Response #3

When reading The Politics of the Earth by John Dryzek, I was overwhelmed by his account of both the Promethean and the Survivalist thought. I felt like both of these were the extremes on the environmental spectrum. I personally believe in the principles behind the survivalist thought, however I do not think it is right to abandon other countries in light of this. Furthermore, I think the survivalists are being too gloomy about limited amounts of resources (at least that is how I feel Dryzek portrays them). Yes, I agree that we are going to run out of resources eventually, but there are other renewable resources (sun, wind, earth, and ocean) that we are never going to run out of. With that in mind, the survivalists need to push for developing ways to capture these renewable resources. The use of renewable resources would significantly reduce emissions, preserve the nonrenewable resources, and save money on a long-term basis. Furthermore, I think it would be amazing to see these things not only developed in industrialized nations, but in developing nations as well.

On the other hand while reading the chapter on Promethean thought I was of course angered at how much the United States government been involved in this movement. I can’t believe how selfish this country is being in terms of the environmentalism. I understand that people may not believe that we are causing global warming, but it is a well- known fact that we are causing ozone depletion, acid rain, forest destruction, etc. Furthermore, our country is demonstrating that they do not care that our country’s industrialization is hurting other nations all over the world. The country obviously cares more about economic progress than human safety and the environment. The worst part is that the decision to be this way sits heavily on the president and the administration he chooses. I am not ok with the president and congress having the power to decide whether environmentalism is important or not. I think it would be an interesting move to have Americans vote for those people. Even if someone were chosen that I didn’t like at least it would be my whole country that decided. I know this will never change, but I think it is an interesting idea to consider. I hope that when things start getting worse this country will step into the big shoes it has to fill, but for now I think we are stuck arguing about whether the mid-Atlantic snow storm was caused by global warming.