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12/17/2004: "Dittoheads and Birdbrains"

I work only a couple of blocks from where global environmental issues are being fought in a microcosm. I’m of course talking about what’s happening over by Central Park, the former and hopefully future home of the red tail hawks Pale Male and Lola. I get the impression from talking with folks outside of NYC that it’s a highly visible and compelling issue even outside the NYC SMSA. I can tell you that those who live within sight of the Empire State Building are absolutely obsessed. Nature has a special meaning to New Yorkers. It represents an important reminder of forces that are and that should be beyond the reach of humanity. Living and working in a place where the hand of man dominates everything you see, one might imagine that nature would be forgotten. Quite the opposite is true. Maybe it comes down to that old maxim “familiarity breeds contempt,” that those with ready access to wildness have no special regard for it. In any case, these very visible hawks are perhaps the most beloved in all of human history, simply because they have come to be a symbol of so much to so many. Not that there is anything wrong with that. People need a focus for their passions, and the unfolding tale of Pale Male and Lola is as good as any other. Which brings us to the other players in this drama. If the hawks represent all of Nature, indeed the very Earth itself, what does the birdbrain coop board of 927 Fifth Ave. represent? They’re of course the quintessence of the Dittohead attitude towards the environment. Their enthusiasm for a particular manifestation of Nature is directly dependent on the answers to the following questions: 1) Is there any money to be made? 2) Is there any down side of any kind for tolerating Nature as it exists? Both answers trigger action, either to exploit value (by sucking it out as fast as possible) or by putting “nature on a leash” (a delicious phrase from John Sayles’ Sunshine State). The only reason to ever just leave Nature alone is…well, just laziness, I guess. From their perspective it’s a perfectly logical way of looking at the world. The rest of us see the Earth as an extremely complicated mechanism that we don’t understand very well and on which we and posterity are totally dependent. At the same time, we know that we have unleashed the power to impact the Earth to a degree unimaginable only a generation ago, and this power has created so much wealth that tempering it may well be beyond human capability. In other words, there is a possibility that environmental catastrophe is already in the cards. Let’s all hope that’s not the case. In the event we can muster the will to mitigate this undeniable risk enough so that future generations have a shot at our level of wealth, we have a moral obligation to try. I’m reminded of Trevanian: “Who will do the hard things? Those that can.”