The Tree and the Bird and the Fish and the Bell
I like this Substack thing. I can write what I want, wander about, and muse about things I read and think about while doing laps now that our public pools are open.
Today is Public Lands Day and that got me thinking about trees, climate, parks, community and the challenges of complexity. Huh?
Complexity first.
We categorize and put things in boxes to get through the day.
For example, it would be immobilizing to constantly think about and be aware of the environmental impact of the resource extraction, production, distribution and disposal of everything I buy and use. Or the conditions of workers in mines, offshore factories, warehouses and shops along that same chain of consumption. Not to mention the long-term impacts far into the future.
But our failure to see the webs and threads of connection doesn't mean they don't exist. They do, whether we see it or not, and whether we believe it or not.
There has to be simple ways to see the connections and appreciate the interdependence that surround us and make life possible?
So let's start with the tree.
I read a book a few years ago, The Hidden Life of Trees (read Maria Popova’s description.) Turns out they can't live without each other. They talk to each other, they feed each other through their root and interconnected mycorrhizal fungi systems and they warn each other of danger. They are of course part of an interconnected ecosystem - they give shade so other plants can grow, they drop acorns and seeds that animals feed on, etc., etc. You get the point.
Too often when we think of nature, we think of something separate from us.
Wrong.
The Nashville based writer Margaret Renkl had a piece in last week’s NYT that made clear how and why we need trees (not as sure they need us?)
People, she writes, need to “start recognizing trees as a kind of civic infrastructure and the natural world as a public good.”
Trees absorb rainwater, prevent soil erosion, filter greenhouse gases from the air, cool the surrounding area, provide both habitat and food for wildlife, and improve the quality of life for human beings. Trees are also at the center of efforts to promote environmental justice within cities by making their allocation of green space more equitable. For now, it’s still possible to measure the relative wealth of an urban neighborhood simply by counting its trees.
And trees save lives.
An April 2020 study in the The Lancet found that an improved tree canopy in Philadelphia could save hundreds of city residents per year from premature death.
Scientists in Finland planted mini-forests in day care centers and found that kids were healthier and had strengthened immune systems. The results of their study:
"… support the biodiversity hypothesis and the concept that low biodiversity in the modern living environment may lead to an un-educated immune system and consequently increase the prevalence of immune-mediated diseases."
Communities across the country are getting it and taking action to preserve our health, our planet and our communities -- creating new parks and open spaces, planting thousands of trees and creating projects to connect us to nature and each other. For example, Philadelphia is planting 25 thousand trees, Minneapolis is restoring 11 miles of industrialized Mississippi Riverfront with new parks and trails, and Detroit is transforming vacant parcels into open spaces.
They are doing it because we need more open spaces and more connections with the natural world. But also because we need each other.
Dana Bourland, whose new book, Grey to Green Communities, (it’s well worth a read) makes the connection clear:
“In our communities, public space very much serves the same purpose. It’s what makes our communities work because we have the opportunity to find ourselves in one another and to see that we are connected. We then bear witness to one another and know that our health and well-being depend on each others’ health and well-being.”
So back to complexity.
See what I did there? From Public Lands Day, to complexity, to the tree, to the forest, to the community. Not so hard to see how it’s all interconnected and interdependent.
Music helps it all make sense.
If you want to understand the title of this blog (The Tree and the Bird and the Fish and the Bell) you'll have to watch the video of the song Enough is Enough, created in anticipation of COP26 in Glasgow this November. It answers a simple question: If our planet earth could talk to us right now, what might she say? (Check out www.letitgrow.scot to see how you can add your voice.)
Here’s another by The Mammals, East Side, West Side, written for Earth Day 2020. The refrain: We’ve all gotta drink the water and we all gotta breath the air. Songs make things so simple.
And, oh yeah, my book, The Privatization of Everything, will be released on Nov. 23. Great holiday gift, I’m told.
See you next time.
Donald