The environment is where you live. It doesn't matter if you are a hamster or a human. Most of the noise we hear on the news today though seems to revolve around some idealized sense of what environment is. The mind conjures up pictures of pristine natural woodland scenes with Bambi bouncing through the grass. Most of us however, who live in the city, may never even see such a picturesque example of gem quality babbling brooks where that dear drinks. Yet we are still included.
When I think of environment or someone who calls them self an environmentalist I have a bunch of canned, media created notions, of people chaining themselves to trees and bulldozers, carted off to jail by the bus load, getting a mugshot on the 6 o-cock news, and a labeled as an environmental terrorist.
The thing is those people are not necessarily environmentalists they are activists. The biggest advocates for the environment that I know of are much less marketable.
They are the hunters that follow their local guidelines for the species they hunt, and the fishermen that keep their catch only if it falls within the legal limits. (no matter how slow the day's fishing has been) These are the folks who are out there beyond the streets and traffic, seeing more than the trash on the shoulders of the highway. They have a vested interest in keeping our resources available and viable to pass on to our children. But even then, if all the fish were caught and deer shot, wouldn't the earth go on anyway? Sure, we would hear a loud public outcry about things not being regulated properly and heads would, no doubt, roll. But in the end the complaints would come due to our own since of loss. We only have a concern in our "environment" so far as it affects us personally.
If I never saw a landfill what are the odds I would think about buying products with as little packaging as possible? If I don't go fishing and see a bird trapped by someone's discarded tangle of fishing line, how motivated would I be to make sure I dispose of mine properly, or pick up knots of it I see on the dock? It's the image in my memory that prompts me to think of these things, I don't want to live around a bunch of stinky garbage, or see a huge bird hung in a mass of fishing line, so for my own sake I act.
Finding yourself concerned over degrading conditions around you makes you an environmentalist. Picking up a beer can someone threw in your yard in a moment of drunken revelry makes you and environmentalist. Just not wanting to sit in a stinky living room and getting up and doing something about it makes you an environmentalist.
You are not required to join a club or put a bumper sticker on your car. Nor do you have to chain yourself to anything, become irrationally angry, or smell like a 17th century chamber maid. All that is really necessary is that you care about the condition in which you and those around you live. Maybe doing a little to make some improvements where you can. If we all do a little, together we can do a lot.
But if I don't do something who will. Wouldn't it be delusional if I were to act like I don't notice, or realize the impact of my actions? Can I really go through life with the idea everything is going to be alright if I don't want the inconvenience of doing what I can to make it alright?
Fantasy allows me to say I expect there to be some convenient method of handling all my problems. I imagine there should be some magic that makes my garbage disappear in the middle of the night. (not disturbing my peaceful slumber too early in the morning either) because, " I don't have time to think about these things, besides there is someone working on this problem already anyway so why should I bother?"
There is city vote about putting in a new landfill in my backyard but I already have too much going on. I don't think I can make it. After all "someone else" is already dealing with the problem, aren't they?
Have you noticed lately there are a bunch of new birds in the area that weren't here before. Seagulls and crows and vulchers. See there's new habitat for all this wildlife, all those environmental folks didn't think about that now did they?
Hey, there are even a few new furry critters running around my backyard at night that weren't there before. Oh and by the way, do you smell something?
Hey, there are even a few new furry critters running around my backyard at night that weren't there before. Oh and by the way, do you smell something?
Now I'm worried about my environment!!! Does that make me... environmental?
