A couple of sentences from Matthew Altman (from "The Green Onion") have been weighing on me for days:
Ironically, environmentalism itself can become a means of advancing our own selfish interests, as when we barely adjust our lifestyles in order to feel a disproportionately strong sense of smugness....If a well-intentioned environmentalism does nothing for nature, it only has ["morally bankrupt"] anthropocentric value: its contribution to the environmentalist's sense of self-satisfaction.Is the smugness the bigger problem here or the uselessness of the pursuit? If I do all sorts to try to save the world, and still feel devastated because I recognize what little impact I have, I'm still doing precious little for nature, and then my acts don't even have anthropocentric value. They got nothin'! My "Sisyphean" efforts do little to actually prevent global warming. Shockingly, my letters and petitions aren't yet being acted on in parliament.
