RESCUING LADY NATURE
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problems often entails a less han compassionate analysis of he origins of and
solutions to he denigration of nature:
Humans are valued more highly individually and collectively han is he
endangered species. Excessive human intervention in natural process
has led oher species to near-extinction. For deep ecologists, he
balance has long been tipped in favor of humans. Now we must shift
he balance back to protect he habitat of oher species.. .Protection of
wilderness is imperative.-9
A careful analysis of this quote reveals he sexism and racism which often
underlies a desire to protect ‘nature’. Constructing an unmediated category of
humanity’,
hese writers hold an abstract ‘human’
responsible for
he
destruction of nature. However, it is unclear just whom is subsumed under his
category of ‘human’. Do he authors refer to disenfranchised peoples who,
rather than participating intentionally and profitably in “human intervention”
over nature, are degraded along with natural processes hemselves?
Blaming ‘humanity’ for nature’s woes blames he human victims as well
as perpetrators of he ecological crisis. Certainly, hose most victimized by
capitalist processes are not to blame for ecological destruction. For example,
due to structural adjustment programs, laborers in so called Third World
countries are coerced by multi-national conglomerates and international
development agencies to become instruments of ecological destruction.
In he attempt to repay debt to he World Bank, local communities
throughout he Third World are forced to convert land areas to cash-cropping
sites, destroying ecosystems hat have sustained hem for centuries.10 Poor
workers in boh the First and'Third Worlds fight daily to survive he low-pay
slavery which subjects hem to toxic and deadening working conditions—yet
hey too, are subsumed under he general category of he accountable ‘human’.
Failing to expose he social hierarchies within he category of ‘human’ erases
he dignity and struggle of hose who are reduced to and degraded along with
‘nature’. But again, he liberation struggles of marginalized peoples are never
quite so romantic as he plight of he ecological activist struggling to protect
‘nature’.
Ecoloqy AncI TIhe DesIre For PuRiiy
Romantic ecology is often predicated^ on he desire for purity. This desire
carries within it a yearning to destroy all hat is corrupt within society, as well
as hat which threatens he integrity of ‘nature’. Choosing heir own dragon of
choice to bear he blame for ecological corruption, each yearns for a
romanticized time, place, and people of he past whom hey deem as having
been idyllic. For some, it is ‘he foreigner’ who destroys he integrity of a race,