I tend to avoid Facebook because if Facebook is anything to go by, then the world is doomed. The environment trashed beyond repair and humanity beyond redemption. That we have no hope ever to undo the damage that we have done to the Earth, for our very efforts to heal the planet may end up only causing more damage down the road.
That message was inspired by my friend’s Facebook post, which proves that the way to hell is paved with good intentions, certainly the case with a recent discovery in the Antarctic.
In ‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Building Up in the Artic- and Likely Worldwide,’ Annie Sneed reveals that efforts to mitigate climate change have led to potentially disastrous environmental consequences. Non-biodegradable chemical compounds used by industrial manufacturers are beginning to build up within the Arctic at an alarming rate. Ironically, these compounds were a replacement for ozone-damaging chemical compounds.
Most concerning is the fact these chemicals were able to make their way into a landscape as remote as inaccessible as Antarctica. A grim warning that it is more than likely that these compounds have begun to build up in other parts of the world as well. Only time will tell if these compounds do more harm to the environment than they already have.
Upon reading this article, I couldn’t help but nod in agreement with my friends’ comment; “@$^#&! Can’t we have just one positive success story! Now even the Montreal Protocol and ozone layer repair get an asterisk. Everything everywhere is awful. There’s so much damage to repair”.
There is so much damage to repair. One of the most accurate and heartfelt sentiments I have ever heard.
Humanity is living within an unprecedented time. NASA has documented that climate change has led the global temperature to climb by about 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1980s, an insignificant number at first glance. It is irrelevant until one discovers that this seemingly-insignificant temperature increase has led to the decline of polar ice caps by 12.85 percent each decade.
The planet’s biodiversity is declining at a frightening rate; scientists predict that more than half of all plants and animals alive on Earth today will be extinct or threatened with extinction by 2050. The ever-encroaching sprawl of urban development has no end in sight, aiding in the loss of valuable habitat and natural areas.
Aldo Leopold wrote that “the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds”. When faced with all of these different environmental challenges, it is easy to see why so many people get overwhelmed—discouraged even.
How can we not become disheartened when the solutions put in place end up adding new threats to the environment? Especially when faced with the question of where individual responsibility and responsibility as a society begin. How do you inspire someone to care about the environment, and to take action to help mitigate environmental destruction when it feels as though any single step is meaningless?
It can be like a drop in the bucket if only one person stops pursuing an environmentally harmful activity (i.e., buying non-recyclable materials) when the rest of the world continues down the same path.
No environmental threat our planet is suffering from can be solved overnight. Nor are there secure solutions to offer up to offset the capitalistic cost society reaps upon the land. Nevertheless, that does not mean that humanity should give up. We must keep on trying to offset the environmental damage that we have inflicted. Nor does it mean that there is no hope for conservation.
We need to change our perception of the environment. We have to be willing to see ourselves as part of the environmental community, not separate from it. There can be no successful conservation effort unless we, as a society, find a way to intertwine the natural world with the artificial world of modern-day civilization.
That is why I have spent the last two years pursuing a career in habitat restoration and ecosystem mitigation. Habitat restoration gives me a physical, tangible way to try and repair the damage to the environment.
By removing invasive species, planting native plants, and acting as a caretaker for the environment, I keep the principles of Leopold’s Land Ethic alive. I can remind myself that because I am a part of the ecological community I inhabit, that I am also responsible for finding a solution to the environmental conflicts that arise.
I certainly hope that my profession helps to inspire other people to think about what they can do to help repair environmental damage. It is the first thought within my mind when someone approaches me at work to ask what exactly I am doing.
Every time that does happen, I have an opportunity to try and inspire people to take action and participate in other habitat restoration activities—a chance to give people a sense of possibility and hope. One person alone cannot heal the wounded Earth, but a group of ten, fifty, or one hundred people, can begin to help the land recover.
My friend’s Facebook post is a reminder that even when solutions cause more problems than they fix, that does not mean they failed. It merely means that we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to fight to find new solutions to help heal the environment. We have to keep looking forward, for the sake of our children’s future.
If, as the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is fifty years ago, environmental action is the same. The best time to mitigate ecological damage is fifty years ago, so why wait? Let us begin healing the wounded Earth.
