Dr. Carver was also a self-conscious conservationist, practicing the three R’s of environmentalism: “reduce, reuse and recycle”. Indeed, he said “My work is that of conservation, . . .” Moreover, he stated “as a rule we are wasteful”, but if people became aware of the interrelatedness of things and were ecologically conscious, they “could not help but recognize ways to make use of materials they had previously discarded or overlooked”.

Finally, he taught not only the complexity and interrelatedness of nature, but also its fragility. And he stressed long-term solutions rather than quick fixes which aggravate a problem and delay urgent attention which should be given to it. To sustain the world, we must be rightfully attentive to it, he taught. Thus, he said, “look about you, take hold of things that are here”, be kind to the world and all in it, detest waste, cooperate to create good and share it equitably and wisely.

But at the heart of any sound and effective environmental vision and practice must also be active engagement to change and end the social conditions that not only threaten and diminish the environment, but also devastate and destroy the people themselves. In a word, social justice is the foundation and fulcrum on which environmental justice is raised or founders. This is why Dr. Wangari Maathai, environmental activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, which has over 30 years, planted 30 million trees in Kenya, links democracy, human rights, sustainable development, and peace. It is why she links poverty, oppression and environmental degradation. She thus seeks to empower the people thru inclusion and effective participation in building the world they want and deserve. Indeed, she says that thru work and struggle “they come to recognize that they are the primary custodians and beneficiaries of the environment that sustains them.” And they move to protect themselves and the environment from the “threat of globalization, commercialization, privatization and the piracy of biological materials found in (their lands)”.

Dr. Maathai also calls for an African cultural revival that reaffirms our ancient and ongoing reverence for nature and sense of oneness with the world, that “revive(s) our sense of belonging to a larger family with which we have shared our evolutionary process”. Our task, she concludes in the spirit and speech of serudj ta is “to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own—indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder”.

Dr. Maulana Karenga n is the Professor of Black Studies, California State University-Long Beach, Chair of The Organization Us, Creator of Kwanzaa, and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, [www.Us-Organization.org and www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org].

Published in : Op-Ed, Dr. Maulana Karenga