Question # 1)
Jenny Price article entitled “Remaking American Environmentalism: On the Banks of the L.A. River” mentioned that since 2000, environmentalist groups started committing to bring the L.A. River back to life. The revival project is rather an unrealistic but a project which has the full passion of the brave and unfettered fighting spirits of environmentalists. It is what Jenny Price mentioned as the future American Environmentalism, which is taking root on the banks of the L.A. River. It is environmentalism that they have started and wanted to be continued.
Price narrated that in the 1960s to 70s, their generation’s environmentalism, which was labeled as the second wave by historians was a self-made movement among the baby boomers that was eclectic. The said movement does not have one guiding rule on how to run it. It was a vibrant movement that gathered environmentalists from all walks of life, mostly from the upper middle class with one principle to save the nature from further destruction. It is the kind of environmentalism that is hungry of destroying dams that block the flow of the river. It is an overly optimistic and overly courageous environmentalism that nature needs today.
The courageous movement was, however slowed or hampered by the backlash within the movement that gave birth to the third wave and even the fourth wave that became instruments for enterprise as they got involved with the market-based incentives of the issues on the environment. This was the third wave which in the 1980s received a great deal of criticisms. These waves of environmentalism have a shameful history of enterprising to dirty deals with big corporations. The death of environmentalism has already been declared. It was only until the other group of courageous journalists and others declared an almost an unrealistic dream to revive the L.A. River that the environmentalists from the second wave found hope.
It was said that the project revival is ambitious and unrealistic because the river has already been used up by generations. The millenials and even the earlier generations did not see a body of water from it. They even questioned if there really was a river in there before. In the 18th and 19th century, the L.A. River has been exploited. Even its sand had been trucked to fill some of the L.A. beaches. Massive human activities along the Los Angeles river ever since have made the river unrecoverable. Most people would see the project revival as a waste of money and only a tactic to siphon money from the willing donors.
Yes, it may seem negative to most but the project is a symbol of hope. It is a symbol of struggling spirits to bring back the spirit of the second wave environmentalism. It may seem to be an impossible dream, but there was already tangible progress. Of course, it may take generations to bring back at least a pinch of L.A. River’s previous ecology, but steps has been taken and there are courageous young environmentalists who are passionate at what they are doing. Like the environmentalist baby boomers in the 1960s and 70s, they have the priceless passion to connect with nature.
