#I hope all fish species are right i used official pictures from their website as reference

[begoodstewards]

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everybody. It’s the 50th anniversary, which seems a bit absurd considering Earth was here long before bipedal creatures started walking around naming things. It is flabbergasting to think that in 1970 our relationship with our home planet was so toxic that officially getting a single day to focus on repairing it seemed like a massive victory.

In the 200 years since the First Industrial Revolution we were already doing irreparable damage. Forests were clear cut at alarming rates, mountains were toppled and stripped of their substance, waterways were fished bare or polluted until they were uninhabitable, and the air was choked with smog and fumes. The Industrial Revolution brought more people out of poverty than any other movement in history, but it did so at the expense of our relationship with the earth.

In the last 50 years we have made great strides in mitigating the damage we inflict on the natural world. It’s a constant struggle, the balance between progress and conservation, but the 50-year trend shows we are heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, I cannot help but feel that we are addressing the symptoms and not the underlying root of the problem. The environmental movement is almost entirely about what we as humans do to the earth, and how to protect the planet from the human species. This good vs. evil paradigm leads to the politicization of any issue that hints at environmentalism.

The earth does not need our protection. It was here long before we were, and it will be here long after we are gone. We, as humans, need the earth. Using our ingenuity, we have invented ways to grow our population beyond that which our ecosystem could previously support. We have focused our efforts on technologies that allow us to get more from less so we can continue to become more prosperous. We have also created a bubble of consumption, but at some point, that bubble will collapse. Whether resource shortages, natural disasters, disease, or any of the other myriad disasters nature has up it’s sleeve our way of life is fragile and beginning to crack.

I have spent a lot of time, as I’m sure most of you have, over the last couple of months reflecting on my way of life. I think a lot about my grandparents, part of the Greatest Generation, that grew up in the Great Depression, fought the forces of evil during World War II, saw the moon landing and the development of penicillin, and witnessed the greatest advancement of technology and prosperity in the history of the world.  They taught me a lot about life and were massive influences on my worldview.

The stories that keep coming to mind for me right now are the ones from their childhood. They milked cows, worked the cotton fields, sewed their own cloths, cooked their own meals, played in the creek, and took long walks through the forest. These stories wrapped me in a fantasy world, a place similar to the world in which I lived as a child but quainter and in sepia tones. In middle school we were learning about the Great Depression when it dawned on me that they spent their formative years under the cloud of an historic economic downturn. I thought their experiences must be agonizing, like my grandfather’s memories of The War, which is why they hid them from me. When I asked them outright about their experiences during the Great Depression, I found that my assumptions could not be farther from the truth. All the stories about milking cows and jumping in the creeks were from the Depression era. They grew and raised their own food, built their own homes, made their own cloths. They were self-sufficient, and because of this they really had no idea that the Great Depression was even happening.

My grandparents found careers, my grandfather a carpenter and my grandmother a healthcare worker, and they moved to town. They built a modest ranch home in a nice neighborhood and made a decent living and their children grew up never wanting for much. Still, my grandparents tilled up a quarter acre in the back yard and planted a spring and fall garden every year. The flower beds surrounding the house would explode with color every spring, and the sweet gum and poplar trees would provide a glorious shade to cool off in the depths of August in the deep south. My grandmother would wash the disposable plates and put them back in the cabinet, and we ate cereal from re-used cool whip containers. This all seemed ridiculous at the time, and the grandkids would all giggle and poke fun. But, my grandparents knew what it was like to have to make the most of what they had, and the lessons from their childhood were not forgotten well into their nineties.

It’s amazing how a global pandemic can take the most complex aspects of our society and make them seem trivial, while simultaneously making the most basic aspects of human existence seem revolutionary. I think deep down that most of us realize how close we came, and still are, to total collapse. A lot of us are getting more exercise, planting gardens, and seriously reevaluating how we are using our resources. We are strengthening our relationship with the earth.

I started the Good Stewards of the Earth organization to help regular people get involved in outdoor recreation. I hoped maybe to one day lead hikes, give clinics, and possibly have a scout program. With all the goings on in my everyday life I haven’t had the time to make it much more than a title under which I collect pictures of me and the family out in the wild. I have also struggled to find a career that makes me feel that I am having a positive impact on society and nature. I work in the outdoor industry and I love my job, it has honestly gotten me closer to reaching that goal than any of my other careers. Still, I want to do more.

I believe right now is the time to grow the Good Stewards into an organization that truly benefits mankind, and to use my skill and passion to have a positive impact on the world. I want our focus to expand beyond outdoor recreation and to help people foster a relationship with the earth. I want to help people be more self-sufficient using skills I learned from my grandparents. I want to influence lawmakers and businesses to conserve our resources and make decisions that will make us less vulnerable to existential threats. I want to see a society where we benefit from our outstanding technological advances without losing sight of what makes us human.

Over the next few weeks, we will launch our new website, BeGoodStewards.org, and will begin drafting our mission statement and plan of action. We will begin a series of educational videos and blog posts too. We will start our search for a board of directors while filing with our Secretary of State’s office and petitioning the IRS for 501c3 status. We will also begin raising money to fund these endeavors. I’m also going to begin asking for help. If you can make a financial contribution it will be much appreciated, and if you have advice or encouragement that is even better. You can reach me at [email protected]. If you have ideas or constructive criticism, please reach out. If you are inspired by our mission, please follow us on all forms of media and share our posts with your friends and family. Most importantly, join me in trying to be good stewards of the earth.

#earthday #begoodstewards #environmentalism #conservation #nature #self sufficiency #activism