How to tread as lightly as we can...yes, how?

(this is quite a long post, but I hope you'll stay with it and give some feedback from questions at the bottom!)

Before New York -Rediscovering the Wilderness of 1609 by Peter Miller

This is the title page article that has beckoned me for several days now, from the September 2009 issue of National Geographic. I guess I'm predisposed to gravitating toward such an article because I'm a history nut, especially this sort of anthropological history, which takes an educated stab at what Manhattan looked like 400 years ago. By using a map made by the British Army dating back to the Revolutionary War, and by taking one animal, the beaver, which happened upon the banks of the Bronx River in 2007 after years of restoration, one ecologist and a huge team of people were able to weave together an ecosystem where the beaver both depended on and was depended upon for food, shelter, water, trees, and many other animals, insects and elements. The artist - well, ecologist, -who spawned this idea of finding out what Manhattan looked like before too many people came, was able to come up with a virtual look at a wild Manhattan - a lovely forest with animals and trees that once had potential to be a park on par with Yellowstone.

What stood out to me the most about this article was this thing called the Muir web. "Consider a beaver that lived at Times Square in 1609. If you grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him out of the web, you'd find lines connecting him to a slowly meandering stream, to the aspen trees he ate, and to the mud and twigs he used to build a lodge. Not only that, you'd also find lines to the bobcats, bears and wolves that depended on him as prey and to the frogs, fish, and aquatic plants that lived in the pond he helped to create. 'The beaver, it turns out, is a landscape architect, just like people...You need him to flood the forest, which kills the trees that attract the woodpeckers that knock out cavities that wood ducks use for shelter.' Lifting a beaver out of the web disrupts cores of other residents which demonstrates how important it can be to think about an ecosystem as a network."

After reading this I began to think about what it would be like if someone in my "network" were lifted up out of this particular ecosystem. Individually, I thought, we may not have too much of a physical impact. For example, if I were lifted up out of this ecosystem, the environmental impact might not make too much difference - the air conditioner would still hum, the water would still run, gas and electricity in my house would still be used. I don't drive all that much, but that would be slightly lessened...you get my drift here. The husband, wife, father, mother of a household contributes different things to the survival of that unit, be it food, money, shelter, keeping the house clean, laundry clean, whatever. Ok. That said, we all know the bigger impact of an individual loss is the emotional one, even when the fallout affects other aspects of one's life. So it's interesting for me to think the same way about an actual ecosystem, like that of Mannahatta (Lenape people's name for Manhattan meaning "island of many hills" according to NG) 400 years ago, as individual species slowly died off in favor of infrastructure, people, "progress", growth, etc...a smaller picture of what is going on worldwide today. So what here is the emotional impact of our environmental destruction? A tree, for example, may continue to grow in the worst smog, drought, or poor-soil environment, but will that tree be as strong and healthy as a similar tree in a clean-air, soil-rich, healthy environment? Of course not - though they both may continue to grow at a similar rate. The effects of the environment on that first tree may be unseen, perhaps the seeds may be altered in some way though, and that will affect the way the next tree grows from that seed. This perhaps is the psychological equivalent to a child growing up in a family that doesn't function well or doesn't love the child.

In the way that invasive, non-native species often take over a piece of land, choking out native species and all the intricate, woven lives that surround them, we too, as a people are doing this at an alarming rate, causing so many different kinds of impacts we cannot possibly foresee. So what can we do? People, for now at least, are here to stay. A non-native species is invasive, as we are. My only thought is to come up with some life guidelines for treading lightly on this earth we call home in order to have the least impact with the homes that each of us live in.

Tread lightly.

Use the earth you have wisely.

Use the conveniences you have wisely.

Love your children as though they are the very seeds you plant for survival.

These are so general and I would love to hear what each of you have to say about this. Aside from the extremes like Low-Impact Man, what thoughts can you come up with that contribute to a general life set of guidelines for creating the least impact while still living where you are (meaning, I don't think too many people are willing to live in a Manhattan apartment without using electricity like Low-Impact Man)? And also, what are you doing that is "extreme" or out of the norm for where you live - or anywhere, for that matter?

-genny

by the way, if you want to see what NYC looked like from some random street 400 years ago, visit the Mannahatta Project here.

