APRIL 11, 2006
"Environmentalists
should be called conservationists", intoned a good friend. 'The word environmental has too much baggage." I disagreed completely, and quite forcefully. Conservation of what we have is essential, but we have destroyed so much already that we better be about restoration and preservation as well.
Conserve What? Polluted streams, foul air, a few species, vanishing wetlands, dead zones; to name a few things that could be conserved while maintaining the status quo. We should be restoring streams, cleaning up the air, preserving endangered species, restoring and conserving wetlands, eliminating the practices that create dead zones, and on and on. There is nothing wrong with conservation today, but David Brower, the late great voice of the environmental community, who held us accountable for our actions, said we must give the planet CPR - conservation, preservation and restoration.
To me, an environmentalist is one who cares about his or her surroundings enough to do what it takes to make it healthy and sustainable. Some days we conserve, others we preserve, but we always challenge the status quo to keep the planet healthy. One day we may pick up someone else's litter and the next day we may write our Governor or elected politician about some new plan to preserve old growth forests. Consistent behavior on behalf of the whole of creation marks the true environmentalist.
An environmentalist is a true patriot - that is one who loves nation enough to do something to make it better. Creation is slipping through our fingers and the environmentalist is the one who is damming the dike, closing the loopholes, speaking truth to power, rebelling against greed and the wanton disregard of the future. Proud to stand in line with the true patriots of this nation, one who fights for the rights of the spotted owl or the snail darter may not be perceived as the savior of the world, but they may be preserving a part of creation that if lost could be the thread that leads to the collapse of the whole web. More on later.
--Peter