Essays

In honor of Earth Week and Earth Day last week, PBS aired a lot of informative, interesting and well-put-together documentaries. Here’s what moved me.

Food, Inc. (POV) – I already knew most of what was in this documentary, but it was informative to the masses who never ask where their food comes from. If you have not seen it, do. I bet you will seek out organic, local, humanely raised meat after watching it! Question your butcher and your favorite restaurants, too. What you eat out is harder to control than what you prepare at home. Take it a step further and stop eating meat altogether, if you’re interested in truly reducing emissions and your carbon footprint.

DIRT! The Movie (Independent Lens) – Having a degree in horticulture, and gardening professionally and personally for the last 30+ years, I knew most of this information, too. Soil Science was my favorite class. Because of test phobia, I chose to write a 20 page paper on soil formation instead of taking an exam. I almost went on to study further, but all the jobs were in government, and I was clear that was not where I wanted to be.

I resonated with DIRT! The Movie. I know what it’s like to stick your nose in a handful of forest soil and come away like you’ve just smelled deep purple lilacs. I know the feeling of amazement watching a compost pile do its thing – kitchen scraps, grass trimmings and plant stalks gradually turning to black soil that goes back into the garden. This is nature at its core, and the very act of soil generation shows us how the planet takes care of herself. Watch this movie to see the why and the how of aiding that process.

Earth Days (American Experience) – I had to watch this history of Earth Day four times, because I loved it so much. This was the history of the current environmental movement, and it all took place in my entire lifetime.

After World War II, there was a prosperity boom. Suburbs began their sprawl, convenience was the norm, cars were big, and oil was cheap. We also mistakenly believed oil would always be cheap and plentiful, so we used it. Our society was based on it – cars, airplanes, electricity, cities. The smog grew thick in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and our health was threatened by the environment for the first time ever.

Abundance was another keyword of the 50s. Materialism equaled success. Consumption began its out-of-control path, creating the need for more manufacturing plants, energy, oil and transportation.

The Industrial Revolution started this problem, but the prosperity- and abundance-laden 50s catapulted the earth into a cloud of smog.

I was born and grew up in this era. I lived in a suburb with a freezer full of Clarence Birdseye frozen fruits and vegetables and Swanson frozen tv dinners.

My dad drove a few miles to work every day and came home for lunch. My mother drove to town whenever she felt she needed something. She’d make a trip for groceries, and come home. Then she’d go out for stamps, even though she’d passed the post office on her first trip. Maybe she’d go out for shoes later in the day, and if we needed something after school, we’d drive to get it. In the evening, maybe we’d go to the mall (called a ’shopping center’ back then).

The car and what was perceived to be plentiful oil allowed her to do this. And she was not the only one! The 50s were an illusion of freedom, and no one saw the consequences.

‘I voted for the interstate highway program, which I see now is a great mistake.’ Stewart Udall

The 60s

In the 60s, DDT was sprayed liberally in neighborhoods as a convenient way to kill annoying bugs. It was also killing the not-so-annoying varieties as well as the iconic American Bald Eagle. Our national symbol was the first animal on the newly created Endangered Species List.

Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, and this was the beginning of awareness about the ecological devastation caused by pesticide use. Carson showed the interconnectedness of every living thing on the planet and how annihilating one part affected all parts. Our alienation from nature was more than evident. This book is a must read. It was, pardon the cliche, a catalyst for change.

‘I truly believe that we, in this generation, must come to terms with nature, and I think we’re challenged, as mankind has never been before, to prove our maturity and mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.’ Rachel Carson

Rebellion

By the late 60s, ‘the revolution’ was in full swing. Hippies were rebelling against the establishment – government, greed, corporations, cities, money, war, and anything considered traditional and tech-y. The back-to-the-land movement birthed egalitarian communes and simple, natural, spiritual lifestyles with the earth as the centerpiece.

Out of that anti-establishment, back-to-the-land movement came Earth Day in 1970. It was a political act to say Screw You to government and corporations and to bring awareness to their negative affect on our planet. The message was Greed and ecology don’t mix.

Earth Day speeches were about the exact same issues we have today in the exact same words – energy independence, energy conservation, solar, over-population, air pollution, carbon, energy efficiency, overuse of natural resources, Middle Eastern oil.

What has changed?

The rest of the 70s saw President Nixon create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), President Carter put solar panels on the White House, and Americans suffer through the ‘oil embargo’ of 1973. I put that in quotes, because I’m not sure it was real, but it did show us that we were (and still are) at the mercy of the Middle East. Our country was crippled when the price of gas quadrupled in the time span of a few months.

President Reagan took office in 1980, and one of his first acts was to remove Jimmy Carter’s solar panels from the White House (’We lost 30 years.’ Hunter Lovins). He also slashed the budgets of agencies doing environmental work. Any vestige of the rebellious and productive 60s and 70s was gone, and we’ve never regained that momentum.

My Place in It All

What moved me about Earth Days is that I have lived through and witnessed the entire history of the modern environmental movement. I was born into the problem and, proudly, naturally and enthusiastically, became part of the solution. The guests in the show, political and environmental activists in the 60s and 70s, clearly spoke of my experiences and convictions, and that was warm and comforting. I felt like we had grown up together!

Before I saw this, I’d been wondering what my part is in the modern environmental movement. I often feel as though the history has been forgotten, as though the environmental movement just started in the last few years. The history is important! It is who I am, and when people don’t care about that history, I feel invisible and start wondering:

> What is my role, aside from continuing to live lightly?
> I know where I came from, but where am I going?
> Where do I fit in?
> How can I not feel so stagnant?
> What do I have to offer?

What is my role among the 21st century environmental activists, who research environmentalism, teach it and apply it to their lives? I am a 20th century environmentalist, having been been there from the beginning. Where is my place today?

I still haven’t answered those questions, but having spent several evenings with Stewart Udall, Rachel Carson, various scientists, the creators of Earth Day, the author of The Population Bomb, Hunter Lovins, Stephanie Mills and several others, I feel grounded, like my foundation has been rebuilt, like someone understands me. I feel I can move forward, but I’m just not sure to where.

I do see that this is the problem:

‘Every morning, six billion people get up, have breakfast, and go to work, do their thing, and come home at night. Environmental problems emerge out of daily life. The solutions for environmental problems are also rooted in daily life. We need six billion people to get up and have a different consciousness and do things differently.’ Dennis Meadows

And that this is the solution:

‘You owe a responsibility to your children, your grandchildren and their children.’ Stewart Udall

I recommend watching Earth Days to see how it all got started.

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