The ecological movement cannot avoid politics

All is politically relevant, but not all is politics

All our actions, and all our thoughts, even the most private, are politically relevant. If I use a clipped tea leaf, some sugar, and some boiling water, and I drink the product, I am supporting the tea and sugar prices and more indirectly I interfere in the works and capital conditions of the tea and sugar plantations of the developing countries. In order to heat the water, I may have used wood or electricity or some other kind of energy, and then I take part in the great controversy concerning energy use. I may use water from a private source or a public source, and in either case I participate in a myriad of politically burning questions of water supply. I certainly have a political influence daily in innumerable ways.

If I reflect on all these things along ecological lines and make my opinions known, I contribute to the strength of the politically conscious ecological movement. If I do nothing instead of drinking the tea I normally drink I may contribute to the difficulties of the developing countries because then their export becomes smaller. But perhaps not: I may think that they should not export tea but rather produce more food and therefore I make it easier for the politicians of the developing countries to change their economic policies in the direction of self-reliance.