I wanted to put together some pages about environmentalism, since I believe I have some sympathy for many of the causes under that broad umbrella.
What I envisioned at first was a list of what I considered to be the chief environmental problems (such as pollution, overpopulation, loss of wilderness, etc.), together with pointers to net resources that depicted and explained the problems and groups that concerned themselves with the problem in question. Perhaps these would be tied together with some short essays.
But when I went looking for such things on the net, I couldn't find much. Mostly what I could find was a vast welter of rather narrow special interest groups which had little more to offer on their pages than, perhaps, excerpts from their newsletters and instructions on how to contribute. One looks largely in vain for hard information and data that portrays the nature and scope of the problems with which each group is concerned.
Even harder to find was anything that attempted to explain or persuade how and why the issues with which the groups are concerned actually merit serious attention. It is assumed, I suppose, that anyone who bothers to access the pages of, say, the Earth Island Institute, already is "committed" to their cause, and doesn't need to be told why.
This is a mistake, of course, as any number of indications can attest. The primary indication is obviously the widespread legislative attack on environmental causes and the ineffective response of the environmental movement - despite the fact that polls show most people consider themselves in favor of environmentalist goals. At the very best, the Web pages of most environmental groups communicate only to the already committed, and do almost nothing to draw in the overwhelming majority.
In short, the messages being put out on the net today by most environmental groups are very shallow. One has the impression of a lake hundreds of miles wide, but only inches deep.
This would not be so bad, since even today only a small percentage of the population is really tuned into the net. However, roughly the same phenomenon is evident in all other pubic media where most of the population get their information (if, indeed, they are still really interested in getting information at all). The main exception, and not a very large one, is to be found in the magazines and journals of a few of the larger environmental orgamizations, such as the Audobon Society and the Sierra Club.
Although sizeable majorities in the population seem sympathetic to environmental causes, they really have little available to them that builds and reinforces this sympathy to the point that they demand pro-environmental action from their legislatures. And even committed members of one or another environmental group are lacking motivators to contribute more in time, energy, and resources.
In short, we seem to have forgotten why we became environmentalists in the first place, and we are always in need of reminders.
I happened, recently, to turn to a series of books on my shelves published by the Sierra Club in the 60's. They are only paperbacks (which was all I could afford at the time), but they are well-made and still handsome books. (Even though the red dyes have faded from many of the color pictures.) They have poetic names like Time and the River Flowing and "In Wildness is the Preservation of the World" (a quote from Thoreau).
These books consist of wonderful photographs and carefully selected text. Some volumes contain the words of just one writer, like Thoreau or Robinson Jeffers or John Muir. Others contain excerpts from a variety of authors such as Loren Eiseley, Wallace Stegner, and Joseph Wood Krutch. But in all cases the combination of words and images forcefully communicate the message about what is essential to protect in the natural world.
I suspect that books like this, though not the only reason of course, had a lot to do with the striking legislative success that the environmental movement enjoyed in the later 60's and throughout the 70's (during the age of Nixon, in fact). They made it very clear not only what needed to be done but (much more importantly) why.
The Sierra Club could do worse things today with its dwindling resources than to republish this series for the mass market. Of course, essays in some of the volumes were addressed to environmental issues of 30 years ago, such as Glen Canyon (which was lost) or old growth redwoods (some of which were spared in the Redwood National Park). While it is good to remember old battles, there is an even stronger need to attend to the present ones, like the new Death Valley National Park and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In light of all this, I think my original conception of some Web pages that would simply pull together facts and figures that support various environmental goals was misguided. Such are needed at some point, if only as talking points and legislative lobbying tools. But they are too left-brained and lack the power to truly convince.
Instead, we need affective images, poetry, and charmed prose that speaks on the emotional level. Although I make no claims for their intrinsic worth, I have already created some pages on photography and nature quotations which, I hope, at least illustrate the sort of thing which is needed. And I expect to add quite a few more images.
I do not mean to be a detractor of the Web pages that have been created by so many environmental organizations. A large number of them give evidence of much time and effort. If environmentalism is of interest to you, by all means seek them out. And please let me know by email if you are have seen pages that are especially effective - particularly if they are designed to communicate on the emotional level, as I have discussed above.
Anyhow, here are some of the pages I have liked best:
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