2021 Theses Master's

Towards a Liberative Ethic Against Environmental Destruction: Watching White Earth from Harlem

Logan, Davis

Here, I demonstrate how it is that liberative ethics can be used to convince Christians and U.S. Americans more broadly that it is worthwhile to protect the environment. Even if someone in the U.S. does not hold a worldview that assumes the value and sacredness of the life of non-human beings, they may still be convinced of the merits of climate protection as a necessary aspect of human liberation from oppression and undue suffering. Using the lens of Traci C. West’s disruptive Christian ethic, I look to the struggles of the White Earth Anishinaabe against Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 Pipeline construction as is described by activist Winona LaDuke along with other Anishinaabe insights as sources of ethical knowledge that can teach the West what it means to protect the Earth. This ethical knowledge shows us that both the neoclassical and market fundamentalist models of “water protection” are left wanting under a liberationist ethical paradigm which requires that the West respect the experiences of indigenous peoples.