Environmental Injustice Essay

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The texts, Death of Nature, The Gaia Hypothesis, Feminist Theory and Environmental Injustice, and Environmental Racism,the film Chasing Ice, and the current issue of nuclear violations at Indian Point, all display perspectives and situations that illustrate relevant environmental injustices. Earth is being deteriorated at a rapid rate and without active intervention, it will continue to be destroyed without limit. The perspective that we have studied within our Natural World Unit can be applied to the premise that, when faced with seemingly insurmountable environmental injustices, it has been through the actions of individuals ,such as Robert Bullard, and groups, such as Clearwater, that have had to overcome adversity themselves, that significant efforts have been made to confront environmental injustice. Organismic theory and mechanical order as seen in Death of Nature, are examples of two contrasting ideas that can be used to view the natural world. Organic theory concentrates on understanding the earth based on organic and animistic principles. Through this viewpoint Earth is a living being that needs to be cared for in order to provide the resources necessary for human life. (Merchant p. 270). It is my perspective that organic theory is based on a more personal and intimate relationship between humans and the natural world. This principle can be seen through the efforts of many activists. Individuals and groups who advocate for causes such as Robert Bullard the Clearwater group, in my opinion, utilize organismic theory to understand why their cause is an important one. However, contrarily, mechanical order is the removal of these animistic characteristics from the view of what earth is to humanity (Merchant p. 271). I believe that this belief that humans can dominate and master nature is a contributor that causes people to see the natural world as a tool at our
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