Blog#4:  What do you think of “green values?”  Which ones do you most believe in?  What surprised you the most about the readings?



It is hard to define green ethics and values because there are many branches and directions one could take. To understand what green values are, the relationship between humans and nature must be defined. Some views say that humans can use natures resources and exploit them. Whereas, other ethics says that we must protect nature and nonhuman goods. 

I would say that I agree with a good amount of the green values approaches and ideals. I think that focusing on the community, persons, and environment are all important aspects to good ethics. One area of green values that was new to me was to rid the hierarchy of our society and where everyone's respected equally. This is something that would be incredibly difficulty for most to comprehend. We live in a society that is so anthropocentric that even just putting humans and nature on the same level seems radical. 

Personally, I think that we should have similar levels of respect for nature that we do for individuals. Our natural environment around us has outlived any species and only provides us benefits. But humans think that we can go in and us all of the resources and destroy the land because it doesn't directly effect them. But what most do not consider is the impacts that they have on the environment and how small changes, good or bad, can have large impacts. With green values, this mind set is challenged and helps to open up a new way of thinking. But still many of these values are not going to adapted or accepted by the general public. 

Lobby Day

Yesterday was quite an experience when we went to the State House to lobby..

Prior to this, I had met Debbie from the Conservation Voters when she came to talk with my environmental ethics class. She told us about their mission and what it was that they try to accomplish while the senate and house are in session. The amount of time and action that is required just to try to convince these members of office, is a crazy process. I don't think that this is an area that I would ever want to get involved with but it was very interesting to see how it worked.

While I was there I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that came to lobby the Senate. There were groups from all over the state that wanted to push their bill or funding just as much as the others. After talking briefly with Prof Whiteman and Jenny I was able to look over the packet that they provided. It gave us what the bills were, who exactly to talk to and even what they looked like. I felt out of place from being from out of state but once I saw others in my class talking to Senators it eased my nerves a little. But if I did talk to one questions ran through my head like, how would I know what to say, where do I say I'm from, why am I trying to push this bill? And even more so, why wouldn't they want to pass it?

This got me thinking. There are always two sides to each sides to an argrument, and it is important to see where others are coming from. This is true with many environmental issues and the resistance that they may receive from opposing parties. Sometimes it has to do with politics and sticking to their word, other times money is the main reason, and sometimes people simply just don't care. So how do we approach these issues and come to a compromise or agreement that makes both parties happy. Personally, I don't think that an answer will come from lobbying alone. It comes from a mixture of awareness and education on these issues and then stressing the importance and sharing personal experiences. People won't respond unless you use a combination of communication techniques and networking. This is a problem that is very apparent with environmental issues in our country and it is hard to tell which direction it is going to go, but hopefully our actions will impact at least one person.