The Green Tangent
Personal musings on Forestry, Urban Forestry, and NatureArchive for Climate Change
What did nature do for you today?
Today I received an interesting email request for information. How would you answer the questions “What did nature do for you today?” or “What did you do for nature today?”
Coming from Matt Zylstra, he writes, “In around 5 weeks, the next Olympics begin — not the ones with healthy looking over-achievers who paraded in China — but the Olympics of Conservation…the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. Our eyes4earth initiative will be giving a workshop titled: “What did nature do for you today?” So we are asking — pleading! — for your creative help from all your various locations around the globe and help us showcase the most diverse responses possible… You can answer these questions yourself or you can ask friends, family or even strangers on the street. Or even any ‘famous’ people you might know. It is up to you how creative you want to be. Please tell us the date and exact place/location to which these questions relate (city/town name at least, but GPS /[X,Y / Long. Lat] /coordinates are even better — you can use GoogleMaps to help you). The answers can be in whichever way you like on whatever day you like in wherever place you like. The answers can be in a language other than English (but please send us an approximate English translation — especially if it is a language other than Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, German, Portuguese, French, or Italian). The answers can be done with more than just one person. The more responses we get the better!!!” Click their link to check out how others are answering The Question. They will accept pictures, video, audio, art work, or even text.
A group calling themselves Earth Collective has organized to “reinforce links between a healthy natural environment and human well-being” and they have set up the eyes4earth website. Should be fun and thought-provoking to read how different people answer The Question. Get your responses in no later than 23 September 2008.
With the increasing urbanization of cultures around the globe, people are losing touch, I mean real dirt-under-the-fingernails touch, with our natural world. Ask kids where milk comes from and they might tell you the name of a local grocery store.
But the disconnect goes further than that. What level of understanding do most people have about the services provided by ecosystems that sustain human life? Notice I didn’t say “help sustain” human life. Earth’s oxygen would be quickly be depleted if not for natural systems’ constant replenishment. The water cycle, the phosphors cycle, the carbon cycle all chug along thanks to wonderfully and fearfully integrated natural systems.
In short, human life is sustained by ecosystems that are largely taken for granted. Except when they break. Or get sick. Or cause us to get sick. When drought relief comes roaring ashore in the form of a tropical cyclone (hurricane) we tend to step back (or run for cover!) and breathe a collective “Whoa, Dude!”
We’ve heard the rhetorical question “Have you hugged a tree today?” relating to oxygen generation, carbon sequestration, cooling shade, wildlife habitat, sound abatement, water cycling/management, and fruit production services provided by those woody sentinals. Now we should add “Have you thanked an ecosystem today?” to the conversation.
Is Green Living Really Cool?
Despite what Kermit says, being green is getting easier every day. Or so it would seem from just about every media outlet one can see or hear … “Buy these new green products!” “Switch to these greener habits!” “Stop doing those old bad things and do these new green things!” “Think beautiful green thoughts!”
And why should we all lead “greener” lives? It’s the right thing to do? It feels good? It’s socially responsible? It saves money?
No. Leading a greener life will abate climate change, so they say.
The peer pressure is strong, sucking us into this new way of living. From many sources, we hear that human-induced climate change – global warming, in the vernacular – is real. We’ve seen the enemy and he is us. Most everything we know and love about western industrialized society is bad for Mother Earth so we should just stop it right now! I mean it! OR, we can pay someone else a big chunk of change to make a green change somewhere out of sight and we’ll feel much better about our bad old selves.
The Darwinist Religion has been around for well over 100 years and it’s zealots are ready to push that theory as fact every chance they get. Now the socialists have their own religion to pass off as fact – I guess atheists can have a religion if it doesn’t involve a god – and their mantra is STOP GLOBAL WARMING AT ANY EXPENSE! Especially at Big Business’ expense – they got us into this, they should bail us out. Step away from the fossil fuels and nobody gets hurt. Oh, and by the way, don’t exhale any more greenhouse gasses …
As communist regimes have fallen over the last 15 years, those social activists have moved from an overt political position to covertly taking up the standard for climate change. And we hear of cadres of scientists who now suckle the fatted funding sources aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But guess what? There are those who think human-induced climate change is a bunch of hooey (that’s a technical term). Check out this film and see what you think: The Great Global Warming Scandal
As one who believes capitalism is one of the best economic models devised to-date, I see this whole green movement as a lot of money changing hands, and maybe not much else. Think of all the new jobs out in the marketplace that cater to helping people salve their consciouses about emitting that dreaded pollutant carbon dioxide. You could probably come up with a business plan to help transfer some of that flow of funding into your own pocket.
Personally, I enjoy saving money. If installing curly light bulbs is good for the planet and they reduce my electric bill, I’m all for it. Sure, I don’t mind telecommuting a couple days each week. And the prospect of buying a couple 60 MPG scooters to zip around town sounds like an exciting way to save gas. We dutifully set out our recycle bins each week. My wife loves to patronize second-hand stores – she’s always in hot pursuit of the Ultimate Find – which is a form of recycling. We’ve cut back on our consumptive shopping which means we are adding much less to our pile of stuff than we used to. I carry my cloth bags to the grocery thus eliminating one more choice – paper or plastic? And, as a forester, my company has planted hundreds of thousands of trees over the years – and trees suck up CO2.
So, am I a fence-sitter? Doing only the easy things that can save money but not the hard things that might allegedly make a bigger impact? Like converting my whole house to solar and wind power, or riding my bike 20 miles round trip to the office, or buying only organic gently raised food, or selling my truck and buying a Smart Car?
Or, if you believe this film, maybe the best things we can hope for by “being green” is making our non-renewable resources last a little longer and saving some money. Maybe living green won’t make us any cooler in the long run.
