(Green Roof. Vancouver, British Columbia)
Please consider how much you need the natural world.
I’m leaving this purposely open and ambiguous so that you each come up with your own definition of “need”/ “natural world” etc. and furthermore to define for WHAT you need/ don’t need the natural world. The first line in the foreward to a Sand Co. Almanac touches on this concept: “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot” (vii, Leopold). Reflect on who is “telling you” that nature/the environment are important or not important to you and why.
Mara Schlanger
ReplyDeleteI was faced with the question of what differentiates between need and want this morning. I know this is going to be a superficial and trivial example but it fits with the greater idea of what exactly defines the term “need.” Growing up in New Jersey, I didn’t get to see my Grandmother who lived in Michigan much. We had the occasional yearly visits, but I never really understood the meaning of “Grandma treatment” until I moved to Ann Arbor for school. Upon my arrival, I realized that having my Grandma live in a town only forty minutes away was quite the luxury. When I was down during the first few months of school, she was here to pick me up at the snap of my fingers. Surprise visits for dinner were frequent, and trips to the supermarket, school supply store, etc. were never at a minimum. So when my Grandmother called me this weekend to ask if I “needed a manicure,” (Grandma’s are the best a pampering), I responded with no. As the words rolled of my tongue, I think we were both equally shocked that I had declined the opportunity to be salon treated. She has asked if I NEEDED a manicure, not if I had wanted one. Normally I would have gushed an enthusiastic YES!! into the phone but the phrase need didn’t seem like the appropriate verb. My Grandmother responded with a slow, “Realllllllly…?” until I chimed in and said, “Need, no…want, yes.” and with that, I proved to myself that some of the most pleasurable and desirable things in life aren’t what we need, rather what we want and crave.
In regards to the natural world, I think the same concept applies. Do we need to build a car path midtown through central park to help with traffic congestion? No, it would just be more convenient. Do we need to knock down this perfectly standing house to renovate it and make it newer? No, it would just be more luxurious. Do we need to worry about the crumbling auto industry for reasons other than the economy? Yes. Why? Because our society as a whole has accustomed themselves to believing that technology and machinery are vital sources for our survival. Our ancestors seemed to survive without planes, trains, and automobiles, so why can’t we? Don’t get me wrong; I’m also guilty of being all too reliable on technology nowadays. When the Ann Arbor bus system broke down for a day last year I thought the world was coming to an end, when in reality, if I had put the situation into perspective I would have realized that anywhere NECESSARY to go could be walked to and all other places I wanted to go to could wait until the buses were fixed.
PART TWO...( too long for one)
ReplyDeleteI live in a house of 70 girls and surprisingly half of them are vegetarians. Personally, I don’t eat red meat because I don’t enjoy the taste, texture, or anything about it. When I asked them why they don’t eat it, a lot responded that eating meat isn’t sustainable and it’s bad for the environment. Thinking that I know absolutely everything about the food chain I responded that animals were born to be used for food and that’s how evolution and the food cycle work. (Silly me….) Upon reading Michael Pollan’s article “Power Steer,” I realized just how much of a detriment to society and the environment raising cattle is. If I ate red meat, I wouldn’t eat it after realizing how many antibiotics and fat-laden food sources these cows are fed along with the drastic change in the meat itself over the years to nowadays having a marbled visual of virtually all fat. If cows were being cultivated on grassland which in turn helps the grass and ecosystem to flourish then I wouldn’t think that eating their meat would be such a bad practice, but the fact that they are taken out of nature and placed in breeding farms essentially where there food is brought in based on how cheap it can be obtained and how fast it can make these animals grow is purely sickening.
The passion that these article fired me up with made me realize that although it may not be the most relevant thought in my mind daily, I really do care about the environment and species that inhabit it. No other group of living beings has caused so much destruction and changed the natural habitat more than we as humans have so why do we continue to do it?