Reflection: Leave No Trace

On Tuesday April 26, my film group and I had the opportunity to interview Nastassja “Staj” Pace, the chair of the Portland chapter for the Surfrider Foundation. This foundation is an environmentalist group that strives to preserve healthy and clean oceans and beaches, free of pollution and destruction. Surfrider was started in the 1980s by a handful of surfers who were outraged and disgusted by the physical litter and pollution, mainly plastic that was washing up on their Californian shores and muddling the very waves they were riding. Staj herself is a surfer who was affected by the presence of litter she was discovering on beaches in South America. The plastic and other forms of waste weren’t coming from the native populations. Where was all of this junk coming from? It is coming from us, all the wasteful consumers in industrial, consuming societies. One thing we can do without: single use plastic bags. Surfrider is pushing the “Ban the Bag” campaign, along with other groups. They are working hard to make our beautiful oceans clean, safe, and plastic free.

When I was 16 years old, I came to the realization that my life was not heading in the right direction. I wasn’t fulfilling the greatness and outreach I wanted to achieve. I was unhappy. Parties and silly teenage activities can only go on for so long. This all changed when a man named Danny O’Brien came to my school and talked to my class about leaving everything we knew for a junior year semester away program. He had traveled all the way from the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado. He told us about backpacking expeditions, leadership, adventure, community, and personal discovery. I was sitting on the edge of my seat.  A lightning bolt had hit me.

I don’t think I really understood what backpacking meant when the day of the first expedition finally came. I had never carried a large backpack before, let alone prepared for a 2-week expedition into the Rocky Mountains. I was in for the ride of my life. There were other concepts and activities that were new as well: community, responsibility, and leadership, to name a few. I had never really understood the full scope and importance of these values before. There was another important area that I hadn’t encountered: Environmental Ethics. The most important ethic, which we were taught on this expedition, was “Leave No Trace”. Usually applied to hiking, backpacking, and camping, LNT is a mindset and group of rules that aims to leave a small impact on the environment traveled through and maintains an amazing outdoor experience for all who come to visit. This concept has stayed with me ever since. To not leave a trace…could it be applied beyond camping? Could I use this concept back home in New York, not just on the summit of a 14er? 

LNT is a guiding principle in my life today. Listening to Staj talk about how she got involved with Surfrider and previously the Leave No Trace Center inspired a real dedication and commitment in my soul to sustainability and impact reduction. Once the interview ended, I inquired into the volunteering possibilities at Surfrider. Tomorrow afternoon I will attend my first event as a Surfrider volunteer. Leaving no trace is not just a concept that applies to the mountains of Colorado. It can be applied to the shores of California, the forests of Oregon, and the marshes of Louisiana. It must be taken farther. Cities, towns, suburbs, malls. All of these centers of human interaction need to lower their impact and leave no trace. I am committed to joining and even starting social and environmental activist groups that will lower the impact we have on the planet, reduce our wasteful practices, and preserve the happiness, health, and security of all creatures on this Earth.

How I will change the world starts with three little words: leave no trace.

Earth Day

It is Earth Day 2011. What a glorious day it is here in Portland, Oregon. The sun is shining, there are people out in the streets, and the park blocks at Portland State University are hosting a few dozen environmental groups working hard to make our world more sustainable. I talked to many of these groups, all having goals ranging from wilderness certification and energy conservation to banning plastic bags and ripping invasive ivy out of Oregonian forests. They all differ in experience, popularity, and knowledge but they all have a vision of a healthier and greener Earth that they’ll stop at nothing to make a reality. They’re changing the world, one mission statement at a time.

The practice of infuriated and empowered citizens advocating to improve humanity and the planet started not so long ago. This week in my Sustainability class, I learned about the Anti-Slave Trade, Abolitionist, and Congo Reform Association movements. These movements were initiated and carried on the backs of men and women who had no physical connection to the exploited and abused Africans they were advocating for. In the case of the Congo Reform Association, Edmund D. Morel and many other supporters never even traveled to the Congo. Although regulations and realistic travel abilities held those advocates from entering Africa, human empathy and dedication were able to seep into the minds and conversations across Europe and America. This stirring in the globe was able to release the Congo from King Leopold’s torturing grip. The Congo Reform Association stood up to an injustice and made the world a better place.

