Champions
of Conservation
Earth day
came and went quietly again this year — April 22nd. ButÉ always behind
the scenes are those working to help the cause of our ailing Earth home. Just
who were the geeks that saw the need and took up the cause? LetÕs take a look
at a few of these very focused individuals that shared their love of nature, a
simple way of life and a willingness to stand up for what they believed was
morally right.
Ansel
Adams — known world
wide for his stunning black and white photos of the stark and wild High
Sierras. His turn of the century (1902) work set the standard for all B&W
photography. He endured a great deal of criticism for having the gall to
compile and oeuvre of brooking landscapes free of reference to people. His work
would eventually help us realize the need to keep wild places free and wild.
Rachel
Carson — a reserved
and quiet women, who studied zoology at the University of Maryland. Later she
would become the center of a firestorm when she published her lifeÕs work
ÓSilent SpringÓ that would prompt the FDA to ban DDT and control the use of
other contaminants dangerous to man and wildlife. Called a cultist and a
spinster by the food and chemical companies that blanketed her book as a hoax.
Audubon Magazine writes of Rachel ÒAs having had the skill to penetrate to the
roots of biological reality and make her findings known.Ó
Bruce
Babbitt — Secretary
of the Interior during the Clinton administration was a strong leader in the
fight to restore and preserve our national parks in the west. He was
instrumental in the reintroduction of a wolf population in Yellow Stone
National Park and brokered a historic agreement to protect the Florida
Everglades. He is a modern day environmentalist that understands the need for
progress and the preservation of the wilderness. He quietly continues his
environmental work behind the scenes.
Jimmy
Carter — known as a
peace make and an environmentalist. ÒNo president since Teddy Roosevelt has
done more for the protection of public land,Ó says Audubon. He convinced
Congress to pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980
that protects 104 million acres of Alaska being the single largest conservation
initiative in US history. He also signed laws that prevent strip mining of
public lands.
Theodore
Roosevelt — known
as the man to get things done, he didnÕt just talk about conservation, he threw
the full weight of the office of the president behind creating national parks
and wildlife refuge sites. By the time he left office he had created fifty-one
biologically significant sites and expanded the national forest from 42 million
acres to 172 million.
Gaylord
Nelson — Senator
from Wisconsin whose eighteen years in the senate were crucial to nearly every
major piece of national environmental legislation from l963 to l980. He is
responsible for the creation on Earth Day.
R
Buckminster Fuller
— architect. His signature invention, the geodesic dome gave us insight
into how man and nature should come together synergistically and simply. Fuller
established the ÒInventory of World Resources, Human Trends and Needs,Ó a
compendium of decades of research on population, renewable resources, poverty
and other environmental factors.
Environmentalist,
ecologist, human being, man, woman — the pieces are interchangeable. An
environmentalist: An individual who is living their life and making their own
special contribution and only wanting to leave the world a better place for
having been in it.
Till next time, Rebecca