Environmentalism I don't understand the huge gulf between the terms "conservative" and "conservationist". I don't understand why experts at making money are so ignorant, generally, of the cost to humanity and the planet at large of this ruthless insatiable exploitation of what in cosmic terms is a very small place indeed. Economies can not expand indefinitely on this finite planet, any more than population can. Limits will be reached. Some of us are trying now to minimize the damage we all are causing to this natural home of ours, and we're branded as radicals. It is economically unsound to plunder the planet for a little bit of money, unless you don't care about anything but your immediate gratification. A society based on greed cannot survive indefinitely: it's physically, statistically impossible. So stop now. Lawns are bad: THE LAWN FETISH Now a little botany quiz: How do those big showy flowers disperse their pollen? By animal carriers like bees and beetles and nectar-eating bats. How do grasses disperse _their_ pollen? By wind. So between grasses and what we call flowers, meaning the plants with big showy flowers, which pollen is more likely to get up your nose? That's right, grass pollen. But people think flowers will make them sneeze. So we just put flowers on the borders of these vast expanses of trimmed grass-leaves called lawns, and we take out the whole ecosystem that was there before, including all the wild flowers. Without them, many insects go hungry and disappear, making the animals that eat them also disappear- those that escape the lawnmower blades, that is. And it's not just flowers. Where I live now, in the New Jersey pinelands, blueberries thrive in the woods, but developers take them out and put in lawns under the few trees they leave standing, when they're not putting houses up on perfectly good farmland, and the people that buy the houses either have no idea what was there before or consider any plant that's not bought in a store to not belong on their property. Somehow the American Dream has come to include having your very own strip of green turf to water and fertilize, only to have the mown clippings-- the biomass product of all this care-- carted away to the municipal dump, or if you're lucky, the municipal compost pile, ready for other people to come help themselves to. So the lawns must continually be fertilized to replace what's thrown away. Some homeowners are smart and mulch their own grass clippings, but many of them still keep the lawn trimmed with mowers that pollute more than the worst SUV or luxury sedan. Some buy electric mowers, and if their utility company is forward-thinking, those things are powered by renewable energy like wind, water or solar power. Or even biomass incineration or methane production, fueled partly by grass clippings! Scott used to make great push-mowers which eliminate the pollution problem and also double as exercise devices, but they've been discontinued in favor of these flimsy new ones which don't have the heft to generate any blade momentum. If you scour the thrift shops, though, you might come across a nice old one for five bucks like I did. (I don't use it now, though, since I have no lawn at all. Five acres and no lawn; imagine that. Only blueberries, bracken and mountain laurel among the trees.) On top of this, there's now a craze for _ornamental_ grasses! No flowers with any nectar for bees, no fruits for animals, and plenty of pollen to go up your nose! Yes you too can make your place look like the Argentine Pampas. Only $29.99. Meanwhile Buffalo-grass and other native tall grasses that could just as easily be your ornamental choices, are not offered for sale. Don't misunderstand me: I like the look of a greensward as much as anyone and I love golf, baseball and other lawn sports; but people waste water in deserts so they can have lawns, they pump chemicals into their lawns that leach into the water table and kill things, and they reduce the biomass production capacity in areas that could support mature forests, impoverishing the whole planet. Think: is a cactus garden really any less appealing than a lawn in Arizona? There are communities here and there that are combating this lawn mania by requiring native vegetation to be used, and the National Wildlife Federation [www.nwf.org] has a Backyard Habitat Program that helps people make their properties more attractive to wildlife. But there are many more communities that actually have lawn laws such that a homeowner _must_ maintain a certain area as a lawn and _must_ keep it mowed to a certain height, or risk a fine. These laws need to be fought one by one at the local level. The beauty of nature needs to be taught to most people. The North American Native Plant Society [www.nanps.org] can guide you to a local organization that can tell you what plants are native to your area and where you can obtain them. One little mail-order nursery I've found is Pine Ridge Gardens in Arkansas [www.pineridgegardens.com]. They sell a lot of native species; they list which of their plants are native and to where; they're sensitive to the problem of nurseries digging up wild plants for sale; they pack their shipments with care and include bonus gift plants; they print their catalog on plain paper, not that wasteful glossy stuff that most companies use. If anyone reading this knows of other native-friendly nurseries, email me about them. Even if you do keep your lawn, why is it