Yes, at this moment there are atrocities committed against the land, against animals, against people. I don’t see a time when it will ever be otherwise.
But,
We need to acknowledge that more and more people, organizations, businesses are working had to counter these harms; everyday people around the world are more aware than ever before of how their decisions impact the whole planet. “Environmentally friendly”, “ethically raised” are phrases we look for on our purchases; we recycle, we buy electric cars, shopping in Thrift shops is acceptable. The list goes on.
We have to believe that, like in most movies, the scales will tip and the good guys win.
It's such a beautifully written book... one of my favourites. R.D. Laing once said, "We had to destroy the world in theory before we could destroy it in practice," which is along the lines of what you're saying here.
This will stay with me for a long time: ... what happens when whole societies go rogue? What do we do then? Kimmerer says that today the “dishonourable harvest has become a way of life—we take what doesn’t belong to us and destroy it beyond repair… How can we distinguish between that which is given by the earth and that which is not? When does taking become outright theft?” (Coincidentally, I read this moments after I listened to an episode of "Drilled" - one of my favourite podcasts - called "A Brief History of Rights of Nature in the US." And it brought Stone's voice to life, recalling how he came up with the idea of giving trees "standing rights.") Thank you for this, Linda. It brought crucial perspective and wisdom on a day when war was taking up - beating up - all my mental space.
There will have to be a major shift in attitude toward the natural world, at least in North America. For all the conservation work that is done, and the changing public attitude toward wildlife and wild spaces, still there is an attitude problem with a large swath of the population. When I was in Arizona, I first became aware of "Predator Contests" where people (mostly men) will drive 2 or 3 states with their big foot 4x4s and trailers and ATVs, to participate in hunts for "predator animals" to kill as many as possible in a set period of time - usually a weekend - for big prize money, guns, etc.. They haul their kills to a central place for the "final tally" and get their prizes. There was one that took place in a nearby city while I was down there - they have a sort of trade show for guns, ATVs, hunting gear in conjunction with it. Very commercial. They kill huge numbers of animals. They even have "youth contests" so you can bring your kids along to kill some animals too. So long as this kind of thing is normalized in certain circles of our societies, I don't know how we can move forward. What people are doing - what they *think* is normal - undoes what the rest of us are working so hard to change.
Feb 25, 2022·edited Feb 25, 2022Liked by Linda Pannozzo
Some time ago, I think in the 1990s I flew to Saskatoon. There were many, perhaps 25 quite boisterous, burly men on the airplane with camouflage clothing on. One was sitting beside me, and told me they were from different places in the US and were going to a hunting camp in northern Sask to hunt black bear and deer. When I went to get my baggage, a massive cluster of long plastic boxes came down the chute containing their rifles. I felt sick. I was going to a conference on organic farming and gardening and there was a workshop on food self sufficiency; the speaker talked about how we could grow so much of our food in urban gardens, and that we should be all be vegetarians. There was a first nations guy there from northern Sask (the only non-white), and he asked, well what do I do, I grew up on meat, and he described how they lived by hunting and fishing and trapping and talked about their relationships with the animals they hunted. The speaker had no answer; it was a learning moment for all of the participants. My thoughts went to what I had seen coming in and the contrast between the excesses of these tourist hunters, and the gentle life in the same area this man had to leave behind.
To me, killing animals you don't intend to eat, is problematic. I grew up surrounded by family who lived through the Depression years eating wild game, fish, and pigeons, and what they grew in the garden or harvested wild such as Lamb's Quarters and berries. I have friends around here who pretty much live on deer meat and snowshoe hare. That's not a problem to me. What *is* a problem is turning the killing of animals into a game -- to kill the most to win prize money, guns, trophies and swag -- and to not even be eating any of the meat from what you kill. It's the attitude that killing things beyond your own needs is okay if you can win something -- and the more you kill, all the better. I have encountered it in the past - mostly out west -- like coming upon a row of dead coyote tossed over a barbed wire fence -- to show those varmints who is boss over the land. Or shooting rattlesnakes -- just because. It's a weird display of power. A belief that humans have an inherent right to take whatever they want without respect for nature.
Yes, at this moment there are atrocities committed against the land, against animals, against people. I don’t see a time when it will ever be otherwise.
