|
SustainableMiddleClass.com |
|||
|
|
|||
Environmental Quality: Lessons
from Gardens and Clotheslines
|
|
Oval House by Hannah Freeland
Hannah's art evokes so many wonderful ideas. I love
the way everything emanates from the sun. The house is an egg, nature's cradle
of life. The little structures suggest the organelles of a cell, an integrated
homeostatic support system. The tree is connected to the cloud, as science
tells us, through transpiration and the water cycle. The squiggles and flowers
on the house remind us of the ultimate human need for aesthetics, that the
notion to create beauty, health, safety, and functionality exists in the hearts
and minds of children.
The gardener learns about bugs: "good
bugs" and "bad bugs". Funny how the bad bugs are almost all
vegetarians. She may learn about nutrients and fertilizers and weeds, and may
come to understand why pesticides were invented - and may even learn how to do
without them, or at least how to do with less.
The humble clothesline, obviously is
"powered" by two renewable energy sources: sun and wind. It's
operation doesn't require digging coal from the mountains, or drilling oil from
all the places that get drilled for oil, doesn't require the difficult process
of the nuclear fuel cycle, doesn't require burial of nuclear waste for tens of
thousands of years or the occupation of desert nations in the Middle East. It
fills our shirts and sheets with the good smell of the summer wind.
Once asked what the average person could do
to prevent the relentless destruction of the environment, E.F. Schumaker
replied, "plant a tree." Still good advice to which we can add: grow
some of your own food, and use a clothesline.
______________________________________________________________
There are some very good gardeners around who
might punch you if you called them an "environmentalist." The term
has become politicized and for some, practically demonized. I actually prefer
the term "conservationist." If you go to college and learn about the
"environmental movement," you'll probably learn that it all started
in the 1960's with Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. That was an important
book that, at minimum, brought the DDT pesticide issue into the cultural
mainstream.
There were some fine environmental writers in
the 19th Century. Thoreau's Walden, Longfellow's Peace in Acadia, The works of
Charles Darwin, John Wesley Powell, T.C. Chamberlain, G.K Gilbert, John Muir
and so many others made huge contributions to what we know about natural
processes. More about them as this site grows.
Awareness of environmental quality is a
fundamental aspect of survival. As long as people have hunted and gathered
food, and sought shelter, they needed to be keenly aware of their environment
just to survive another day. This has never been truer than now, as society
places increasing demands on the environment.
In the coming months, we'll look at issues
surrounding Energy, Food, Water, Air, Soil, Biodiversity: six aspects of
Environmental Quality.
Copyright © 2005-2008
sustainablemddleclass.com. All Rights Reserved.
Keywords: environmental quality, backyard ecology, community supported agriculture, locally grown food