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May 6, 2004
The following was received in response to our March/April 2004 InPrint cover story.
GUOBIN YANG: In the March/April , Joanne Bauer observes that
environmental issues have become an impetus for grassroots political
participation in transitional societies. I could not agree with her more. Given
the magnitude of the environmental challenges facing countries like China, the
environment may well turn out to be the fulcrum of great social and political
transformations in the 21st century.
That said, I would also sound a note of caution. Approaching democratic
change through environmental activism can be a tortured path. It is important,
therefore, to bear in mind the challenges as well as the opportunities this
situation poses.
As Bauer says, environmental issues have afforded a degree of legitimacy to
grassroots movements inside states with a low tolerance for unauthorized
political activity. And she is right to cite China as a prime example. In recent
years, Chinese environmental groups have seized the opportunity to organize
citizen action. But to succeed, such groups must find the means – consisting of
skillful leadership and flexible tactics – to navigate treacherous political
waters; otherwise, they will end up sacrificing their autonomy.
Bauer also says that environmental problems such as air pollution, because
they touch all citizens, have the potential to mobilize large numbers of people
to work together, thereby fostering broad-based grassroots participation. But
environmental crises do not always work that way. The environmental movement in
many countries remains a middle-class, urban phenomenon, failing to incorporate
the views of those who occupy the lower strata of the population, some of whom
may have no choice but to work under conditions that degrade the environment.
Finally, and on a related note, Bauer mentions that the global ethic of
environmental sustainability can have a positive influence on movements at the
local level. True enough, but this, too, can spark social tensions. In China,
for example, environmental groups receive both material support and intellectual
inspiration from the transnational environmental movement. China’s green
discourse borrows generously from the global discourse. Yet this has sometimes
led to tensions between environmental activists and the groups of people who
stand to lose their incomes because of more stringent environmental
requirements. Thus grassroots organizations face the sometimes daunting
challenge of creatively adapting the global movement to local cultures and
realities.
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