Oh, but, wait, I can hear the far off cries of “injustice” and “ignorance” coming from Pacific Northwest now...
Before the granolas and tree huggers crucify me as the anti-Christ of the suburban sprawl and the demon of development, let me be clear; I am one you.
That’s right, B. Toombs is a tree hugger. A nut and berry. An Earth Muffin. A Prairie Fairy.
You will be hard pressed to find someone more pro-green and environmentally conscious than me. Don’t believe it?
In high school I used to make my friends give me their fast food garbage for me to throw away instead of them throwing it out the window. In fact, they knew how much it upset me to see them liter so they (as any good high school buddies would) went specifically out of their way to liter in front of me so I would not only get pissed off but have to pick up the trash in front of them out of sheer conscience That’s true, call my friends and ask them, they’re home.
Still don’t believe it?
For over the last 23 years I have spent close to two months a year at our family’s second home in the Northwoods of Wisconsin on the Lac Du Flambeau Indian Reservation, home to the Lake Superior band of Chipewas of the Ojibewa Indian Nation.
My grandfather Mitchell started visiting the area as a boy during the depression when his best friend’s (soon to be his brother in law) father purchased a couple dozen acres in what was then, aside from a couple logging camps in the area, complete native American wilderness. The story goes, my great-great uncle, John Cornelius, purchased over 80 acres of pristine, water front property on Lake Flambeau for no more than a case of whiskey and a hand shake agreement to keep relations positive. Now, the purchase price may have been embellished over time but my great-great uncle more than made good on his promise of respecting his Native American neighbors and more importantly, the lake and land they had given to him. He was bequeathed an honorary membership into the Chippewa tribe and presented with a 10 foot tall, hand carved totem pole engraved with his own real Indian name “Aun Dag.” The pole still stands in the same spot on my cousins’ property, across the lake from us and stands to remind our family of how lucky we are to have this beautiful land and more importantly, that is was ascertained through the respect of those who’s traditions for thousands of years have been based off of honoring and respecting mother earth.
This lesson was instilled in my grandfather at a very young age as he would spend month long trips with his best friend Corky and Corky’s dad “Aun Dag” in the Northwoods, on the reservation. Quickly after “Aun Dag’s” handshake deal, the Indians were forbidden by the government to sell anymore because of the land’s “reservation” status. This action created the Flambeau Lake we know today; almost entirely surrounded by Indian land with the west bay of the lake, a little over a mile in around, populated by white people, two properties of which belong to my family.
As my grandfather and his best friend, who was now married to my grandpa’s sister, raised their families, they instilled the same virtues of respecting nature and taking care of your environment in their own families, with as much enthusiasm and honesty as “Aun Dag” had done when they were the only white people on the lake.
This school of thought transferred well to my father’s family, his two brothers and he achieved high levels in boy scouts, with my uncle Chuck garnering the rank of “Eagle Scout” an honor also achieved by my Grandpa. They spent much of their time growing up camping in the Northwoods, fishing and hiking on privately owned lakes and forestland and staying with their cousins on Flambeau Lake, until the 1960’s when my Grandfather purchased his own house.
My Grandfather spent his retirement years in the Northwoods, on the reservation and was always very stern with me as a child in terms of nature. The impact of “Aun Dag’s” reverence for the environment combined with years of living amongst the natural inhibitors of the land had given him great passion for the environment, a passion successfully passed down to his son. My dad enthusiastically passed the history and its importance down to me. I was being taught how to de-hook a fish and what types of trees held which types of leaves almost as soon as I could walk.
Furthermore, by far the most important period of my life in terms of environmental education, was the 5 years I spent with Camp Manito-wish in Boulder Junction, WI just north of our house in Lac Du Flambeau.
This camp, specializing in fundamental wilderness tripping threw me out into the woods for 5 days as a 12 year old and I never looked back. By the end of it all, I was taking a 15 day kayak trip through the Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, Canada. Wanting to learn even more, I was hired on as staff my freshman year of college. I went through a three week training period where we rigidly instructed on Manito-wish’s “Leave No Trace” policy. That meant, our responsibility was not only leave our campsite pristine but if we found garbage or debris during our trip we were REQUIRED to pack it out with us. Imagine having to put other people’s garbage in your bag. Not to mention, no gas stoves, no lighters, no soap, no toilet paper, only dime size twigs for your fire AND NO PEEING IN THE LAKE. During my summer on staff, I led 5 different canoe trips into the woods with junior high aged kids and no one else, (sounds like a party right?), with the highlight being a grueling 10 day trip through the U.P. of Michigan where we accumulated over a pound and a half of other people’s trash.
Now do you believe me?
My environmental education and activism speak for itself.
And yet. I still maintain...
Global warming does not matter.
Well, explain that one nature boy.
Ok....
Let me be more specific:
The TERM global warming does not matter.
Ahhhhh. Ok. Wait what?
Yes, the big, sexy argument is all about this supposed “global warming” phenomenon. It’s the hot button issue. It's buzzworthy. All over cable news, major publications and the discussion is always over this big, bad, looming topic of “global warming” and whether or not our “Planet is in Peril,” as one well dressed news anchor puts it.
Whether or not global warming indeed does exist or not is completely irrelevant.
What is relevant is becoming a greener, less polluting, more energy efficient global society.
The point is not whether or not there is a “Greenhouse Effect,” the point is to produce less greenhouse gases.
