-SNEHA SENGUPTA (FORMER CORRESPONDENT)
As the entire world is gripped in the deadly clutches of the virus, some have found a beacon of hope with nature coming back to life. The internet is flooded with images showing the return of wildlife to their supposedly original habitats. We have seen dolphins swimming around at the Mumbai coast, strikingly low levels of pollution and overall, a much happier picture, but should we really be celebrating?
A moment in time where thousands of people are dying every single day, celebrations seem like a far fetched dream. Rejoicing death in the face of nature replenishing might turn out to be a rather cruel joke. Some even call it, ‘Eco-fascism’. This is not a fancy ‘ism’ that rose to fame recently but has a very dark and telling history. Social ecologist Peter Staudenmaier pointed out that this particular phenomenon was an important part of the 19th and 20th-century German ecologism. Nature mysticism, therefore, led to the rise of Nazi sentiments, which had a direct impact on the lives of millions.
This Nazi ecological ideology was used to justify the destruction of European Jewry. In the present context, we see this destruction in the name of preservation and environmentalism. Racist, nationalist ideologies have found their way in the course of this movement, the Christchurch and El Paso shootings being glaring examples. Both these terror incidents sent shocking waves all across the world. They shared a common ideology of extreme right covered up in environmental concerns. Coming back to the virus itself, can we really hope for a silver lining, in the midst of all this chaos? Yes, the air pollution levels have dropped drastically, the roads have become deserted, and hence, carbon footprinting has reduced. All of this might lead us to believe that the quarantine isn’t bad after all; the real question is, ‘Are we really banking on a disaster to make large scale changes?’
Environmental concerns ought to be taking a backseat as soon as the world recovers from the shock of the coronavirus. “Controlling the outbreak and maintaining economic growth are now going to be China’s top priority,” Li Shuo, a senior policy adviser for Greenpeace Asia, told the New York Times. “And we’ve seen in the past, whenever economic growth needs to be prioritized, the environmental agenda takes a back seat.” Widespread unemployment, crashing economies, poverty – will be some of the many problems that the world community will have to face. The question of the class divide becomes more apparent in conditions like these, where the poor have very limited ways to survive the battle. Eco-fascists who are labeling humans to be the virus, essentially target these deprived classes who have no means to fight institutionalism. Thus, hijacking ecology for racist, nationalist and fascist ends will not serve the bigger purpose of climate change. Furthermore, the blame for the environmental crisis has shifted from large scale pollutive corporations to individual people, and since this worldwide isolation of people has brought about huge changes in the environment, shifting the responsibility of the climate crisis back to big corporations will be a task.
Another matter of concern that has cropped up is the wide circulation of fake news. Photoshopped images of wildlife in places they don’t belong are doing rounds on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. This may serve as a source of happiness for many but we do need to realize that man and nature shall live in harmony as long as we respect each other. This respect has been long lost because of the selfish nature of man, however, it is never too late. The need of the hour is to identify the problem, and then make amends accordingly. Specific sets of social relations combined with a competitive market economy are presently destroying the biosphere. So it all comes down to capitalism mixed with right-ist tendencies, doesn’t it?
Having made my point about the dangers of eco-fascism, let me now focus on what lies ahead of us in the future, with respect to environmentalism. Recent incidents like the sighting of a mountain range in Jalandhar, spotting dolphins near Marine Drive and welcoming various species of migratory birds in and around Delhi, have come as a rather surprise to most of us. We are left in awe of nature and its wonders. This has definitely got us thinking about the years of damage, and the possible methods that we need to adopt to keep it going. The SDGs have played an important role in the overall improvement, but we are lacking in individual efforts. So romanticizing nature in a time of crisis should only serve as a constant reminder for the amount of work that still needs to be done.
Therefore, striking a balance between man and nature, thereby keeping all the nationalist-fascist ideologies at bay, is the need of the hour. With an increasing amount of medical waste being generated all across the world, we might soon be heading towards another climate emergency. Hence, a top-down approach coupled with transparency, will not only boost India’s green efforts but also push it towards a more sustainable future. Furthermore, as far as the eco-fascists are concerned, we can only hope that the German example serves as a clear warning against the misuse of ecology.
REFERENCES :
- Ramani, Madhvi (2020). TheWeek [online]. Available at : https://theweek.com/articles/899439/coronavirus-environmental-wakeup-call
- Forchtner, Bernhard (2019). openDemocracy [online]. Available at : https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/eco-fascism-justifications-terrorist-violence-christchurch-mosque-shooting-and-el-paso-shooting/
- Plumer, Brad; Popovich, Nadja; Lawal, Shola. (2020). The New York Times [online]. Available at : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/climate/nyt-climate-newsletter-coronavirus.html
- Wright, Rebecca (2020). CNN [online]. Available at : https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/31/asia/coronavirus-lockdown-impact-pollution-india-intl-hnk/index.html
- Biehl, Janet; Staudenmaier, Peter (1995). Ecofascism Revisited : Lessons from the German Experience. Available at : https://archive.org/details/EcofascismRevisitedLessonsFromTheGermanExperience/page/n5/mode/2up
