we think they are. To me, environmentalism is more like dismantling white supremacy, than it is a tee or a slogan.
Many large-scale corporations that sell ideas of planting trees for every purchase you make are still linked to funding private prisons, slave labor, and the further depletion of natural resources in their supply chain. For many BIPOC communities, Earth Month is every day and justice is still not served. Indigenous People’s world views, beliefs, and cultural traditions are essential when fighting for environmental justice. Community-based frameworks are crucial. We must elevate the ideas from Indigenous communities and communities of color that have faced high rates of injustice head on. They know firsthand what it’s like to live in a world that inflicts violence, pain, and trauma on those who actively protect Earth, and to still protect it anyways.
Yes, Earth Month is an opportunity for many environmentalists to get paid and recognized for our work (we’re typically not the guest speaker of choice in a market based on overconsumption). While we are NOT going to shame those trying their best to earn funds for their work, we can critically extend ourselves to redistribute the funds to BIPOC activists and organizations that are often left out from media conversations. While we all contribute to forms of Earth Washing, we can always directly help those who continue to fight against environmental injustices.
“Cynicism serves no purpose but to uphold the status quo.” -John Paul Mejia
This article is definitely worth a read. The main points are:
1) Do what you can to reduce your own carbon footprint, but don’t invest all your effort there or rack yourself with guilt if you aren’t in a position to make big lifestyle changes. Focus on the bigger picture (i.e. political, societal, and community changes).
2) Act communally. There is power in numbers. Find an organization that aligns with what you want to achieve and get involved (this could look like donating money, volunteering, etc.).
3) This is an ongoing, long-term issue. Pace yourself and try not to get overwhelmed with frustration if it takes time for your effort to pay off. Sustainable climate action is better than burning yourself out trying to do too much at once and then losing motivation.
4) Make space for both grief and joy. Sometimes you need to make a conscious effort to celebrate the progress that has been made so far and appreciate all the good things that still exist here and now. Honor the grief and fear you have for the future without letting it completely overwhelm your life.
Salt to Stars: The Environmental and Community Impacts of Lithium Mining.
A comic by the Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice with art by Sophie Wang, text under the cut. This is part of a toolkit to challenge greenwashing in the climate movement. Please share to support Indigenous water protectors and non-extractive decolonial solutions to climate change!
In observance of earth day tomorrow, what are YOU doing to reduce your carbon footprint? Here are some innovative ideas you can do to help heal the planet:
1. Plant a tree
2. Hang an oil company executive or a billionaire (bonus—their bodies are not fit for consumption but they can be composted).
