The environment is one of the biggest issues of our time. This is a call for more men to get involved.
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This is a clarion call to the men of this planet. We want your take on one of the most important topics of the century: the environment. What is actually important to men about protecting nature—what do we really care about? What is important to you is important to us.
Taking a quick browse through Google. It is clear that environmental concerns are more associated with the traditional feminine social role. Why is it that the masculine social role really doesn’t have that same level of engagement? Do women have a greater connection to Mother Earth? Does the feminine social role have greater caring instincts?
We don’t think so, but something is clearly going on here. Perhaps it’s because men feel as if they don’t have permission to care, that our social conditioning desensitizes us, teaches us not to feel. Due to the social script that they are fed, many men feel alienated from ideas surrounding Mother Earth, the Divine Feminine, the Earth Goddess, etc. These traditions have been kept alive and help female identifying individuals stay rooted with their aboriginal past.
We believe that it’s time for the masculine social role to recapture that interconnection with nature. After all, the earth works because of all genders not just the one. We need to feel comfortable living the language of nature and reconnecting to our inherent natural selves. There is no gender role to play when we play free in our natural world.
This is why the Environment Team at the Good Men Project has decided to create a new environmental campaign, which will be designed by you and run on your behalf to make the world a better and safer place for us all to live in.
This is your chance to get involved.
We all know environmental destruction needs to end, but how can we make this happen?
Now is the time for action. Come join the conversation!
These are some of the issues that we want to address in our campaign:
- There can’t be any social justice without eco-justice. Humanity is intimately bound to the environment: physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. Our urban migration has isolated us from nature and manifested in various individual, social and global problems. The environment is our life source. When we disconnect from our life source, we become dependent on consumer sources for survival.
- Food, water, medicine, air, and shelter—the environment can provide for all of our survival needs. Even if we aren’t letting nature provide for our survival, it is there if and when we need. There is a security and freedom in that assurance.
- A healthy environment—healthy soil, healthy food, water, and air—gives us life choice.
- Freedom is in environmental protection. Without a healthy ecosystem, we will be forced to buy our survival from the water, food, and soon to be air corporations. If the environment dies, we have only one choice; we will be corporate slaves. Whether we harvest our survival from nature, or buy our survival in an urban setting does not really matter. The central concern is the preservation of nature and choice. The comfort in knowing that if survival necessitates it, we can still have a free chance to exist free.
So our simple question to you Good Men is: Will you help us advance this conversation?
What resonates with you? Will you consider contributing? What topics and issues do you care about most?
Want to see a copy of our submission guidelines or submit online? Yes, there’s a link for that.
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photo: Fred Hsu / flickr
Neil, thanks for addressing these issues. I’ve been involved in bringing awareness to men on environmental issues since 1993 when I was in a sweat lodge at a men’s gathering and had a vision of the “ship of civilization” sinking and life-boats getting off the ship and starting a new community of life. Happy to share articles I’ve written and work I’ve been doing. You may be aware of the words of my colleague Sam Keen who said: “The radical vision of the future rests on the belief that the logic that determines either our survival or our destruction is… Read more »
Yes! Absolutely! Now, can we PLEASE talk about population growth? I’d like to have a conversation about what it means to bring additional children onto the planet. Let’s examine ALL of our choices and how they affect the environment. If you are wondering what kind of planet you’re leaving for your ten grandchildren, please consider that having ten grandchildren may be part of the problem…. *The single greatest choice you have to affect the environment is your reproductive choice.* A vasectomy is worth a thousand solar panels. It’s worth a hundred hybrid cars. Not having children, or not having additional… Read more »
I totally agree that population growth has to be addressed.
I am glad that the Good Men Project is talking about this issue, especially from a social justice point of view. I agree with others that the call to action will take some time to digest. I do know that I want look at the issue of helping to preserve the environment from an environmental justice point of view. I don’t know how that will look right now, though. One thing you might consider is choosing a tangible project (such as preserving a critically endangered environment or encouraging environmental education or a social media campaign where men commit to doing… Read more »
One part I thought of that wasn’t in the piece: it’s largely men who control things (corporations, government, etc) and are loathe to relinquish that control even if it means destroying our planet. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say.
Here’s one: plastic. If there’s one thing I hate it’s the plastic situation. The ocean is filled with stuff that won’t go away. I have a friend who sells packaging, and I asked, they have biodegradable options; I have another friend who owns a food co. and loves the environment. I tried connecting the two but in the end costs are the biggest factor that prevents many companies from taking that step. What if a Kickstarter was setup to help cover those costs? Hmm.
Thanks Will. Often cost is the issue as you mention. So why not interview the two parties for a GMP video piece? That could start a conversation about where the blockages lie in terms of making the environment a reality in our daily lives. Then yes, why not propose a kickstarter here on the GMP – let’s keep the conversation going….
I’m very interested in environmental conversations (beyond Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) that are integrated within K-12 education. It’s more than just surface awareness that’s necessary. Education has the opportunity for students to understand systems and the integral parts affecting those systems.
I’d be more than happy to contribute. Just let me know what you need.
Hi Scott, well first off, how about an article for this section based around your thoughts? Getting this conversation into our schools is a vital first step. Why not get GMP dads and sons involved in the schools setting up small scale real projects – not just learning about them but implementing them?
This will take some time to digest and tackle, especially on an individual level. What I can do immediately is to drive less and walk or bike more if possible. My brother and parents are planting more fruits and vegetables in their backyard. Maybe backyard farming in every house could contribute?
Thanks Nick, yes it does take some time to consider. The big picture often seems so overwhelming that we become disempowered. But in reality it is the small things and in my opinion only the small things that we as individuals can do that will save the environment. The macro-governmental scale initiatives always seemed doomed because of vested interest and red tape. Doing the small things as you describe are the way forward. Each of us as individuals has an incredible power to effect change and that is something independent of governments and corporations. The conversation I would like to… Read more »