Trinity of Despair

I liked Maniates' Trinity of Despair because I thought it was a useful way to frame environmental issues.

Human Nature: I was more optimistic on this one. As Prof. Maniates said, people are inherently social creatures. We work together all the time. While people, of course, are looking out for their own self-interest, they still care about issues bigger than themselves.

Social Change: We DEFINITELY do not need everyone on board to make social change. There have been so many social movements in history that have succeeded simply because the leaders in those movements were able to make themselves heard. On that note, I think the environmental movement is lacking something important. There are lots of great people working very hard on this crisis, but there is no leader at the forefront. There's no particular environment group or, more importantly, no individual, that stands above all the others. I think developing that kind of leadership is key to spreading the movement.

Environmental Strategy: I think this is a good idea too. Obviously, not everyone who uses a green lightbulb is going to turn into an environmentalist. If education on this stuff comes early in life though, it really has the potential for becoming an issue that kids today grow up to really care about. The one or two more people who become environmentalists because of strategy, that's one or two more people that could become leaers in the movement.

So I'm not sure if his speech changed my opinions in any way, though it did make me realize that I think that a leader (a face of the movement) is really important.