To reiterate, the point is too pollute less and create a more eco-friendly, energy efficient global infrastructure.
It is a waste of time to argue whether or not global warming is going burn up our crops, melt the ice caps and suffocate us in a global pressure cooker for a number of reasons.
Firstly, there is no way of telling whether global warming is something humans have created or even if global warming is a bad thing. There is a very strong chance this recent upward trend in global temperature could be part of the Earth’s natural cycle. There have been a few global ice ages that rendered the earth inhabitable for a few million years at a time and there weren’t any man made pollutants.
Furthermore, the Earth is over 4.5 billion years old and consistent weather and temperature recordings did not begin until the late 1600’s. So, 400 years compared to 4.5 billion makes it seem rather insignificant. The fact is, we have no idea what the weather was like in the billions of years before we existed and therefore there is no telling whether the recent 50 year period of rising global temperatures is abnormal or not. This could have happened 10,000 times over and we would have no way of knowing!
So stop talking about how the ice caps are going to melt and the oceans are rising and blah blah blah about global warming. It’s a meaningless argument.
Well, then you think Al Gore is an idiot?
No, quite the opposite, Al Gore is a brave leader and a very intelligent man. I was very happy to see him receive the Nobel Peace Prize, no one in modern history has done more to raise awareness about the harmful affects our actions are placing on our environment and the desperate need to become a more eco-friendly society.
But he talks a lot about global warming, melting ice caps, etc. etc.
That is Al’s way of bringing attention to the subject, in quite a savvy way too, a movie, which engages society in the issue in an entertaining fashion, instead of being lectured and yelled at. People are much more receptive when they are not treated like idiots and are being entertained. Mr. Gore's fantastic political skills shine through with this issue because he was able deliver the message. His message and mine are the same: Stop polluting and work towards a more energy efficient and eco-friendly global society.
The problem Al ran into is Hollywood. When Hollywood got a hold of the term global warming, they went nuts. And trust me, as in politics, this can be more of a hindrance then a help. When zealous, idiotic actors start telling me how bad I am and how I need to do this and that, I tend to turn off to the subject, along with the rest of America.
This is my whole point. Let’s stop arguing over semantics. Let’s stop arguing over a theory that will never be proved in our children’s children’s children’s lifetime, let alone our own.
Instead, let’s just focus on what we agree on; we need to take care of our environment and we need to develop a more efficient energy infrastructure.
Smog: Bad
High gas prices: Bad
Polluted water: Bad
Waste accumulation: Bad
Being held hostage by foreign oil: Bad
Look how much we agree on!
So let’s work towards solving these problems, or at least try to alleviate them.
This is part of the point I made in my senior thesis, written for my 400 level “Human Impact on Environment” class, an excerpt:
“With all this recent attention given to the threat of global warming, governments around the world have been provoked to investigate not only the cause of this world wide increase in temperature, but more importantly, initiate an exploration into ways we can hinder the expansion of this potentially dangerous phenomenon. The true concern born from this exploration, especially in the United States, is the conclusion that we must begin developing sustainable, alternative energy sources that are exceptionally more efficient and most importantly, renewable. The fundamental issue concerning the United States today is eliminating its dependence on foreign oil not only due to the fact that oil reserves are being depleted worldwide but also the political concerns associated with doing business with the Middle East......arguably, automobiles are top priority in terms of utilizing alternative energy sources.”
In a few weeks I will present my answer to helping alleviate this energy crisis, pulling partially from this essay.
But the song remains the same, stop polluting and work toward creating a more energy efficient and eco-friendly global infrastructure.
2 comments:
Mr. Toombs,
This is by far the most meaningful blog post yet!! Kudos to you for really getting to the point of the problem. Based off the evidence, I personally do feel that global warming is occurring. However, I think you've touched on a very important point that should speak to people that do not feel this way. The only thing I disagree with in your blog entry is when you stated:
High Gas Prices = Bad
I realize this is how most people feel. However, I think that high gas prices will slowly start to help the problem in indirect ways.
1) People will start to think about becoming more energy efficient by using energy efficient vehicles, public transport, walking, or my personal favorite, RIDING A BIKE MORE OFTEN! There are probably 15 good reasons why people should ride bikes more often.
2) High Gas Prices will slow the economy. This sounds really bad, but it's our booming economy that is largely to blame for many of our environmental problems.
Anyways, great blog overall, keep up the good work.
I'm surprised you argue that global warming "doesn't matter." If that's how folks collectively define the need to refocus on sustainable alternatives, then fine. A proactive approach to making conscious decisions with the environment in mind is very much correlated to climate change, though.
Furthermore, the issue is deeper than temperature changes. I'm curious as to if your essay discusses the implications involved in activities traditionally correlated to global warming. For instance, coal as an energy source. Have you considered the the affects mountain-top removal has on communities in Appalachia?
And as far as gas prices go - well, at the surface, "tree huggers" (if you will) are excited about rising gas prices because of its potential ability to influence folks NOT to rely on their vehicles, but instead public transit, bicycles, etc. But it's a dichotomy; these are the thoughts of urban environmentalists who have ample access to public transit and high paying jobs. What about rural America? There was a great article on the front page of the NYT this past Monday - there are people having to choose between feeding their families and putting gasoline in their cars to get to work. I find that incredibly saddening, and astonishing at the same time.
A+ for raising the issue though...
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