1) It is very easy for people to fail to notice nature (Like folks who jog or bike down Military Ridge Trail failing to notice Osprey or Bald Eagles.)
2) Individual property owners can make good or bad choices which bring about preservation or destruction of the environment and ultimately these choices either help or hurt their own property in the long run
3) Bad environmental policy makes for a bad environment
While working for the U.S. Forest Service, Leopold noted, documented, analyzed, and critiqued a variety of forestry regulations, practices, metrics, and procedures. Throughout his essays he notes the various positions of different kinds of interested parties who had a stake in environmental policy from visitor's bureaus to politicians to sportsman to farmers and ranchers.
The power we hold as an individual goes beyond wielding the shovel to create and restore nature on our own properties. Arguably the two most powerful tools in your tool belt are your purse strings and your vote.
While gridlock, ignorance, denial and complacency plague politicians and prevent governmental bodies from taking meaningful action to restore the environment. Corporations are showing interest in going green. We could imagine or assume that big corporations are finding ways to go green simply for the good of the planet, and in some cases that might just be the truth. More realistically however many are interested in going green when it makes them some green. If it's less expensive to generate power with wind farms or natural gas, then a power company will choose these methods over coal. Likewise if people are interested in purchasing electric or hybrid cars, then Detroit is happy to manufacture them.
If policy isn't the going to be what causes corporations to change how and what they produce, then eco-conscious consumers have to wield the power of the purse strings. There are a lot of ways to do this. Some of which I've touched on before but here are some quick thoughts:
1) Buy products made of recycled goods
2) Buy products which come in limited or easily recycled packages (not plastic)
3) Drive high fuel economy or electric vehicles
4) Shop and buy local (reduces the carbon foot print of your purchases)
5) Consider your groceries (sustainable fish? organic? local? packaging?)
6) Use a reusable bag when shopping
7) Consider solar panels
8) Buy LED bulbs (even if the federal government wants to roll back standards)
This leads me to a different but equally valid point. In addition to control over your wallet, you wield the power of your vote. If you are looking for your local, state, or federal government to take action on water pollution, air pollution, climate change, land preservation or protecting endangered species or resources, then you need to vote for candidates who will act on these things. It would be unfair to suggest that the government is incapable of doing good environmental work. It just needs the right people in place.
Before the Clean Water Act (passed in 1972), the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969 because it was so polluted, and it was far from the only river in rough shape. Through the Clean Water Act a number of rivers and lakes have been dredged, restored, and detoxified. The Manitowoc River is an EPA Superfund site, years of aluminum production and ship building had contaminated the river. Coordinated efforts of governmental and non-governmental organizations have been hard at work restoring the river and lakeshore. Today it's possible to hike along Lake Michigan on the Maritime Trail, visit the Woodland Dunes Nature Preserve or see Pelicans and Terns resting on the breakwater which is being turned into habitat and dog park space.
Pelicans and Terns on the breakwater in Manitowoc, WI
In addition to the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act should be recognized as a major success. Birds of prey like Bald Eagles have seen their populations rebound very successfully as have other protected species. Government intervention like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act and various state hunting regulations have successfully conserved species which could have been wiped out like American Bison, Whooping Cranes, Wild Turkey and many species of duck. As a child, I saw exactly 0 Bald Eagles in the wild. I first encountered a wild Bald Eagle at the age of 25 or 26 while in Wittenberg, WI. After that, sighting weren't common but were possible, and often required some work like traveling down by the Wisconsin River in the winter. Now, we see them pretty regularly, and having just seen a juvenile eagle fishing at our local retention pond, my children don't believe me when I say I never saw at their age.
Bald Eagle soaring above Military Ridge Trail near Madison in 2018.
Citizens who care enough about the environment to be good stewards of it are the key to getting corporations and governments to change how they handle it. How you choose to spend your money, and how you choose to vote is just as powerful as the choices you make at home. While it may seem like the effort of one person doesn't matter, keep in mind there are many others who care about the environment as much as you, and just like Captain Planet's Planeteers, it's when our energies combine that there is true power.
No comments:
Post a Comment