Environmentalism in Venezuela

Isabel Isaaccura Hudson: Environmentalism in Venezuelan | The situation is one so complex. Venezuela is a petroleum country, so as such, petroleum and its derivatives being the patronage of education, health, security, etc, it’s difficult for a Venezuelan to see the the importance of caring for the environment. Very few people are going to judge thereby the petroleum industry.

For another part, the common people don’t have the conscience or awareness of “not littering.” They throw anything out the window of their cars, as the laws won’t fine them money. Nevertheless, the people adore nature, because it´s beautiful, and they like to enjoy it, only that very few take care that it continues to be beautiful.Some people see [environmentalists] as hypocrites for calling themselves ecologists while continuing to consume pollutedly in their daily lives. Others applaud them, but continue with the course of their lives.

[I don't consider myself an environmentalist] because apart from trying to be, I continue to pollute in one form or another.

Michael Hudson: Environmentalism in Venezuela | I see the Venezuelan’s stance towards the environment as identical to that of the U.S. There is the odd practicing environmentalist who walks, bicycles or climbs into a packed tram, minibus, or subway just in principal. However the majority are mostly talk. Just like in the U.S., people here complain constantly about pollution, and the environment is always at the front line when they don´t want something to happen, but very few are willing to consume less packaged goods or drive less.

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For example, PDVSA, Venezuela´s petrol company, wanted to build an office complex up in the mountains on abandoned military land. They planned to bring employees there by bus, and had big plans to use only a small piece of the land and reforest the rest. The community denied the proposition on speculation that the employees would insist on driving their cars, and commuter traffic would contaminate the area. One of the biggest opponents under such an assumption, a neighbor of ours, runs her business out of her home way up on the mountain; a type of cafe/pastry shop for tourists. Every weekend our street is packed with cars trying to escape the bustle of the city. She seems unaware of the irony there.

[Venezuela's view of environmentalists is also the] same as the U.S. There are those who don´t know and don´t care, those who know and don´t care, and those who know and care. Environmentalists are appreciated by some and targeted by others, either for being muck stirring hippies, or not doing enough to fix things.

For example, during the riots over the last constitutional reform, there were groups of misinformed and generally ignorant students burning tires in all major roadways, blocking civilian traffic, throwing Molotov cocktails at the police, who were there protecting their right to protest, etc.

My wife Isabel was trying to get to the bank one day and I had to drop her off outside one of the barakades so that she could walk the rest of the way. She stopped in front of such a group, with not a sign in their hands nor positive idea in their heads, nor cause of protest about them, as they yelled profanities at the police nearby, and she asked them why they had to burn tires to make there opposition. “hippie chavista! get out of here befor we beat you up!” they shouted. “I’m not approaching you as a Chavista” she responded, “Do you see any Red on me? I simply don´t see why you have to contaminate so horrendously to make your statement. Carry signs, block streets with rocks if you have too, and while your at it, specify what it is that you’re opposed too.”

The group responded angrily, “burning tires is how we protest! Besides, Chavez contaminates by running the country on oil!”

Isabel responded that if they were against the petrol industry, they could leave the public university for which it paid, and join a private one. At this point they threatened her physically, and things escalated until a group of passersby intervened, causing brief general havoc. She left thoroughly hopeless from the experience and has not yet fully recovered, in my opinion, her faith in the Venezuelan public.

No, [I don't consider myself an environmentalist]. Environmentalist is a very high title for me. I cannot say that I have acheived it yet, but I hope I’m in the process. I have planted trees in Africa, but it took me hundreds of gallons of gasoline to get there. I was somehow unaware.

I’ve planned eco-plantings and land protection here in Venezuela, but I bought a tremendously contaminating 1981 Ford 350 flatbed truck with no air filter to transport the plants and the harvest, and don´t have the money right now to fix it up.

I’m planning all sorts of eco minded projects between my business in the city and my home/organic farm in the valley, including biodeisel transport, but for the time being, for fault of an economically based schedule, I still commute nearly half an hour each way between the two on a daily basis, and it’s basically because I like to live outside the contamination of the city. So no. I’m still, after a lifetime of trying, not yet a practicing environmentalist. I hope dearly that in the months to come I can discipline myself to have the determination and patience necessary to become an environmentalist.

In Closing, I see Venezuela, as the world at large, myself included, as a population more informed than their conscience can keep up with. Everyone wants change, but we can’t seem to see that change starts with control over our day to day priorities, and a very broad scope of the every day actions we all take part in. The plastic bags at the market, the packaged food, the personal care products, imported products, etc, etc, etc. Conscious consumerism is a full time lifestyle.

Isabel and Michal live in Merida, Venezuela, where they are opening a posada and tea shop.

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