ICYMI: July News Roundup
"How, in our modern world, can we find our way to understand the earth as a gift again, to make our relations with the world sacred again?" - Robin Kimmerer
My interest in news and politics started to bud in middle school. I specifically remember learning about the Bush v. Kerry election. My teacher listed their policies in a side-by-side column, and we checked off which ones we agreed with. I remember how Kerry’s policies were environmentally conscious and ultimately, those issues guided my pencil.
I think it is telling that climate activism and environmental protection is always an issue that resonates with the youth. I wonder if it is because, at a young age, we still remember that we are nature. Society hasn’t wedged its human superiority delusion into us yet. Kids live by the same basic principles as nature; reciprocity, sharing, collective well-being, and learning how to build mutually beneficial relationships.
Robin Kimmerer explains the inherent reciprocal relationship between nature and humans in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. In the chapter Learning the Grammar of Animacy, Kimmerer demonstrates how the effort to separate humans from nature is so insidious in American society, that it lives in the English language,
In Potawatomi 101, rocks are animate, as are mountains and water and fire and places. Beings that are imbued with spirit, our sacred medicines, our songs, drums, and even stories, are all animate. The list of the inanimate seems to be smaller, filled with objects that are made by people. Of an inanimate being, like a table, we say, “What is it?” And we answer Dopwen yewe. Table it is. But of apple, we must say, “Who is that being?” And reply Mshimin yawe. Apple that being is.
English doesn’t give us many tools for incorporating respect for animacy. In English, you are either a human or a thing. Our grammar boxes us in by the choice of reducing a nonhuman being to an it, or it must be gendered, inappropriately, as a he or a she. Where are our words for the simple existence of another living being? Where is our yawe? (Yawe means the animate to be in Potawatomi).
One afternoon, I sat with my field ecology students by a wiikwegamaa and shared this idea of animate language. One young man, Andy, splashing his feet in the clear water, asked the big question. “Wait a second,” he said as he wrapped his mind around this linguistic distinction, “doesn’t this mean that speaking English, thinking in English, somehow gives us permission to disrespect nature? By denying everyone else the right to be persons? Wouldn’t things be different if nothing was an it?”
Swept away with the idea, he said it felt like an awakening to him. More like a remembering, I think. The animacy of the world is something we already know, but the language of animacy teeters on extinction—not just for Native peoples, but for everyone. Our toddlers speak of plants and animals as if they were people, extending to them self and intention and compassion—until we teach them not to. We quickly retrain them and make them forget. When we tell them that the tree is not a who, but an it, we make that maple an object; we put a barrier between us, absolving ourselves of moral responsibility and opening the door to exploitation. Saying it makes a living land into “natural resources.” If a maple is an it, we can take up the chain saw. If a maple is a her, we think twice.
As you age, you see more adults throughout society actively not caring about the environment. They’ve lived in the illusion of human supremacy and separation for too long. Those basic reciprocal principles are no longer the foundation of decency but instead become reserved only for those we think deserve it.
I’ve written before about the impact of dehumanizing language in politics and how it removes us from feeling connection and compassion for the people impacted by policy (I also wrote about this issue regarding gender-based violence and again as a podcast about the social stigma formerly incarcerated people face). The backbone of dehumanization is the removal of animacy, applied to humans. We do not value each other’s inherent sanctity.
I’ve learned the most about sanctity from Indigenous feminism and activists. It’s embedded in their cultures, passed down by generations. Sanctity is part of day-to-day relationship building, built on respect, reciprocity, and kinship with nature, animals, and other humans. But respecting nature and its systems is also common sense. How ridiculous is it that humans have thought we could “conquer” nature? The domination method, from colonialism and capitalist exploitation, continues to fail and cause further destruction and violence. Nature is the basis of every aspect of human life, from the food we farm and eat, to the car we drive, flicking on the lights, using the stove, showering, clothing, housing, and breathing. How can we be so removed from the value of nature that we continue to abuse it?
Nature is telling us we humans are out of alignment with everyone else. A sea otter keeps stealing surfboards from humans, and instead of limiting human activity, authorities are trying to capture her and put her in a zoo! Sea lions barked at beachgoers for encroaching on their beach, and White Gladis successfully organized the orcas to fight back against fishing boats. It is safe to say our cohabiters are sick of our shit.
July’s news round-up is dedicated to showing the impact of our human behavior that commodifies our home planet. My goal is not to promote climate doom but instead, to point out how all of our social issues are inherently connected. It is truly violent when we remove the sanctity of life from our policies. These recent examples don’t mean we cannot reverse or mitigate the climate crisis but we have to be accurate and urgent with our demands for action, especially in the United States:
July 2023 has been the Earth’s hottest month in 120,000 years.
Ocean Currents Vital For Distributing Heat Could Collapse by Midcentury, Study Warns
U.S., European heat waves 'virtually impossible' without climate change, study finds
In the U.S., Republicans have drafted what would be Donal Trump’s second term climate policy:
“Called Project 2025, it would block the expansion of the electrical grid for wind and solar energy; slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice office; shutter the Energy Department’s renewable energy offices; prevent states from adopting California’s car pollution standards; and delegate more regulation of polluting industries to Republican state officials.”
Supreme Court grants request to lift block on Mountain Valley Pipeline
Texas uses disaster declarations to install buoys and razor wire to stop migration on the border
In addition to violently mangling the people trying to cross, the buoys and razor wire is installed in the river, effectively changing the landscape, and affecting the river’s flow, and vegetation.
“A state trooper’s account of officers denying migrants water in 100-degree Fahrenheit” and says they were told to push children into Rio Grande
Children held at former Death Row prison in 133F heat with no AC and limited water in Louisiana
Texas charges prisoners 50% more for water as heatwave continues
If you’ve made it this far, I have a few actions for you:
Support climate activism. You can start with the Sunrise Movement.
Read Planting Sweetgrass. This is an excerpt from the book mentioned above, Braiding Sweetgrass. I promise it will give you hope and shift your perception of nature if you haven’t already remembered our inherent connection to it.
Check out Jessica Kleczka and her roundup of positive environmental news.
Some perspective: other countries don’t have climate denialism running the show. Thank goodness we share the planet with other countries taking significant action on renewable energy.
Although governments, corporations, and the wealthy are heavily responsible for the climate crisis, here are things you can do today to start reducing your impact.
As always, please share Something to Think About far and wide! I deeply enjoy writing this newsletter and would love for it to continue to grow. Any and all support is greatly appreciated!
As always, please feel free to email me or catch me on Tik Tok
Adriana <333