Pivot

Finding purpose in shifting sands

Photo courtesy of Ontario Barn Preservation, smithy wagon door hinge.

Pivot, the English word, comes from 12th century French, for a pin around which something moves, e.g. a hinge pin, like on a door. I find it neat to think about pivot figuratively from this point of view. Take John Lennon who not only was a musical artist around whom people moved, but also made big changes in direction with the craft so many times.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 was a daring shift around the pin of land use. In this moment in the history, America was planting the seed for ecosystem protection that other nations turned to for inspiration. There was a danger in loosing the most important places, and an opportunity to protect them. Then, along came Jimmy Carter, and, behind every great man is a great woman:

Rosalynn Carter, seen here out-casting her husband.

Jimmy Carter did not write ANILCA, that was a nine year congressional process spearheaded by Representatives Udall (Arizona) and Silberling (Ohio). What Carter did do was enthusiastically promote the bill and laud its triumph upon signing it. In doing so, he tripled the size of America’s wilderness system, adding 56 million acres and making 16 new Wildlife Refuges and 13 new National Parks. Carter, who like me grew up on a farm turning over rocks in the creek, watched strong men steward the land with care and concern. He grew up hunting and fishing and came to refer to himself as a “steward of nature.” He marked the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) among the greatest conservation triumphs ever. It was bold and again showed the world what America could do for nature with the political will.

Sadly, our political will has pivoted away from protection, and ironically, as resources become more scarce, we have decided to pilfer the last of the peanut butter from the bottom of the jar, endangered species be damned. Instead of puking his ego into a gilded ballroom to celebrate himself and denigrate his enemies, in 1979 Jimmy Carter installed solar panels onto the White House in order to save the tax payers during high energy costs, and simultaneously he reduced air pollution.

I find it incredibly difficult to watch sixty years of progress flushed down the drain by our current branches of government. Initially I would have shrugged it off as beyond my power and put on season 4 of Ted Lasso, but the fire-smoke now choking my lungs can no longer be ignored. The triple threat of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution are pushing our planet to the brink. These things, like migratory birds, transcend national boundaries, but require nations to take steps toward solving them if we want a livable planet. Canada has said it is pivoting its industries to be nature positive in the future, where agriculture, mining, and forestry will actually give back more to nature than they take.

The Seal River Estuary, which holds approximately 1.7 billion tons of carbon is an important summer home for many waterfowl.

Goodness, Canada, did you really have to in April commit eleven years and $74.7 million to the indigenous led conservation efforts on the Seal River? Wait, wait, your investment is part of the $3.8 billion “Force of Nature” act passed in March to protect land, water, and wildlife in Manitoba? You’re making it really hard for me to make fun of the poutine dripping off your beard onto your red flannel. There’s more? I don’t think I can take it. $230,000,000 for the Indigenous Guardians Program to protect oceans and land? Stop! Please! You’re embarrassing us! You estimate your “Ecosystem Service Value,” i.e. free work nature is doing for your nation, at $372 Billion? You call for shifting to a nature focused economy in every sector? You are spearheading “Adaptation Finance,” which helps developing nations enact sustainable initiatives?

“Oh Cana-Daaah,” we can pivot too, I promise. Ballotpedia, Vote Smart, Vote411, and other organizations are ready to help you finalize your ballot for the midterm elections. Write and call your representatives. I’ve been doing it every week since the new year. Write your Supreme Court, that’s right, your! Be specific on which policy, and mail a letter to 1 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20543. Don’t have a policy? Start with HR140 that just passed allowing Chilean and Swiss mining companies to extract copper sulfide in the headwaters of the most pristine watershed in the USA, the Boundary Waters.

The danger we face with our environment will continue regardless of who is at the political helm, but that doesn’t mean we are powerless, instead it means we stand in front of great opportunity to pivot into what was truly always ours: clean air, clean water, clean land, and above all, purpose!

Shifting more into our purpose might be the most powerful pivot we can make, but it can also be a neurotic path, based in our ego, or an enlightened path —the path of compassion. On the neurotic path we allow environmental anxiety to cloud our vision, think costly and temporary pivots like mechanical carbon sequestration instead of just planting trees. The enlightened pivot requires us to set our ego aside and make sacrifices for the other. Jimmy Carter often referenced the need to consider “the other,” as in people. Yet he and Rosalynn also extended the compassionate ethos of “the other” to Nature.

Animal Unity (1978) by Canadian Indigenous Artist Noval Morrisseau, courtesy of Muskrat Magazine

Rosalynn Carter believed in the healing power of nature. Yo Yo Ma said whatever we do to nature, we do to ourselves. In his March 31st speech, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney proclaimed, “When we fail to protect nature, we are not making a sound economic choice. We are making a choice that works against us.” Perhaps this is why Rosalynn dedicated her life to healing nature. If we heal nature will we heal ourselves? It’s not too late for us to pivot, but these things take political will, so by golly pivot from Ted Lasso for fifteen minutes and express your own political will.