But,
We need to acknowledge that more and more people, organizations, businesses are working had to counter these harms; everyday people around the world are more aware than ever before of how their decisions impact the whole planet. “Environmentally friendly”, “ethically raised” are phrases we look for on our purchases; we recycle, we buy electric cars, shopping in Thrift shops is acceptable. The list goes on.
We have to believe that, like in most movies, the scales will tip and the good guys win.
I've read and cried over Braiding Sweetgrass. We have all these metaphors for trees/water/air/earth which makes it very easy to commodify and destroy.
It's such a beautifully written book... one of my favourites. R.D. Laing once said, "We had to destroy the world in theory before we could destroy it in practice," which is along the lines of what you're saying here.
This will stay with me for a long time: ... what happens when whole societies go rogue? What do we do then? Kimmerer says that today the “dishonourable harvest has become a way of life—we take what doesn’t belong to us and destroy it beyond repair… How can we distinguish between that which is given by the earth and that which is not? When does taking become outright theft?” (Coincidentally, I read this moments after I listened to an episode of "Drilled" - one of my favourite podcasts - called "A Brief History of Rights of Nature in the US." And it brought Stone's voice to life, recalling how he came up with the idea of giving trees "standing rights.") Thank you for this, Linda. It brought crucial perspective and wisdom on a day when war was taking up - beating up - all my mental space.
That IS a coincidence! Thanks Joan.
There will have to be a major shift in attitude toward the natural world, at least in North America. For all the conservation work that is done, and the changing public attitude toward wildlife and wild spaces, still there is an attitude problem with a large swath of the population. When I was in Arizona, I first became aware of "Predator Contests" where people (mostly men) will drive 2 or 3 states with their big foot 4x4s and trailers and ATVs, to participate in hunts for "predator animals" to kill as many as possible in a set period of time - usually a weekend - for big prize money, guns, etc.. They haul their kills to a central place for the "final tally" and get their prizes. There was one that took place in a nearby city while I was down there - they have a sort of trade show for guns, ATVs, hunting gear in conjunction with it. Very commercial. They kill huge numbers of animals. They even have "youth contests" so you can bring your kids along to kill some animals too. So long as this kind of thing is normalized in certain circles of our societies, I don't know how we can move forward. What people are doing - what they *think* is normal - undoes what the rest of us are working so hard to change.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/environment/544533-the-controversy-over-wildlife-killing-contests
Some time ago, I think in the 1990s I flew to Saskatoon. There were many, perhaps 25 quite boisterous, burly men on the airplane with camouflage clothing on. One was sitting beside me, and told me they were from different places in the US and were going to a hunting camp in northern Sask to hunt black bear and deer. When I went to get my baggage, a massive cluster of long plastic boxes came down the chute containing their rifles. I felt sick. I was going to a conference on organic farming and gardening and there was a workshop on food self sufficiency; the speaker talked about how we could grow so much of our food in urban gardens, and that we should be all be vegetarians. There was a first nations guy there from northern Sask (the only non-white), and he asked, well what do I do, I grew up on meat, and he described how they lived by hunting and fishing and trapping and talked about their relationships with the animals they hunted. The speaker had no answer; it was a learning moment for all of the participants. My thoughts went to what I had seen coming in and the contrast between the excesses of these tourist hunters, and the gentle life in the same area this man had to leave behind.
To me, killing animals you don't intend to eat, is problematic. I grew up surrounded by family who lived through the Depression years eating wild game, fish, and pigeons, and what they grew in the garden or harvested wild such as Lamb's Quarters and berries. I have friends around here who pretty much live on deer meat and snowshoe hare. That's not a problem to me. What *is* a problem is turning the killing of animals into a game -- to kill the most to win prize money, guns, trophies and swag -- and to not even be eating any of the meat from what you kill. It's the attitude that killing things beyond your own needs is okay if you can win something -- and the more you kill, all the better. I have encountered it in the past - mostly out west -- like coming upon a row of dead coyote tossed over a barbed wire fence -- to show those varmints who is boss over the land. Or shooting rattlesnakes -- just because. It's a weird display of power. A belief that humans have an inherent right to take whatever they want without respect for nature.
& there is Ron Coleman's 'What Really Counts' - of course you are very familiar with it.
Yes, absolutely.