Title: Marrying Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: The Rising Voices of Dissent in American Environmentalism
Author: Dr. Mohamed Elkamel Bakari
Abstract:
In light of multiple significant incidents in its contemporary history, the American environmental movement (EM) seems to be at a crossroads as the national consensus on this movement––forged during the 1970s––starts to crack under the strain of rising challenges. Communities most adversely affected by environmental hazards––usually referred to as communities of color and labor––now seem to be estranged from and ignored by a mostly ecocentric movement they can hardly identify with. Against such a backdrop, this article examines the emergence of new dissenting ‘anthropocentric’ voices within the American EM––most notably the Environmental Justice Movement (EJM)––and discusses the multiple facets of the anthropocentric-ecocentric divide and its bearing on the evolution of this movement. I will further analyze whether the emerging sustainability discourse will be able to contain this ideological divide and offer a reconciliation framework for a harmonization of these movements’ objectives, policies, and modes of activism.
Keywords: American environmentalism, ecocentrism, anthropocentrism, environmental justice, sustainability.
Bakari, M. E. K. (2019). Marrying Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: The Rising Voices of Dissent in American Environmentalism. American Studies Journal 66. Web. 8 Apr. 2019. DOI 10.18422/66-01.
Publisher: American Studies Journal. ISSN 2199-7268
Published by: Göttingen University Press, Göttingen, Germany.
Retrieved from/ accessible at: http://www.asjournal.org/66-2019/marrying-anthropocentrism-to-ecocentrism/
Read the whole article at: http://www.asjournal.org/66-2019/marrying-anthropocentrism-to-ecocentrism/
