Thoreau's Legacy (15 page)

A Beautiful Shrimp

David Beebe

I CAN’T HELP IT. THE CLOSER I LOOK, THE MORE I’M
drawn in. This spot shrimp came from hundreds of feet below the dark waters of southeastern Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago—a place where the sun, as well as our awareness, truly does not shine.

At first glance, the spot shrimp comes off as
almost cartoonish
—or otherworldly.
Then, after taking in this creature for a few seconds, I’m taken aback by the exquisite intricacy of its luminescent compound eyes, its striped and segmented legs and beautifully marked shell, all composed of the seemingly impossible melding of carbon and calcium molecules suspended in the sea, which somehow coalesce into an exquisite structural form of utility, complexity, and beauty.

Yet because of global warming, in the acidified oceans that scientists say are only fifty years into our future, this kind of shell will dissolve before it fully forms. Our oceans have always played the important role of absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. But because of the rapid increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere through the use of coal and petroleum products, deforestation, and forest fires, our oceans are becoming more acidic.

I can’t help it. The more I hear about ocean acidification, the more concerned I become. It is time for a much greater awareness of this debacle. Most humans’ appreciation of marine ecosystems stops at the reflections from the surface of the water and resumes at their dinner plates. My job as a commercial fisherman starts where most people’s vision stops, just below the surface of the water, where I pursue and capture the largess of intact ecosystems for the world’s dining tables. As a fisherman, I’m fated to be among the first to witness what happens in our oceans in the coming years, perhaps one of the first to glimpse firsthand the full magnitude of impacts on the planet from acidified oceans.

According to recent studies, ocean acidification from unchecked global warming threatens marine ecosystems that supply food for over half of the world’s population. If scientific calculations are correct, and we have every reason to believe they are, ocean acidification will create catastrophic changes, leading to a famine of unimaginable proportions. Fortunately, we can avoid this catastrophe if we act quickly to reduce carbon emissions. Here’s hoping a greater public awareness of global warming and ocean acidification will keep our marine ecosystems intact so we can continue to feed the world.

David Beebe
is a Vietnam-era veteran who has worked as a commercial fisherman for the last twenty-five years. He lives in Petersburg, Alaska, in the heart of the Tongass National Forest.

The Golden Rule

Matthew, Nancy, and Emma Sleeth

I USED TO BE A PHYSICIAN—THE CHIEF OF STAFF AND head of the emergency department—at one of the nicest hospitals in America. But I felt as if I were straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic, saving one patient at a time while the whole ship—the earth—was going down. Today I am one of a growing number of evangelical Christians whom the Lord is using to witness to people about his love for them and for the natural world.

The Golden Rule allows us to see the moral side of many issues, including environmental ones like global warming. Love thy neighbor as thyself: one cannot ignore the Golden Rule and claim to be a Christian. It isn’t a suggestion or a guideline; it is a commandment from God. What is the connection between the Golden Rule and the environment? Aren’t our choices of homes, cars, and appliances just a matter of lifestyle, not a moral or spiritual matter? Does God care whether I drive an SUV, leave the TV on all night, or fly around the world to go skiing? The Bible doesn’t mention any of these things; they didn’t exist in Jesus’s time. Yet Jesus taught us to follow the spirit of the law, not the letter. From the spirit of the law and the example of his love, we can determine the morality of our actions. —Matthew Sleeth

When Matthew suggested that he wanted to give up his successful medical career to “save the planet,” my stomach turned inside out thinking about what we might lose—our beautiful home, our harborside neighborhood, our vacations, not to mention health benefits and a retirement plan.

The selfish part of me began to whine: what about the many years of undergraduate school, medical school, and residency we had gone through together? Wouldn’t he be wasting all that training? And there were the practical concerns: our kids were approaching their teen years, with college just around the corner. How could we possibly save enough money to pay for their education if our income dropped to zero? How would we put food on the table?

But
we took Jesus’s advice and
began cleaning up
our own act
before trying to clean up the rest of the world. Over the next couple of years, we gave away half of our possessions and moved to a house the size of our old garage. Contrary to our fears, we found that the more we “gave up” in material things, the more we gained in family unity, purpose, and joy. Eventually, through many small changes, we reduced our electricity use and trash production by nine tenths and our fossil-fuel consumption by two thirds. —Nancy Sleeth

I remember when my best friend Hannah cut off a foot of her hair. I thought I’d never get used to it. For the next month, every time I saw her I was once again surprised to see gentle waves of brown curling about her ears, too short to pull into her customary ponytail. But after a while Hannah’s short hair began to seem normal. Now I have a hard time picturing Hannah
with
long hair.

The same forgetting can happen with global warming. The first time we read about the effects of climate change, we immediately commit to carpooling more. But soon we lose our enthusiasm, and pollution again seems normal, greenhouse gases unavoidable. Loss of zeal really means loss of heart. To make a difference, we have to care about the people affected by the environmental changes—and about the God who calls us to do something about it. —Em
ma Sleet
h

Matthew Sleeth
is the author of S
erve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action
and the introduction to
The Green Bible
.
Nancy Sleeth
, a former communications director for a Fortune 500 company, is the author of
Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Money, Time, and God’s Green Earth
.
Emma Sleeth
is a junior at Asbury College and a leader of the evangelical movement to prevent climate change. She wrote
It’s Easy Being Green
when she was fifteen. The Sleeths live in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Nez Residence,
Tó’sido, New Mexico

Vangee Nez

This is our
ancestral land.
To the south, Bennett Peak and Fort Butte jut out of the desert, and to the north, Tsé Bit’a’í (Rock with Wings) reaches into the sky. The Four Corners power plant and the San Juan generating station rank high in releases of nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, and mercury. Yet the Environmental Protection Agency has authorized dynamiting and drilling here for the Desert Rock coal-fired plant. A small group of warriors has protested, but the Navajo Nation’s president says the plant will be good for his people. It is not good for the animals, plants, rivers, sacred mountains, and future generations.

Vangee Nez,
Diné, from Tó’sido, New Mexico, is of the Red Streak Running into Water Clan. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in language literacy for indigenous language revitalization.

Nez residence, Tó’sido, New Mexico. Photo by Vangee Nez.