September 25, 2020

New Yorker Article Discussed in the Hilborn Lab

Recently, members of the Hilborn Lab read an article from the New Yorker about the racist roots of environmental science and conservation.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history

 

To help guide their reading of the article, they used the questions listed below. They then discussed these questions and other related topics as a lab group.

After receiving an inquiry to share the questions with another group, they wanted to make these available to the rest of the SAFS community in the event others are interested in reading and discussing the racist roots of environmental science in their own lab groups.

 

Suggested questions to help guide discussions related to New Yorker article:

1. Would there be any negatives associated with acknowledging the racist history of environmentalism/certain organizations, apologizing, and making amends to be more inclusive?  Are there examples of this?

 

2. “They created and preserved versions of the wild that promised to exclude human qualities they despised”.  Are there examples of this still happening today?

 

3. Erlich’s book Population Bomb, is this racism disguised as environmentalism?

 

4. The NRDC no longer swoops down on a locale and says this is what we think you should do—more strategies and impetus for action now come from the affected communities.  Do we know of some examples?  Are we making progress towards including affected communities or are policies driven by the modern age aristocratic whites?

 

5. A 2014 study found that whites occupied 89% of leadership positions in environmental organizations.  How do we change this and move forward?