A Growing Disconnect

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Brett Dennen-There’s So Much More©Dualtone Music Group 2006

Shady Cove, Oreg.- It’s easy to become disconnected. It’s no small irony that in a world that is more technologically connected than every before, it’s increasingly difficult to stay connected to the world. Perhaps it’s not so much a matter of connected vs. disconnected, but rather different manners of being connected and the different ways of life that the form of connection creates.

Up until recently, people have connected to the natural world in much the same way for the entire scope of our existence: we worked the land in order to survive. For the majority of our time here this meant hunting and gathering. For the last 10,000 years or so, it’s been increasingly through agriculture. But we don’t work the land anymore. Since the Industrial Revolution, a rapidly expanding majority of us no longer share the connection that has been part of our evolution.

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The Natural Life Survey

I put together a short survey to start a process of better figuring out what concerns our generation and how we connect to the environment. This is a first attempt and I look forward to all of your responses. Any suggestions for better questions are also welcome.
Click Here to take survey

Ego Check by Jesse Whitt

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Mutemath-Peculiar People©Teleprompt/Warner Bros. 2004

Cumbuco, Brazil- Jesse left about a week ago to spend two months in Brazil learning how to kite-surf. This is the first of his installments.

My fourth lesson today and things were going sweet. It was a beautiful day, good wind,the lagoon was low water, and I am in Brazil! I had gotten up a few times and kept my kite in the air even after some gnarly wrecks. I felt good. About an hour in I got up rode for a few meters before crashing but kept the kite up and it drug me across the shallow, one to two meter, water. As I gained control and slowed the kite my feet started hitting the ground and I galloped at slow trot. As I came almost to a stop I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the area of my foot, I screamed bloody murder.

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What are you thankful for?

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Pete Yorn-Life On A Chain©Sony 2001

The difficult part of this question for me is always where to start. There is so much to be thankful for in my life. So I figure I’ll start before the beginning.

Thank you to my former self for being such a good person (or creature) for allowing me to be born into a life of such privilege. There isn’t any other way I can explain being born a white, middle-class, American, male. I’ve had every opportunity in life placed before me without having truly done anything to deserve it. While I’ve struggled to make the most of my opportunity, but I’ve never struggled to find opportunity. I’ve never suffered from want.

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The Natural Solution: How a Green Economy Will Change Our World

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Sweatshop Union-The Thing About It©Battle Axe 2003

We’ve all heard the news. The climate is warming and weather is suddenly a threat. Wars are raging and those that vowed to keep us safe have actually put us in peril. Oil prices are soaring and our economy is slipping into recession. Meanwhile, our politicians are flip-flopping over who the biggest flip-flopper is. What’s most astonishing is that not one of them has chosen to run on a platform that can alleviate all these issues: going green. I mean, one of their own just won the Nobel Peace Prize for it, after winning the freakin Oscar! How much more obvious does it get? No matter how much “change” they vow to bring, it’s obvious that our politicians aren’t going to lead us to change. A green economy can change our world, but it’s going to have to be us that makes it happen.

Since moving to Reno in July, I’ve witnessed widespread growth in housing starts and commented on the environmental impacts of this growth in two other posts here at The Natural Life. As new track houses fill in the Washoe Valley grass and marshlands and push out wild horses and bird life, new mega-homes are making their way up the slopes of the Sierra and further limiting the room for starving bears to forage. But the housing problem isn’t just one that endangers the wildlife of this area, or irritates recreationalists like me who think that protecting these lands is integral to our identity as a people. The housing problem affects all of us, the world over.

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What is the natural life?

Last week I asked(assigned) my Writing Across Media students to look at The Natural Life and contribute a short explanation of what they think the natural life is. A whole six of them actually contributed. Out of 16. Don’t act like you’re not impressed by my effectiveness as a college professor. About as effective as I am as a facilitator of an online conversation eh? I’d be happy to have more contributions, but for now, here is what six young people think about what it means to live naturally.

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THE FAT KID DILEMMA by Jason Motyka

Three days before turkey the winds of Reno howled,

Which meant that a fat kids activities were not allowed.

So what was a portly boy to do on such a stormy day,

Fat kid decided to go to the gym to play.

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Different perspectives

Slide Mountain, Nev.- Giant, stupid homes are overtaking the forested slopes of the Sierra Nevada. After four or five miles of a breathtaking, downhill, single track ride off of Mount Rose towards Reno this weekend, a “No Trespassing” sign forced us to climb out of the valley we were in. The last mile of the ride had been cut off to make way for Galen Forest Estates, a mega-home subdivision.

Homeowners have done a good job of maintaining natural landscaping and lots of trees, but the sheer size of the homes struck me as ridiculous. Why do we feel the need to show our wealth in ways that encroach upon the land that draws us in? Shouldn’t we be able to interact with the land that we love without loving it to death?

I started coming to the Reno/Tahoe area when I was about 10 years old. My dad and I would come out from the Bay Area to fish the Truckee River and the alpine lakes. We’d also stop in Reno every summer on our way to visit my grandparents in Kansas. In college, I’d put a twin mattress in the back of my Subaru Outback and drive up to Tahoe to ski for the weekends. Now I live in this area and over the past few months I’ve been able to explore a lot more of the land on my mountain bike. I’ve been shaped by the land in my different interactions with it and by the way that I’ve seen it change.

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Trendwatching: Going Green by M.A.C.

Dewey Beach, Del.- I heard Time Magazine is naming Mother Nature as the Person Of the Year for 2007. While I question the veracity of this report (which I heard on a radio morning show), I also can’t help but be overjoyed that a trend like Going Green has picked up instead of another winter of Uggs or ponchos.

My newsroom is young. My editor is 24 and I am the oldest reporter at 26. We have a lot of room to run with ideas and I get away with leads that would never make it past traditional copyeditors. My paginator is phenomenal for edgy, clever headlines and I’m starting to enjoy the freedoms I have in this environment.

My editor loves when we come to her with ideas and I’ve decided I want to add a section to the paper about Going Green.

I already pitched this section but my editor said that she didn’t believe I could find a story idea every week. Maybe she would pick it up if it was a monthly thing?

I will be writing for another publication that is owned by the same media group as my paper. I talked to the other editor who showed some interest and because that paper serves a larger area I think I could probably find the stories at one of the papers in one of the formats.

Before I pursue this, I would love some responses on ways to “go green” and leads on story ideas. It is completely within our power to reconnect our generation to this world, and the ball is already rolling.

What are some ways to go green?

I write the features at my paper. I’m the “section front girl,” so these are probably going to be stories about the new recycling program the town launched or solar panels, etc.

I think this section has legs. Throw some ideas at me.

Thx!

Team Fat Kid-Jason Motyka

What is up to the natural life,
I thought I would write you about today’s strife.
This morning I went riding with two fat kids,
They looked so funny in their safety lids.
I was able to get them away from the car,
But it was not long before they pulled out their snickers bar.
We were riding fast and making good time,
When I heard this yell coming from my behind.
It was the larger of the two flat on his face,
This big boys blunder was going to ruin our pace.
So I lifted him up with all of my might,
Hoping my fingers he would not bite.
On our bikes again we began to ride,
I hope that didn’t hurt this fat kids pride.
We started to cruise and we were going quite fast,
When I heard kid #2 open her slimfast!
I could not believe what my eyes saw,
In the middle of the woods slurping slimfast with a straw!
We finally made it down to the truck,
How these fatties made it was nothing but luck.
So what did I learn on this ride you ask,
If you’re riding with team fat kid you better take your flask.

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