7 Pieces of Ecological Thought to Read in Our Current Moment
‘We’re watching our world change, and it feels like it’s falling apart. That’s not supposed to feel okay: It’s not okay.’
Before the coronavirus pandemic reached the shores of Puerto Rico, where I live, and usurped all normal activity, I had been reading and re-reading Murray Bookchin’s 1964 essay “Ecology and Revolutionary Thought.” It was a saving grace in a time of what already felt like upheaval, when concerns have been mounting about whether we will pass a Green New Deal or respond as required, as a planet, to the climate issues that plague us. Talking about the need for massive restructuring on an economic and political level sometimes feels futile in the face of hesitance toward changing individual behavior. What luck will we have changing dependence on fossil fuels when just vegetarianism is still considered niche in most food publications? How can we form more egalitarian and localized food communities when corporate power is so strong?
Bookchin was grappling with some of these issues in the ’60s. And while it can be depressing to think we haven’t come very far since then, it’s important to remember that these concerns didn’t arise in the very recent past.
