Social Capital

Environmental issues today are prevalent anywhere we go. Be it deforestation, GMO’s, climate change, no one can claim that they are unaware of these issues. Simply put, they have become a part of everyday life, that everyone of us acknowledges as a real issue. So then, why is it so hard to legislate environmental policy? One answer is the sheer complexity and nature of environmental issues. On one hand, you have solutions with high levels of improbability and the possibility of self-harm to economy and other factors and an issue which threatens irreversible extreme damage to both human and the environment. This combination makes for an extremely complex issue which no one really knows the answer to. These traits in themselves, do not make environmental politics distinct, but rather another policy area for politics. Parties headlining green politics are a harmful unreal display of “representation”, in fact, these parties may not even exist at all.

An important currency that is often forgotten in evaluations of green politics is “social capital”. Rather than a physical currency bought and sold, social capital exists as a representation of a communities capability of social justice or simply, the ability to “care”. Any major change requires an substantial amount of this currency to be successful, and more often than not it is wasted on mundane, meaningless shows of empathy with little practical results. Social capital is used for example in protests, rallies, calls for change, and even certain features of social media. Once the social capital is used, a community can be lured into thinking that they have done enough, and until such a time when the social capital is refilled, no society changing action for good or worse can occur. So how is social capital created? This is difficult to answer, but it is evident that in more liberal countries there exists a much larger production rate. In addition to this, social capital can be created through special events often tragedies and crimes, but sometimes trends. As an example, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge created and redirected the use of social capital towards the disability. Assault of black people in custody of the police created social capital targeted at racism and school shootings often generate social capital for gun laws. To control social capital, is to effectively control the motives of an entire nation. However, should it be neglected, you may find the people performing less than ideal actions.

In Australia and various first world western countries, social capital is being spread thinner and thinner, being spent on various issues such as LGBT, terrorism, racism, corruption, leaving little for climate change, which is by far the most important to the human race. As it was said above, disasters whilst tragic are often useful to bring to the public eye what is important. Problem is climate change does not have any effects which have clearly defined victims, thus it does not characterize the problem like other calamities do. One way to spur social capital is to call for lack of representation, or more accurately misrepresentation. This leads back to the first paragraph. We do not protest for more green action in politics because we are given the “choice” to vote for green parties if we wish. In all honestly, anyone in their right mind would tell you most green parties are way too extreme with their approaches and that to vote for them would be throwing your vote away. This illusion of green politics existing in parliament is what prevents further action to be taken.

#Politics #Society #Environment