Ecofeminism Presentation Essay

People who are ecofeminists believe in the Gaia Theory. The Gaia Theory is believing that the earth is a living organism and can feel pain. Those who are active ecofeminists do a lot for the environment, including such things as tree sitting, tree spiking, monkeywrenching, and protesting against the cutting of trees and helping rivers and lakes just to name a few. Also, in this theory it’s thought that the world is like a woman; sometimes getting angry with storms and being wild and uncontrollable because of all the pollution from humans. Yet, also because mothers nurture, as does the earth. This could be how the title “Mother Earth” or “Mother Nature” came to be. Back when the Gaia Theory was the main belief with the earth, it served as a cultural constraint to restrict human actions against it. As Ovid once wrote about how one wouldn’t normally slay their mother, nor would one normally slay the mother nature. While this theory helped the earth healthy a long time ago, people have since converted making the earth sick and readily to seeking revenge.

The total opposite of the Gaia Theory is the Mechanistic Universe (mechanistic means ‘of or relating to mechanics’ and thereby saying that a machine cannot be living). This theory, which began during the seventeenth century and since then, is that the earth is just a machine and that it can’t feel any pain inflicted upon it (by cutting down trees, not recycling, putting wastes in the rivers, for a few examples). This mechanical view has spread since the seventeenth century, and has continued due to the teachings in our Western schools -- which are accepted without questions; replacing the original theory with science and a reasoning of touch and feel instead of belief and faith as with the Gaia Theory.

In the presentation, it was apparent to me that to be able to understand both sides of the story: everyone should take an interactive role, and for at least part of the time our group had to present our topic by lecture. While it took me a while to find an idea to effectively administer the ideas where anyone could understand them, a mock trial was it. Of course, a small amount was needed to lecture about the two theories to refresh everyone’s minds before the trial could begin. Three sides were chosen, while only two were necessary, the role playing was more interesting with three. The Mechanistic Universe put the Gaia Theory on trial. Or in other words, a lumber company (Pacific Lumber Company, which is a real company in California) put an environmental group, called Earth Child on trial. Originally, I had wanted to be more broad without using physical properties such as a lumber company and environmentalists. However, it was much easier to understand and more fun as a class to role play people rather than ideas and theories.

Overall, in my opinion only, I think our goal to teach the class and ourselves about ecofeminism effectively and in the most interesting way! For myself, I’ve always believed in the Gaia Theory ever since I was growing up. With all the trees being cut down today, it’s no wonder that there are so many floods and other problems with rivers and lakes because of it, among other things as well. I tend to think of “what if’s” when it comes to people believing in the Gaia Theory instead of the Mechanistic Universe. Also, a good idea is by teaching both theories in all of our schools so that the students could make up their minds first about with they believe in instead of only “hearing one side of the story”. Then, perhaps our earth wouldn’t be as sick as it is today.

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