DEPLETIST. An individual or group showing apparent, negligent, or reckless disregard for the environmental consequences of their actions. A word commonly used by the 4th year THINK TANK students at the Ontario College of Art and Design and rapidly spreading around the world from one concerned citizen to another…
You’re currently reading “Are you a depletist?,” an entry on SQUEEZE
10.18.06 / 10pm
This is a great term for a state of being that heretofore had no name. The antonym of environmentalist, or preservationist, or conservationist, is my guess.
But no one is going to admit to being a depletist! Let’s get some depletist categories and individuals named and shamed here.
10.19.06 / 12am
I am a depletist. Robin Uchida
10.19.06 / 3pm
Everyone is a depletist.
If you live on this planet you are using its resources. It doesn’t matter whether you conciously care or not. You are all depletists.
If you can’t handle living with this fact, you should jump off the ledge of a sidewalk.
10.19.06 / 5pm
that’s inspriing orlando. do you write obituaries in your spare time?
10.19.06 / 7pm
An excerpt from Anne Michaels’ beautiful (Toronto) novel, Fugitive Pieces (McClelland & Stewart, 1996) might prove instructive on the question of whether simply living makes us depletists:
In our cold, dark Canadian flat, I pour fresh water into the sea, recalling not only the Greek lament “that the dead may drink” but also the covenant of the Eskimo hunter, who pours fresh water into the mouth of his quarry. Seals, living in salt water, suffer perpetual thirst. The animal has offered its life in exchange for water. If the hunter does not keep his promise, he will lose all his good fortune; no other animal will allow itself to be captured by him.
Simply living on the earth doesn’t make one a parasite upon it, provided there is some mutuality in the exchange.
It’s a fair question to ask whether much mutuality exists any more, especially in cities. We don’t have fields to leave fallow for a season, nor wild creatures to honour for their sacrifice.
We pay lip-service to the doctrine of sustainability as long as we aren’t required to do anything more than recycle inconsistently. In my view, neither real change nor real awareness are likely until we approach the cataclysmic horizon near enough to tumble over it.
We shield ourselves from the cost of our luxuries. Few of us know what it’s like to pull a carrot, let alone behead a chicken or gut a deer. Perhaps we should learn. At the very least it might remind us to give thanks.
[...] The depletist concept was unveiled at JUICE on Sunday, October 15, 2006 by Chris Braden, a collaborator from the 4th year Think Tank class at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Depletist is their creation – a new word that appears to fill a vacuum in our conversations about the environment. The following is an email I received from a friend and speaker at JUICE, Robert Ouellette: [...]
10.23.06 / 8am
At the OCAD open house this weekend our class had a presentation on loop and invited visitors to come see what we’ve been up to this term. There was a lot of positive feedback.
After seeing the presentation a tiny, old, eastern european lady came up to me and said “thank you.” I asked her what she was thanking me for, and she replied “for excercising my mind.”
“Did you like it?” I asked, her reply was the best answer I could have hoped for. “It is not a matter of liking or disliking. You stimulated me intellectually, and as students and artist that is what I desire from you.”
And that’s when you realize that a few sleepless nights are well worth it.
12.3.06 / 9pm
Wow, I never imagined that it could be so difficult to get people like Wikipedia to allow us to post “depletist” as an article. Because the word has not been published in a magazine, journal, or book, it is not reliable enough. I hope in the future when it is in common use that it will be. We are still being discussed for deletion.
12.15.06 / 10pm
words come into use by usage. not by plastering their definitions on websites. its like getting a date… maybe depletism should play it cool a little bit… otherwise she’s probably not going to be going out any time soon…
9.10.09 / 9am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. 
Cheers! Sandra. R.
9.11.09 / 10am
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