Summing Up from Oakland Part Two

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this, I sure have been running around. I mentioned that I wanted to mention environmental issues in Europe. This may take a while, but here we go. In some ways, Europe is way ahead of the U.S. The public transit is wonderful. I mentioned the easy accessibility that cyclists have to trolleys in Freiburg, Germany and elsewhere. There seems to be a conscious attempt to increase people's ability to get around without cars. We thought the high speed trains we took were great. It seems like Europeans feel these get less and less practical with time.. this is partly due to cuts in funding. We know how that is. I am a great fan of Amtrak, but it demands more funding. Kate told me recently that some Republicans want to cut government subsidies for food service on Amtrak... this would be bad. We do need to get more info. here. Germany in particular seems to be trying to take a leading role in alternative energy. Freiburg, again is a center of research on solar technology. There was a recent article about how Germany has determined that much fossil fuel based electricity is more expensive than energy that comes from alternative sources, and will phase it out. Again, I really need to get more details here, but it sounds positive. Marina, our host in Paris told me that she is in touch with environmental educators in Greece. Apparently these folks have strong networks throughout Europe; they feel that environmental educators in the U.S. isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. This frustrates me, since I really would like to work in other countries at some point. I am hoping Marina will put me in touch with this person; I would like to be in touch with her about a project I have worked on for several years. With that in mind, I will email Marina tomorrow! Not all vegetarians are environmentally aware, but there are ecological sides to the practice of avoiding or eliminating meat from one's diet. We had no trouble finding very good veggie food in Europe. Some of the stores in small German town sold vegetarian schnitzel! Wales had many restaurants with veggie options... this surprised me a little, we were in some fairly isolated places. Of course, we were quite pleased! We're told it is harder to find veggie food in Spain and Eastern Europe, but we hope to find out for ourselves one day. So Europe is pretty ecologically savvy in many ways. One thing I would miss is the presence of wild places. England and Ireland in particular have experienced a lot of deforestation. It's part of Irish folklore that the British cut forests heavily to get wood for their navy. I am sure this is true, but there is evidence that early Irish agriculture also let to the loss of the island's once huge wild woodlands. Botanists have determined that the soil in the bogs that cover much of Ireland's agricultural fields is made from decomposed forest material. Ireland and Wales are beautiful, as I said, and I hope to revisit and explore them some more. The Snowdonia Mountains in Wales are wondrous! But there are largely agricultural lands. The main species we discovered in both places was... sheep. Yes, they are endearing... but definitely not native wildlife!! Again, I am told that Eastern Europe has its share of undeveloped places. The Alps are wild... they are home to bears and wolves, or so we heard. The Black Forest also demands more exploration. Of course, there is the question of what the term "wildlands" means. This is a huge debate among naturalists right now. The old style defenders of wilderness as purely undeveloped landscape are still around. Some question the idea of wilderness, saying that it is a myth that there are places where people have never lived. They also state that ecosystems are constantly changing, and the idea of pristine, eternal wilderness is an illusion. Many of these people go so far as to say that wildness exists everywhere. THey comment that a garden, a river that has been navigated by people for centuries, a field where people once settled is as "wild" as an undeveloped place if natural process are continuing to function without human management. Others claim that since people are a prime part of nature, the earth only deserves consideration so far as people have used it, lived on it, told stories and sang about it. We are the central species to these researchers, and our needs are primary. Well... I agree that people are part of the natural world, and that we can find wildness in our neighborhoods, on farms, even in cities. I have taught this for years, and have strongly promoted the idea that urban kids can find nature in their surroundings. But I am also a strong lover of undeveloped wild places. These areas are generally richer in biodiversity than areas close to human settlements. Why should plants, animals, and other creatures not have places where they can move about and survive free from our interference? We are part of the natural world, not its center. We can appreciate the positive and negative sides of human history in a region at the same time as appreciating the wildness there. Long digression, I know. The point is that there are many people in Europe who are working to educate others about wild places in their communities, and to preserve the relatively small truly wild places that remain. I am very interested in George Monbiot's ideas about rewilding, which basically means that wild places should be allowed to develop in their own ways without interference or management. Kate has read his book, I plan to get to it soon. In other words... there is much left to explore. We plan to take the attitude that this trip was just an introduction. Ok... enough for now, it's bed time. I will leave you with three thoughts: 1)I am very curious to find out who has been reading this. I know it's hard to post comments on the Blog, so please send me an email and let me know who you are! pgb@igc.org 2) I am seriously thinking of starting a natural history blog... I will get the word out if and when I do. 3)Yes, I plan to get some photos up; maybe Kate will too. I will ask her. It is so late that the community radio station is playing something called Music for Airport Furniture. Good night. PGB