Due to the storms many streams in the neighborhood parks collected a lot of debris. Not just sticks and natural debris there was human debris including coffee cups, soda cans, plastics and much other trash that did not belong in the streams. Haltom City, the small town that I live in was having a neighborhood park clean ups. I became aware of this project through the Haltom City Library and Rec. centers. I signed myself up along with my handy dandy photographer boyfriend, Nick. It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon there were many families participating in the neighborhood park clean ups. I thought to myself that many people were getting involved with the environment and teaching their children too instead of staying inside on such a beautiful day. Compared to me, why I was looking into environmental volunteering was for a Service Learning Project for my Environmental Issues course. But after today my purpose in helping the environment would change.
The adventure started as we were given our park location, the Arcadia Trail Park. This neighborhood park was huge; it was in the heart of a very well developed neighborhood. There was plenty of fresh air to be enjoyed on such a sunny day like today. Many of the families were already there since 8am. They carried garbage bags upon garbage bags filled to the brim with debris from the storms. I started to just observe the families; they took the time from their day to come to their neighborhood park to clean up and beautified it again so that their children could enjoy playing in a clean outdoor environment. They all too the responsibility as if it was their own backyard and accepting these tasks as daily yard work. I was very impressed and kind of shocked, because I know in today society we are very busy with work and our own personal life to even consider the environment. I know many people are trying to become more “one with nature.” Being green is the new political, fashionable, and reasonable way to life.
Nick and I started to explore the park; we came across a stream deep in the trails of the Arcadia Park. The one thing I notice was the bridge to walk across the stream; it had collected a lot of debris. You could tell the water level rose above the bridge and when it settled it left behind all the unwanted trash and uprooted roots, branches and debris. We walk along the stream’s muddy banks, the water was clear and you can see all the life the stream holds. The little fish swimming, the insects eating, it was beautiful. But there was a coffee cup. This coffee cup washed up on the side of the stream out of the way of the fish and insects but it still did not look natural, it did not look as beautiful as if it was not there at all. I started notice more trash, and the stream that I once saw as beautiful I started to see it as polluted by humans. That’s when I took on the responsibility to start cleaning up this stream, I didn’t understand why my perspective changes, it was almost an anger feeling. I did not understand how humans could pollute something so innocent something so pure. I have seen coffee cups before but seeing it laying washed up on the bank I felt that this was not right.
“Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward; death and decay return it to the soil. The circuit is not closed; some energy is dissipated in decay, some is added by absorption from the air, some is stored in soils, peats, and long lived forests; but it is a sustained circuit, like a slowly augmented revolving fund of life. There is always a net loss by downhill wash, but this is normally small and offset by the decay of rocks. It is deposited in the ocean and, in the course of geological time, raised to form new lands and new pyramids.” (Leopold ,145)
I looked back onto the readings from class and I compared my situation to what I have read. Plumwood took a nature expedition and she found herself almost eaten by a crocodile, she “glimpsed the world from the outside as a world no longer [her] own but indifferent to [her] life and death.” The only thing eating me were the mosquitoes, I never thought myself as prey to the mosquitoes but if you really think about it in the view Plumwood describes “how could humans possibility be food?” Animals were always our food but to think that we as humans can never be eaten developed a very anthropocentric view. Humans feel that the world revolves around them, we are in the center because we have power we say we are smarter than any species but really we are just another animal. We must become one with nature to fully understand our purpose. It is also how Carl Sagan explain the “Pale Blue Dot,” from the distant of outer space that pale blue dot we call home does not seem so important but when you zoom up into the big picture that blue dot holds everyone we love it holds our future. It is also the one planet that humans can survive and live comfortably. We must stop polluting our home because we do not know maybe one day everything can just die out. This brings me to the next topic that enlightens me. The trouble with wilderness, Cronon develops a paradox slash dualism between humans and nature. He believes that our very presents in nature destroys, humans cannot live in nature without causing nature some sort of harm. Humans are natures own personal cancer. But when we think of wilderness we don’t always think about nature. Wilderness is the last place where civilization has not fully infected. Also humans believe that wilderness is the Amazon Rainforest or the Grand Canyon but really wilderness was the Arcadia Trail Park. The trees, grass, soil, rocks, different species of birds, fish, insects just the whole entire park is wilderness. A lot of humans do not realize that our backyard is considered wilderness. This idea was develop through two famous philosophers Pincho, a modernism, and Muir, Romanticism. Pincho believed very anthropocentric mechanistic view where as Muir was very eco centric view. Pincho wanted to preserve wilderness for the men because wilderness transform a boy into a man. Whereas Muir wanted to preserve wilderness for its beauty. Muir felt that the wilderness was an encounter with God wilderness was very spirited and must be protected for that very reason. One aspect that I could conclude with both philosophers was that the wilderness is part of the American identity it tells who we are and what we have become. Nowadays we held wilderness at a very high standard and we must realize that wilderness is not just the Amazon Rainforest it is also the stream that flows thru the Arcadia Trail Park.
Throughout the day I thought to myself that the first step to my transformation was taking this Environmental Issues course, I did not think I could learn so much and be able to look at the environment and the many issues that contribute to destroying our Mother Earth and say to myself I can make a difference. The second step was applying my knowledge and actually doing something about the problems. At first when I sign up for the neighborhood park clean up I was just fulfilling the service learning project but I just needed to dig a little deeper and now with the knowledge that I have acquired I can make a difference one community at a time.
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