My Take on Environmentalism

I was probably about 10 years old the first time I recall hearing about environmentalism. I heard about it through watching the news with my dad who was lecturing the TV anchor man about news that’s fit to broadcast. “Don’t give those hoodlums the spotlight they want you fool!”
The news item was about Greenpeace, its boat and saving whales. I had been listening and cheering for Greenpeace, so was quite surprised at my dad’s reaction.
He then turned to me with his intensity and hollered something about idiots and minding their own business.

Island rocks Isla Mujeres, Mexico (taken with Matt's camera)

That was my first introduction to how little people want to hear about human impacts on ecological systems that may be over the limits of ecology’s ability to recover. It was also 40 years ago. Since then, I’ve wandered through my life aware of the polarized views humans seem to have when it comes to nature. As I said in my last entry, we tend to love it to death. We also tend to refuse to acknowledge both its power and its fragility. This is why people die every year in avalanches and ecosystems are collapsing around us.
Two quests seem to be behind both these phenomena – mastery of all that is and finding a way to make life easier.

Termite nest in mangrove forest

Since the invention of agriculture to the 21^st century, humans changed the planet that struggles to support us. Generations of people travelled the world for various reasons and changed places to suit their needs as much as possible. Whether we’re talking about missionaries, explorers, exploiters or folks, each landed in a new place and tried to make it like home.
In the process, we have misjudged natural carrying capacity, climatological reactions to technology & imported practices and long-term impacts of invasive species.
We have sculpted, introduced and extirpated species and landscapes. We have created a need for pockets of life we call parks and tend to live in pockets of desolation we call urban landscapes.
We upset the natural balance and then make efforts to eradicate the only species that can co-habit with us because they become pests.
Is the insanity of this not clear?

The other insanity we seem to hold dear is the desire to fix blame rather than the problem. We have a problem. Admitting we have a problem is step one.
I personally have come to the conclusion that no one set out to cause an environmental problem. Although it can be easy and even a little gratifying to lay blame on big business or oil companies, the truth is that we are all to blame if blame is what we’re after.
If solutions are what we want, then we are also all responsible for those.
We no longer live within the same ecological system I was born into 50 years ago. Each human generation leaves a mark on its landscape. There was a time in Earth’s history when regions recovered from human impacts, but there’s too many of us now and, in some cases, we’ve changed things too much.
We can continue to affix blame, tell ourselves it’s not our fault personally and ignore the severity of the problems facing our children and grandchildren or we can suck it up, get with the program, accept personal responsibility and work toward solutions.
We know an awful lot about what we have to do to live sustainably and offer cohabitation room for other species. What we don’t know is how to get people to acknowledge, to cooperate and to change.  
Focus people. Focus on what you can do, vote for, suggest and support to reduce the impact of your life on the ecosystem you share with many others.

Or leave the problem for the younger generation to figure out. They are only too aware what they face.