Green Options

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Once upon a time, I came to a stop at the intersection of two country roads on the outskirts of Charlottesville, Virginia. Dutifully and lawfully stopped in my car, dutifully and lawfully looking both ways before turning, I happened to notice a scattering of plastic cigar tips on the pavement.

At first I was perplexed: Why would someone empty his or (less likely) her ashtray at an intersection? And why cigars?

But then my confusion turned to consternation. Here I was, stopped atop a pile of someone’s waste after having just driven over the mighty Rivanna River, with mountains and trees and blossoms and birds and blue sky virtually enveloping my senses, and now plastic cigar tips present themselves to my perception!

Alas, my heart sank like a stone in that roiling river I had just traversed.

Ever since that traumatic experience in an otherwise idyllic setting, the presence of human detritus has grown ever more prominent in my environmental awareness. Fast-food containers, plastic grocery bags, soda-pop bottles, sometimes even car parts—-here, there, everywhere, it seems that humanity is only visible in the things it has thrown away.

Almost everywhere nowadays, not just in my fairly rural locale, any patch of grass or stand of trees seems be a field of litter waiting for harvest.

But the farmers and the field hands seem to be sleeping in this season.

[Author’s Note: This is the second of a 2-part essay on this topic. Part 1, Toxic Avengers, was posted on Thursday.]

Part 2: Turning Down the Thermostat

So the most toxic fumes polluting our planet may be coming right out of our very own mouths, churned up by the fires scorching our very own hearts.

Now, with the ever worsening state of bad news, bad policy, bad economy, and bad moods, each existing and new threat to the Earth understandably throws a spark on environmentalists’ waiting tinder. Admittedly, it is so hard not harbor anger over some of the policies and practices of our current administration (as well as past administrations), or of big business around the world, or of our fellow citizens who seem to care more about horsepower than living, breathing horses.

Nevertheless, I am convinced that we must not give in to our anger by acting and speaking hatefully or violently. I ask, how does it feel, in your heart and in your entire body, when you are in the midst of a fit of seemingly “righteous indignation”? Is it any wonder that “ire” rhymes with “fire,” not to mention “pyre”—as in funeral pyre? (Yes, yes, think here of the Doors song…go on, sing it in your head….) And so whenever we speak or act motivated by this fire within, we pollute the planet with burning negativity…and burn ourselves in the process. The energy we generate has no moral distinctions; it simply flows out and has its effects, just as coal smoke and exhaust simply rise into the atmosphere and trap the sun’s heat.

This is the worst pollution in so many ways. According to James Lovelock’s “Gaia hypothesis,” the planet is one immense living being in which everything exists in a state of essential symbiosis. So if we imagine the Earth, Gaia, as a living body, then our hatred is like a gland releasing toxins into the bloodstream and so poisoning the entire system. In a healthy body, every single cell and every part of every cell functions with the others in order to maintain homeostasis, so that the entire being is one vast system of mutual support at all levels. By contrast, some of the most debilitating conditions involve parts of the body attacking each other, as happens in the various auto-immune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, and celiac disease.

We are at a point now where we must rely upon the love and compassion we feel for the life of our planet. We must let this love be our motivation as we strive to make changes in our individual lives, in the lives of those around us, and in the laws that govern society.

[Author’s Note: This is the first of a 2-part essay on this topic. Part 2 will be posted on Friday.]

Part 1: Toxic Avengers

The imperiled state of our planet seems to be growing more obvious by the day. It seems that a newfound ecological cognizance, if not Aldo Leopold’s “ecological conscience,” has been virtually enforced across the globe. (Sadly, America seems to be stuck at the back of class in so many ways….)

While I have tried diligently to educate myself on all fronts, mostly I am a very keen student of nature–whose classroom does not sit at the top of an ivory tower and to which everyone, every thing, is welcome. And nowadays, although the sunrises and sunsets often leave me speechless, and although the seasons still circle round me in their ancient dance, I feel as though the circle has become a downward spiral. I sense something suddenly happening in nature akin to what William Butler Yeats describes in “The Second Coming”:

Editor’s note: You may take a look at Justin’s bio and think “Oh, no! Not another English Ph.D.!” Yep, we definitely found ourselves with a lot in common when he applied to write for Green Options Media. But I invited Justin to join us not because of his sterling academic credentials (though they are impressive); rather, I really enjoyed the essay-style pieces he submitted as samples (which were written for radio). Please welcome Justin on board!

You often hear that the first step to overcoming an addiction is to admit you have a problem. Well, I admit to being…an environmentalist. I admit that just one glimpse of the bluetiful Blue Ridge Mountains, just one note of the Rivanna River’s murmured melody, turns my blood from red to blue and green. I hug trees. I go cuckoo for birds. I recycle. I drive a hybrid. So yes: I am an environmentalist.

But I understand that not everyone else suffers from my addiction or even sympathizes with my condition. This resistance to environmentalism was brought home to me recently during one of the composition courses I teach. After asking my students to write on the topic of “Humanity’s responsibility for the Earth,” one of them first commented quite extensively on how humans impact the environment. And then: “But I’m still not buying a Prius.”

I recognized underneath my student’s comment the belief that in order to do something good for the planet, she had to spend lots of money she did not have or want to spend, lots of time she did not have or want to spend, lots of energy she did not have or want to spend, or lots of thought she…well, you get my point. This myth that being environmentally responsible is just downright too costly and complicated in numerous ways is perhaps the most pervasive.

Yogi Berra once said, “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” It’s just as important to know why you want to get there. Writing an essay about what you believe will help you identify the values that motivate you to achieve your goals and enable you to share those values with others.

Our beliefs underpin our everyday decisions and determine how we interact

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