that so few people in Suburbia grow any food plants on their properties? The amount of energy they spend on their lawns is at least equal to what a little garden would require. Is wartime the only appropriate time for citizens to grow their own food?? (For those too young to remember or who haven't been told, Victory Gardens were encouraged during World War Two so the troops wouldn't go hungry having to split the food with us civilians. They also made steel pennies so the copper could be saved for bombshells.) Tomatoes are great for the prostate: every man should have a few vines. Grapes are good for the heart: everyone with well-drained soil should have an arbor. Farms are turning into developments everywhere: what about towns buying them in co-op style and having the residents grow crops on them? Not for profit: for the fun and pleasure of it. It would keep a lot of kids out of trouble if they had some tomato or grape vines to keep care of. Just a thought. Here's what we need to do: 1) bring nature back to our properties (see NWF's Backyard Habitat Program) 2) protect what we can from development (Nature Conservancy's mission) 3) have fewer children (see Population Connection). If we do Number Three, many of our other problems will just vanish. Replacement childbirth rate is 2.1 children per mother, so if we just have two children each we will eventually reverse the population explosion. But we have political and religious leaders who still think there's no population problem. Those of us within those organizations need to change that attitude if we want our great-grandchildren to enjoy the world in a state even close to the already badly degraded one we've put it in. Think before you buy. Orange Roughy and "Chilean Sea Bass" take a hundred years to mature, but we're harvesting them as if they were sardines that reproduce in one year. Foreign companies can now sell tuna with a "dolphin safe" label on the can even though they still catch dolphins with their tuna. Shrimp not caught by American trawlers don't have to use Turtle Exclusion Devices (TEDs)on their nets, but because of international trade laws we can't refuse to import them, so unless you know where your shrimp came from you may be helping exterminate sea turtles every time you buy shrimp. _And_ last year I learned that the standard size for a TED is too small for an adult Leatherback turtle to pass through! The boats in Charleston, SC, at least, now all have the "plus size" TEDs installed, but I don't know about the rest of the fleet. Long line fishing kills albatross as well as sea turtles, yet there's no law to regulate its use. We should develop a taste for catfish and other farmed species, and stop destroying wetlands which is where many fish we eat come to spawn. We "reclaim" all this coastal land and then wonder what happened to the fish! Demand less packaging. By avoiding buying things packaged in nonrecyclable containers and by composting vegetable matter, I have reduced my trash output to about one large plastic bag every six months. This is mostly made up of shrink-wrap and other pieces of plastic. Thus I'm appalled at the statistical amount of garbage the average American generates. Also remember that plastic is not truly recyclable since it can't be reused for the same purpose, such as a soda bottle, and eventually it disintegrates, if it doesn't end up in a landfillÐ and most plastics are infused with amounts of heavy metals to keep their shape, and these eventually leach out. Also, the making of plastics involves the byproduction of many horrible compounds like PCBs and dioxin. The reason so much stuff is wrapped in plastic is that it's cheaper to transport due to its light weight. Thus recycling plastics is not the answer: reverting to glass and metal containers is much more responsible. If you have a choice of buying something in glass or plastic, buy the glass version. If enough of us do it, Corporate Central will take notice. Demand more recycled paper. I consider it a crime for a company to kill a tree to make something I wipe my behind with. There are brands of tissue products in health food stores made from 100% recycled paper. In bigger chain stores, brands like Marcal feature varying percentages. Read the package, and pay attention to how much of the recycled content is post-consumer. The part that isn't is simply scraps that have been swept up from the factory floor that previously would have been discarded but now can be called recycled because instead of throwing it out they've found a use for it, but it's not recycled since it never left the factory in the first place. Remember, it's up to us the consumers to make corporations behave responsibly, because government is generally bought by those companies and is thus disinclined to piss them off by enacting regulation legistlation, unless We the People push for it. Contributions to most environmental charities is tax-deductible, meaning you can divert some of your tax dollars away from Uncle Sam and toward organizations fighting to preserve what we can of this little globe we're on. If you have to pay the taxes anyway, send them somewhere where you know what they'll be used for, and not used for. The Population Connection The Nature Conservancy Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics The Jane Goodall Institute Earthjustice Natural Resources Defense Council National Wildlife Federation Friends of the Earth Greenpeace The Sierra Club