Some Mother's Child, Pennies for Peace, Changing Priorities

Last night, after watching the dvd Slumdog Millionaire, (for those who haven't seen it, there is a small spoiler ahead) I told my husband that I felt that one of the reasons the young man loved the young woman so much was because he'd known her since he was a child and she connected him to that time when his mother was still alive. I probably wouldn't have noticed this if I weren't a mom, but since having Tristan almost 29 months ago, my point of view on many things has changed.

There was a time when I didn't care to donate money to any group except environmental groups. I feel that the earth should be our number one priority because we are taking up space on it, infecting it with too many people and raping its resources. All the environmental catastrophes that are occurring are a result of these and earth's way of saying "Enough!" I still feel this way, but since having Tristan, I have seen his face in so many different faces and so I also feel now that it is beneficial to help people - especially children. Everyone is some mother's son or daughter and I have to assume that some mother felt about each person I see the same way I feel about Tristan. Admittedly, it is easier to feel sympathy or empathy for someone who is in need than some jerk who cuts you off. But sometimes anger turns to compassion because you start to think, "Maybe they didn't have a mom who loved them." I have become a complete mush ball, I think.

If children grow up loved then they will in turn love, and if they grow up educated, the hope - for me- is that they will not continue to poison the earth. After reading Three Cups of Tea last October, I sent off for some information about the organization Pennies for Peace. Three Cups of Tea is the book about a mountaineer who got lost in the mountains in Pakistan and was helped by a small village of people, without whom he probably would not have survived. He vowed to come back and help them build a school, and it was hard, but he did. Since then many more have been built. That sums it up in a very small nutshell. Pennies for Peace is an off-shoot from the Central Asia Institute, the main organization that helps finance all of the building.

I started collecting pennies (and dimes and nickels) around Christmas and am still putting them in my little container. At some point this year I'll take it to the bank and get a check for Pennies for Peace. What Pennies for Peace does is educate children about other children around the world. It was started by children here in the U.S. raising pennies to send to Afghanistan and Pakistan to help build schools and educate mainly young women. According to what I read through Pennies for Peace and Central Asia Institute, studies have shown that when you educate a young woman in remote Pakistan or Afghanistan, she is more likely to return to her village and use her education in a way that helps her village, whereas young men are more likely to leave and not necessarily return. Anyway, Pennies for Peace is an organization for children by children, so I'm doing it in Tristan's name. Take a look at the websites because it's a great cause. All this talk about erradicating terrorism, well, Afghanistan is where that's at and educating kids there is probably the best way to weed out future terrorists. Politicians take note.

I'm not doing justice to these organizations and all the good they've done. Certainly don't take my word for it, check it out yourself or for your kids. If you're anything like me your priorites have probably changed since you had kids. I'd heard motherhood would do that. I just didn't know how much.

Going green gradually

clothes hanging near tricycle

It is raining now, in Northern California, and these showers are greatly needed. The old adage goes, "April showers bring May flowers," but I can't help but think of how this will bring on more mosquitoes as well. Uplifting, I know, but last night at the play park, my son was attacked by mosquitoes. So were we, but I just saw him standing there surrounded by monstrous mosquitoes.

At the zoo a few days ago, I was looking at a display about how frogs are disappearing and dying off because of so many pollutants that contaminate our environment. Their skin is apparently too thin to withstand the onslaught of everything that we put out there. The question is then asked, if all the frogs disappear, what will become of their predators and their prey?

Indeed, what? And that is why I am picturing these mosquitoes. I am wondering if something has become of their predators...larger insects, small amphibians and what not, perhaps dying due to some environmental pollutant? Am I contributing to this in any way? If so, how can I change that action to something positive? I have said before that my son, god-willing, will live another 80 some-odd years on this planet, and already I can see the difference in our local environment since my own childhood. Hotter summers and more mosquitoes are just the tip of the iceberg. Change from us as individuals needs to happen quickly, before that see-saw has tipped too far in the wrong direction. Slowly but surely, I am making changes. I can only hope that everyone else is too.

I have two great sites I visit regularly. One is the blog (listed on My Blog List in the sidebar as well) of my friend , Cheryl, called The Well-Rounded Child. Cheryl is a wonderful advocate and resource for changing your ways and going green gradually. This post of hers called, "Why Greenify?" has wonderful info on basic steps to take on changing our ways when it comes to food, household cleaners and body products. Also on my sidebar under "Places I Like To Go In Digi-land" is Healthy Child, Healthy World -go here and click on the "5 Steps" box to see what you can do in your own home to make some changes. It is also a great resource.

My next project is to see how much I can do with vinegar!