Writers and Fighters of Environmental Movements

By Jessica Kaplan

Wendell Berry and his predecessor, Henry David Thoreau, embody the true spirit of simplicity at its finest. Both lived happy, fulfilling lives among nature in its purest form from Massachusetts to Kentucky. The writing of Thoreau and Berry parallel each other at some points through both style and content. 

Thoreau and Berry felt they needed to return to nature. Thoreau built a small 10 by 15 foot home on Walden Pond and Berry bought a 125 acre farm in Kentucky. This is the basis of both of their writings. They have a love for the land they have deliberately chosen. Here, they participated in what I would call "honest work.” Living a more simple life with less dependence on unnecessary things. 

I find the writing of both Berry and Thoreau very interesting because they are logistical, but sensitive at the same time. Thoreau commonly lists purchases and harvests, including number of each and price if applicable. This incorporation of lists is attractive to some readers aesthetically, but also helps as a visual aid. It really hits home the point of how much he uses (or more so what he isn’t using). You can see quite plainly that his writing of simplicity is reflected in these short lists of items and only necessary amounts of harvest. Berry is also very in touch with what his land is capable of and had a detailed plan in order to not exhaust the land. He lays out in “The Making of a Marginal Farm” just how he used his farm. He writes out (without the use of lists, but still just as informative as Thoreau) why emotionally he chose the land he did stating that he feels that his interest lies in the land of a great-great-great-grandfather. He envisions where he once fished, hunted, and explored. Although Thoreau uses lists and Berry prefers to map out plans through emotions as to why he used the land accordingly, they give a different approach to similar themes.

Similarly to Berry and Thoreau, Rachel Carson had the same graceful organization. Her writing is based on hard numbers and facts, yet she was able to reach so many because of her effortless grace. As Berry and Thoreau both were, Carson was very aware of her surroundings. All three writers broke down barriers through their stylistic writing. Many of their styles I would describe as personal. This is obvious for Berry and Thoreau because they speak directly of their own experiences, but even for Carson she had a way of making our-of-reach concepts such as DDT as something personal to her. You know she means business by the amount of effort that went into compiling the scientific research, but I can also sense her personal attachment. Carson states, “the most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials” which identifies the problem according to her as negligence by the human race. 

Berry and Carson both have audiences that they're trying to affect whether it be for political attention or raising local awareness. Through Silent Spring, Carson paints pictures of American towns thriving from the bounty of the natural environment, but what you don't see is what Carson is drawing attention to-- the silent poisoning of air, water, and soil. She pulls the reader in to connect with the environment, to feel its pain. She creates this ongoing relation of humans to animals, which has always been somewhat of a strange relationship. There are countless lab animals being forced to endure substances that humans knowingly put into our environment. Carson makes the reader aware that if it's harming animals, it's harming Earth’s other inhabitants- humans. The visuals of Rachel Carson's journey are depicted in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; a film that helps the viewer put a face to the stylistic writing of an incredible book. 

In the film you’ll also see interviews of some of those closest to Rachel. The viewer is able to see places that were important to Carson, like Maine. This film is effective because they draw on the true essence of Rachel. Through the depictions of her in the video footage you see that she was a well put-together woman, which could have had an impact on the huge quantity of people liked her. She spoke clearly and precisely in interviews. The way she is depicted had a huge impact on how people viewed environmental issues because she became a face for the activism behind banning DDT. She has been accredited for bringing this issue to the media and American citizens. 

In an article found on Forbes by Henry Miller, "Rachel Carson's Deadly Fantasies,” sets out to criticize the work done by Carson. Something that sticks out at me that Carson did not do is that Miller draws on the opinions of many others who are also against Carson's opinion and writing. Miller comments on the legitimacy of Carson, but fails to provide more accurate (according to his opinion) information. This is something that I can draw out of the article that makes it lose credibility. Something I look for when reading an article that attacks a work I agree with is do they give a legitimate alternative? 

In this specific article I only get the point that he doesn't like Carson because she is an "alarmist” he calls her this out of the fact that people responded to her message. I see his argument as alarmist because he is trying to tell the reader that the information is not factual without providing an alternative besides to disregard Carson. After reading this article I have only one question for Henry Miller- if you believe that it is all about the threshold of intake of DDT (meaning small doses is acceptable), why would we want to ingest any substance that has a fine line between "safe" (to your standards) and dangerous? The outlawing of DDT in many countries comes from a consensus that the substance is not necessary and therefor unworthy of usage. 

Moving forward, Bill McKibben takes a modern approach to these same principles from Thoreau, Berry, and Carson. He incorporates the same importance of nature, but now you see words like laws and remote wilderness. These are things that people like Thoreau didn't have to face. Like Carson, he talks about our immediate problems in the environment like carbon dioxide and temperature rise in "The End of Nature.”

In many ways I see McKibben's work resembling that of Wendell Berry in many ways. Both raise awareness to the human races' destruction of the natural world. When I read "Manifesto: The Mad Liberation Front" I can hear the development of McKibben's environmental voice in Berry’s own words and ideas. Berry says "denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands." This is similar to McKibben when he says we are "ending nature." Both are trying to reach their readers by shocking them and personally I react to this with concern. I think this is the emotion both writers are going for-- concern. They don't necessarily want to scare the reader, but they aren't going to fluff up the truth. Today, both McKibben and Berry are at the forefront of many environmental movements. Their styles echo the intensity of Carson and Thoreau.

Many films have been produced on the environment. A Fierce Green Fire is a film that also incorporates the work of Rachel Carson, as well as the contamination of Love Canal. My favorite part of this is in the use of footage from different environmental groups like Greenpeace fighting for the whales, and the local forces behind justice for Love Canal. I believe it is effective because of its “real time” feel. You can see through the video they use of the events that what we have heard about in environmental movements is real, and not that far behind us. It gave me a desire to learn from these events and become aware of the legitimate risks behind not only substances, but also the movements that occur because of them. I think people watching this film feel emotions through those involved in, for example, Love Canal. It affects the viewer because you see the struggles many went through to fight for justice of the land they called home. 

The works of Thoreau, Berry, Carson, and McKibben have had profound influences on how I read and interpret environmental works, as well as the natural world itself. I will always try to mimic the effortless style that I see in all of their works.