The Case for Revitalization:
Saving communities over tearing apart planets
In the world today, the attitudes that humans have toward our future is becoming clearer than ever, especially in the negative outlook of our leaders. The call for fast action to combat climate change is becoming louder and louder, as more governments are encroaching into public life, trying to convince its citizens to reduce their carbon imprint. While policies are being implemented to attempt a rescue of the “natural world”, many of these policies are more of goal markers than actual policy, with the Biden administration pledging to reach “100% carbon pollution-free electricity”, but by 2035. (The White House) With these goal marks far down the line, the attitude around our future seems like a forfeit, with the earth already ruined. Recent news also doesn’t seem to help those trends, as more and more investments and advancements are being made towards the habitation of other planets such as mars, with Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and head engineer of SpaceX, saying that there is a 70 percent chance he moves to mars at some point in his lifetime.
As the situation on earth worsens, we also seem to place more emphasis on the beauty that is left in the world, levying big regulations to protect endangered species, and focus on the national parks system, setting up these large parks as the last way to escape modern life, putting the Everglades as the exact opposite to New York City. In this separation, we believe that the modern world has no connection to nature, only allowing wilderness to be viewed as beautiful sights from national parks, rather than smaller pockets of nature that need protection as well. The protection of grand parks over smaller pockets of nature has caused the evaporation of trees and plant life from cities, only allowing green in specific spaces, far from living spaces for people. This lack of green life often affects low-income communities much more radically than affluent communities, causing the only access to clean air and plant life for many people to be public parks. Central Park in New York City is a masterpiece and well-needed part of New York, but for so many residents of the city, it is unreachable and their only large access of clean air and plant life. To combat this, it is incredibly important for us to understand the importance of protecting all nature, and to expand our definition of wilderness and what should be protected.
As more of the less fortunate communities are being denied proper food and supplies, the American system puts these communities into a downward spiral. Lesser wages mean lower quality living, spiraling into lower tax dollars to fix problems and less care from the government to create quality amenities and social programs. This downward spiral causes us to place less importance on the natural spaces in these communities, and today, these places now have no green areas in sight. These areas, like our entire earth, are looked at as something to escape from, rather than looking to make them better. In the escape to mars and escape to the more “scenic” wilderness, we ignore our responsibilities to the world and to our fellow humans, working to easily escape a bad situation, rather than taking responsibility for our own actions to improve the quality of life. (Cronon)
To do this, it is important to focus our efforts towards changing our beliefs to what nature should and shouldn’t be. Trees and foliage on the streets of big cities are often seen as unnatural, and the negative attitude towards the less fortunate areas of these cities helps the attitude that these areas should be separate from the “natural” world, or from wilderness. Humans built cities from natural areas, and these natural areas should continue to exist alongside cities, as all people and animal species benefit from green spaces. These green spaces act as a refuge for animals who rely on trees, like birds, to remain in cities, rather than the cities removing all life, leaving a dead, gray space. It is important for us to acknowledge that humans came from nature, and so to separate human civilization from all nature is unnatural. It is important to celebrate all spaces without putting down others, so that we can be free to add green space to our cities and “dead” areas. But it is important to embrace areas that are cultural but also natural, such as Central Park, but also small pockets of green in cities, so that we can revitalize area, rather than relocating to somewhere else, whether it is our homes or our planet. (Cronon)
The wilderness gives us strong feelings of humility and respect, but our civilization brings us feelings of cramming and despair. The way to improve our own perceptions of where we live is to expand our ideas of what deserves to be called nature (Cronon). When we expand our view of nature from grand vistas to simple flora, it allows us to create small, joyous pockets of nature in our everyday lives, instead of feeling stuck. This also gives us a reasoning to protect the small pockets of nature around us, since once we view the streetside trees as sacred, we are much more likely to take care and protect it from those who want to expand cities and take away nature.
As the issues of climate change continue to evolve, humanity will still retain its depressed look on our future. Politics around the issue of climate change and media attention continue to propagate the idea that the world is destined to fail, and that eventually Armageddon will ensue over the issues of climate and space exploration. While the individual changes of behavior will have a small effect on carbon emissions, individual efforts towards revitalizing communities can have a much larger role in improving society. Protecting our natural world is incredibly important but failing to keep our own communities vibrant is incredibly poignant today, especially in larger cities. Keeping the focus on protecting and increasing green spaces everywhere will go a long way to revitalizing our communities and realizing that it is important to protect the world at large, rather than abandoning it for a backup plan.
Works Cited
“National Climate Task Force.” The White House, The United States Government, 15 Aug. 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate/.
Axios. “SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees 70% chance he’ll go to Mars.” YouTube, Interview with Musk, Elon, uploaded 25 November, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfg1n7Lh62Q.
Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” Environmental History, vol. 1, no. 1, 1996, pp. 7–28. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3985059. Accessed 19 Sep. 2022.