How can I make the world a better place? What injustice lingers in the world today? I am going to dedicate my life to reducing waste. The common garbage landfill is evil and represents a dark side of our consumer culture. I believe that all of the materials humans use should be recyclable, bio-degradable, and/or compostable. The three Rs in the waste management triangle are essential and important: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The use of petroleum and other non-renewable resources must be seriously regulated. Singe use, disposable plastic items make no sense. A popular campaign happening currently, and one that I have personally worked on, is the “Ban the Bag” campaign.  Plastic bags are polluting natural environments like the ocean. They don’t break down, they are killing animals, and they are completely substitutable. This campaign represents a progression in campaigning and ethics: we are now fighting for the rights of non-human animals, non-sentient plants, and non-human ecosystems. I am excited and inspired to see what will happen over the course of my lifetime.

I will end with a quote from one of my favorite philosophers, Aldo Leopold. "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." Humans have an amazing position as being the only organism on the planet that has the power to stop and consider the impact and ethics of our choices and actions. We can all choose to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community which we are all apart of. Edmund D. Morel improved the biotic community in 1904 and I shall continue this beautiful practice today in 2011. Thank you.

Ad Hominem

Humanity owes Rachel Carson a thank you note. We need to thank Ms. Carson for protecting our well being, caring for our environment, and courageously battling an almighty corporate establishment. In Paul Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest”, the subject of pages 51 – 59 is the story of how Rachel Carson changed America and the globe. Hawken details how Carson bravely questioned the safety of chemical pesticides, specifically DDT, and how she fought her enemies to the death – quite literally. While Carson was igniting the modern-day environmental movement, she was privately suffering from severe terminal illnesses and ailments, many of which were common side effects of the very pesticides she was condemning in the first place. Carson is a hero to humanity and the many animals and natural ecosystems that have been saved since the banning of DDT and other toxic pesticides. Her life’s work has paid off in a global movement that frowns upon manmade chemicals while embracing an organic and natural means of life. Rachel Carson is a friend to all life on Earth.

            When I was reading this amazing history of Carson, I was shocked to learn of the misogynistic backlash against her. Many of her corporate and bureaucratic critics wrote her off merely for being a single woman. I live in a twenty-first century world where women are CEOs, soldiers, and world leaders. This sexist assault on Carson is very foreign to me, especially since I was raised by a single mother who excelled in the New York advertising industry. I have always seen women as having the same capabilities as men, so this part of the Carson narrative really hit a nerve.

            To judge an argument by the person’s identity or circumstances instead of the argument’s premises is to commit ad hominem. Rachel Carson is a victim of this fallacious ad hominem. Expectedly, she is not the first controversial writer assaulted by it. An African slave turned British abolitionist named Olaudah Equiano wrote in 1789 an autobiography of his life as a slave and the horrors he witnessed. When his book titled “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” was released, many critics questioned the authenticity and writing of the book simply because of his African heritage. Despite Equiano’s account, which revealed disturbing accounts of cruelty, rape, and murder, being written off as false by the slavery-dependent establishment, his abolitionist dreams caught on in popular culture. Carson and Equiano share the assault of ad hominem but also the fueling of a global movement. Equiano’s work helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. Carson is very much responsible for the later ban on DDT. Despite cultural prejudices of their day, both thinkers made a real impact and changed the world.

            Reading these texts has taught me to never write off someone’s opinions, arguments, or ideas just because of whom he or she is. Before I learned of Carson and Equiano’s histories and the concept of ad hominem, I probably committed ad hominem once or twice in my life. From now on I will be vigilant in avoiding the judgment and will alert my peers when they are guilty of using it. I learned from Martha Nussbaum that to live on this Earth in the twenty-first century is to be a cosmopolitan or world citizen. We are all connected and our decisions affect everyone on the planet. As our world’s nations and peoples become more interconnected and interdependent, we must listen to everyone and consider their ideas for what they are, not by where they came from. There are probably many Rachel Carsons and Olaudah Equianos in the world today, dealing with the cultural prejudices of now. May we all learn from the examples of Carson and Equiano and open our ears to those whose identities and circumstances differ from our own. Let us all defeat the crime of ad hominem.

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