"Equality is valuable only when it encourages rather than destroys differences" Michael Levin

There is a place I used to go. Fragrant flowers bloomed brilliantly among tall grasses and ferns in a meadow guarded by huge cedars, pines, and fir. Large gangling madrones and dogwood grew near the edge of a bubbling spring and I would go there to experience the unison of life in its inspiring display of natural rhythm.

Now, there is only gray dirt piled in ragged burms against bare splintered stumps and eroded debris. Empty diesel cans, rusty choker cables, and black smoldering slash piles decorate the once living hillside. I look away and wonder who is responsible for this. Who are the perpetrators and where are the guardians?

When you see an injustice, do you feel you have options? Environmentalists think so and so do feminists. There seems to be an alignment between the goals of both. Both seek to right the wrongs of injustice. The connection between how men and women interact and the way they interact with the environment may be implicit. After all isn’t the human sphere the natural sphere?

In the politically correct world, everybody’s a feminist - or not. In the spirit of the '90s there seems to be a flavor for everyone. There is socialist, radical, or liberal feminism, power feminism, womanists, lesbians, separatists, National Organization for Women, to name a few. Maybe something from the backlash movements like, the Total Woman Movement, Mythopoetics, Freemen, or the National Organization for Men Against Sexism would fit your agenda better. There is another very interesting movement called Eco-feminism.

What does feminism have to do with the environment? Survival of our species may depend on greater understanding between men and women. Eco-feminists seek a more balanced relationship between humankind and the Earth. Is it time for some further change or do we look temporarily in amazement then return to what we were doing without much thought?

Eco-feminism looks at attitudes and worldviews that differ based on male and female perceptions of life. Whether gender difference is biological or social is in hot debate. But it seems our most effective influence will be in the social sphere. Our ability to homogenize those perspectives may result in better environmental policies.

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