Week 7

In this weeks readings authors conversed on the topic of environmental communications and the barriers and obstacles to the discourse as well as ways to better that communication. In the reading " Environmental Data Justice and the Trump Administration: Reflections from the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, the authors discuss the Trump Administrations efforts to eradicate environmental data policies and federal environmental agencies. In the article about the Green New Deal, the author talks about the uproar behind the Green New Deal, what exactly it is, and the potential that it has to change our economy and the world. In the article about Environmental Campaigns and Civic Engagement the author argues that the approach of environmental identity campaigns "will offer short term advantages it is incapable of developing the large scale mobilization necessary to enact the massive social and economic changes necessary to address global warming"(Brulle, 2010). 


My feelings on this weeks readings are pretty good. In particular I found a few quotable moments. The first being David Roberts article on the Green New Deal.  He states that "the GND has great potential, but then, American political history is a long story of wasted potential, of waves of progressive enthusiasm breaking on the rocky shores of Washington, DC, to no lasting effect. Whether that fate awaits the GND depends on many things, among them whether President Donald Trump — the culmination of a history of total Republican intransigence and ugliness the stretches over young activists’ entire adult lives — has changed the political landscape enough that Democrats might leave behind their long defensive crouch and voice some ambition" (Roberts 2019). In Robert Bulles article on environmental communication he brilliantly uses a quote from Mother Audre Lorde saying "for the masters tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change" (Lorde, 1984).  In a very weird way I think Audre Lorde speaks to Roberts concerns. And in a revolutionary way she fasho speaks to mine. 

Key Terms

Environmental Data Justice: the public accessibility and continuity of environmental data and research, supported by networked open-source data infrastructure that can be modified, adapted, and supported by local communities. 

Identity Campaigns: identity  campaigns  are  based  on  the  idea  that  more  effective environmental messages developed through the application of cognitive science by professional communications  experts can favorably influence public opinion, and thus support legislative action to remedy this  issue.