Why it’s lonely being green
FROM THE DAILY GREEN: Being green can be lonely. As a botanist and urban conservation biologist, I fancy myself a real eco-type: preserving open space and restoring rare plant populations, what could be greener than that? Yet in the environmental community at large, I feel like an outsider.
Apprising people of my line of work, the response is either puzzled looks or inquiries about a certain stubborn mildew on prized garden roses. People no longer know what a botanist does, which is study plants in the wild. The current green conversation gushes over emerging technologies and new design. It is enthralled with the latest eco-iteration (“Is your pen good enough for the planet?”) and focused on calculating carbon footprints. This focus on “modern” and “cutting edge” ignores the history of the movement and leaves me feeling like I exist in backwater, a quaint and irrelevant anachronism. Where, in this discussion, is nature? After all, doesn’t the color green come from good ol’ chlorophyll?
Tags: biodiversity, botany, green movement, outside
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Comments I’ve received since this was published are below. Email me to tell me what you think!
From Ryan in Brooklyn
I totally agree… our daily knowledge of the (I hate to call it) “natural” world is totally gone, and only getting “goner”. Even me, hardcore dude that I am… I have almost zero knowledge of what I am looking at when in the woods… I could tell a Doug Fir from a sword fern, but a Doug Fir from a Hemlock? And in East Coast woods… forget it. Can’t even go for a hike without my special equipment and water and food supplies in case of…. what, I might starve to death? Underlying the energy issues with buildings there is the same disconnect from one’s “natural” environment, one’s climate, seasons, weather…. Nobody but nobody seems to know which building surfaces receive more energy at what time of the year… hell what direction is South even… but “energy” is a superficial way to think about it I think… I really think there is a psychological/spiritual/aesthetic/human alienation happening that is profound… How many people in Brooklyn know when the moon is full? There is no need anymore…
Paul from NYC
I sure feel a whole lot better knowing you are here, Marielle. In fact: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for being here and stepping up again and again and again.
Kim from NYC
Agreed! One of my fave classes in high school was Field Botany! And in college, the hands-on classes were always the best. It brings you back in touch with the tangible reasons for caring.
E from NYC
Really thoughtful, good article, Marielle! Reminds me how much I enjoyed my High School horticulture class and how lucky I was to have it.
March 13th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Thanks for the info… i’ll put it to good use