Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Living With All Species

Trees in my backyard.
If we listen to the land we will know what to do. The metaphors are there. The actual facts are there.
    - Terry Tempest Williams

I often wonder what our world would look like if humans weren’t the only ones making decisions. What if bear, trees, mountains, lakes, insects also had a voice? They live in our communities. They share the air, water, and land, and they are impacted by every decision we make, most often negatively. You’re probably rolling  your eyes thinking that I’ve finally gone off the deep end. But think about it. Development is everywhere, both business and residential, often moving into former fields and forests. We’re building on virtually every available lake shore and condominiums are sprouting up the sides of mountains to provide ski-from-your-front-door access (assuming there’s any snow). Existing regulations don’t seem to be doing much to stem the overall loss of habitat for the nonhuman creatures sharing the Earth with us.
    Too many of us have become so oblivious to the needs of wildlife that its presence is often seen as a nuisance or danger rather than a treasured encounter. And to me there’s nothing quite as sad as seeing a wild animal obviously confused because what was woods a few weeks ago is now a barren, sandy waste intended for development. It seems we have forgotten that the Earth is finite – it isn’t going to get any bigger because we want more of something. As I see it, the undeveloped forests and fields we have left here in Maine and northern New England are as endangered as polar bears, and if we aren’t careful they will become extinct just like that precious icon of the Arctic.
    Many years ago, when I was writing my first book, Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered, I took my yellow-lined pad down into the woods to a human-made pond fed by a brook that ran behind the property of the Institute for Gaian Economics in Worthington, MA, which I directed. My task was to articulate the principles of a Gaian, or Earth-centered, economy. My publisher was waiting and so the pressure was on. I knew that if I sat quietly, the land would speak to me and I would have the “information” I needed to complete my book. I was not disappointed. Of course the land didn’t dictate to me. It was up to me to observe and intuit the deeper meaning of what I saw. And what I saw was the importance of scale -- a bigger disturbance would have been more difficult or perhaps impossible for the brook and surrounding woods to incorporate without damage to the system as a whole. I observed cooperation among species although I doubt they thought of it that way. I lost myself in the beauty and harmony of the place and the atmosphere of peace and well-being that pervaded the land there. Appropriate scale, cooperation, harmony, balance – these were the qualities I observed that could form the foundation of a Gaian Economy. So I did my best to put words around this framework, one of the first to do so although many, most with degrees, have moved the concept of ecological economics far beyond my 1985 book.
    So now I ask, how can we give nonhuman species a voice in our deliberations? Not literally obviously, but can we go above and beyond what regulations require of us? Can we bring our caring about the world our grand children will inherit into the discussion? Can we remember how it feels to be in the wild far from human influence, and value this enough to ensure that the wild always remains? Currently it seems we do the bare minimum necessary. Additional considerations given to the Earth or the creatures who share it with us are often seen as too costly. This is especially true of larger corporations who will make communities pay dearly using the legal system to push projects through even against the wishes of local residents.
    This area is growing by leaps and bounds. “Land for sale” and “building lot” signs are sprouting everywhere. Long time residents are often hard pressed to pay increasingly exorbitant property taxes, forcing some to sell to developers. It’s sad and it is forever changing the landscape we have come to love. We are fast losing a way of life, and a human culture, that served many generations well. In return we receive money and a depleted ecosystem. Is it worth it?

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