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Intro to Sociology Ch 15 Notes
Introduction to Sociology (SOC 110)
Des Moines Area Community College
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Chapter 15: Saving the
Environment
15 Our Environmental Challenges
Environmental problems are problems for society, as they threaten our current social order; they are also problems of society, as they are the results of our current unsustainable social practices. To address these problems and search for sustainability, we need to use our sociological imagination to think beyond individual behaviors (e., recycling, changing light bulbs, turning off lights) and focus on the social constraints that shape our everyday choices.
15 Key Terms
sustainability: A social-economic system that can function within the earth’s ecological constraints sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs environmental sociology: Focuses on the interaction between social and natural systems ecological footprint: The productive area required to provide the resources humanity is using and to absorb its waste overshoot: Using resources at a pace more than the earth’s regenerative capacity
15 Do Sociologists Study Environmental Issues?
Before sociologists tackle environmental degradation, we ask questions such as the following: What is nature? Where does our environmental knowledge come from? What shapes our understanding of a particular environmental issue? Does everyone perceive environmental problems in the same way? If not, what explains the variation?
Sociologists view both nature and environmental problems as social constructions with social solutions.
15 Key Terms
constructivist analysis of the environment: Focuses on the role of ideology and knowledge in understanding our environmental conditions wilderness: The highest ideal of nature, a product of America’s frontier mentality paradigm shift theory: The shift in views toward the environment from the human exemptionalist paradigm, which reflects an anthropocentric relationship, to the new environmental paradigm, which views humans as only part of the complex ecosystem risk perception: The tendency to evaluate the danger of a situation not in purely rational terms but through the lens of individual biases and cultures attitude-behavior split: When we think one way and act another
15 Did We Mess Up? Theories of Environmental
Change
Eco-Marxists believe that environmental problems are based in the roots of capitalism. On the capitalist “treadmill,” business must use and degrade natural resources to sustain their profits. In this process, firms face no choice but to externalize environmental and social costs. Their solution is a radical transformation to a new economic system. Ecological modernization theorists argue that the challenges of sustainability can lead us to reshape our social institutions to adapt to environmental changes. Societies have the potential to incorporate ecological rationality—considering environmental consequences in decision making—to replace the old model of modernization. Humans are smart enough
15 Key Terms
green consumption: Allows consumers to “vote with their pockets” and to engage in social change through the marketplace greenwashing: A public relations campaign that promotes an environmentally friendly, positive image of an organization whose environmental practices are not line with the image
15 Suffers Most from Environmental Problems?
Sociologists have come to use the term environmental justice to document the social inequality in the environmental realm. Across the United States and the world, low-income and minority communities do not receive the same level of environmental protection as Whiter, wealthier communities. As in the case of Flint, Michigan, they often bear disproportionate burdens of environmental harm. The environmental justice movement seeks to equalize the exposure of environmental problems, as well as involve disadvantaged communities in the decision-making processes.
15 Key Terms
environmental justice: A term used to document social inequality in the environmental realm environmental racism: When environmental hazards are disproportionally borne by racial and ethnic minority groups environmental justice movement: Has the goal of ending the practice of using poor and racial and ethnic minority areas as dumping grounds for environmental hazards sacrifice zones: The areas in developing countries where companies have moved the dirty parts of their business to appear to be making progress in developed countries climate justice: Highlights the fact that climate change relates to global inequality, in its creation and its impact
15 Solutions to Environmental Problems
Social problems, like climate change and other environmental problems, require collective solutions. Individual behavior, alone, cannot adequately address them. The sociological approach aims to cultivate sustainable communities rather than focusing on changing individuals. For example, rather than just encouraging people to recycle their water bottles, we can work to create policies requiring drinking fountains in public buildings or banning the sale of bottled water. Creating social solutions to environmental problems is a team effort that requires us to work with others to develop sustainable communities. Joining an environmental social movement is one way to do this. In the next chapter you will learn about the power of organized people and how to create an effective social movement.
Intro to Sociology Ch 15 Notes
Course: Introduction to Sociology (SOC 110)
University: Des Moines Area Community College
