Coastline Pilot/LA TIMES

15 October 2004

 

Chasing the Muse

Catharine Cooper 

 

 

“She planted 30 million trees.”

 

I read the news aloud to anyone who will listen.

 

“She planted 30 million trees, and she won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

 

Wangari Mathaai and the organization she founded, The Green Belt Movement (GBM), planted 30 million trees in Kenya during the last 30 years.  For this accomplishment, along with a myriad of others, including the advocacy of women’s rights, broad based educational initiatives, development of the tool of reforestation as a vehicle to stave off tribal warfare, and an expansion of the foundation of democracy, Mathaai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

There was a level of backlash in the global community that the Prize was awarded to an environmentalist.  The expected recipient had been The Atomic Energy Commission, and it’s attempts to stem nuclear proliferation.  There was additional harangue that during a war year, what use was an environmental acknowledgement?

 

Yet a review of the foundation of the Prize itself reveals that “the ways and means to achieve peace are as diverse as the individuals and organizations rewarded.”  Along with humanitarian work and peace movements, the Prize has been awarded to a wide field of work including the advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts and arms control, and disarmament.  Henry Dunat, founder of the Red Cross, and Frédéric Passy, the leading international pacifist of the time, shared the first Prize, given in 1901.  The 1970 recipient, Norman E. Borlaug, recognized for his work in food production and hunger alleviation, suggested in his acceptance speech, that had hunger been an issue before Dr. Nobel’s death, there would have been an award granted for its resource development. 

 

Surely the acknowledgment of Mathaai and GBM are equally a tribute to the earth. In her acceptance speech, given in Nairobi on October 9, Mathaai expressed her thanks for what she termed an ‘unparalleled honor’, and continued to say, “By making this award, the Nobel Committee has placed the critical issues of environmental conservation, democratic governance and community empowerment and peace before the eyes of the world.   Some people have asked what the relationship is between peace and environment, and to them I say that many wars are fought over resources, which are becoming increasingly scarce across the earth. If we did a better job of managing our resources sustainably, conflicts over them would be reduced. So, protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace.”

 

The planting of the trees themselves stands as an act of our salvation. Records show that during the 1980’s, 530,00 acres of tropical forests were destroyed.  Of those, 21,000 square miles were deforested each year in the Amazon Basin - the size of the state of North Carolina. Obviously, we need significantly greater planting efforts if we are to regain the green covering that provides us with, among other things, the essential building block of our existence:  oxygen.  Deforestation, which releases vast quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, has been shown to have a direct link to the growing global warming crisis

 

To bring that point home, a news release this week shows a troubling spike – a rise of more than two parts per million - in the CO2 content of our atmosphere to 375.64 ppm, measured over the past two years.  The level was recorded at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii where data has been collected since 1958.  Previous rises of similar magnitude occurred in 1973, 1988, 1994 and 1998, but each was accompanied by an El Nino climatic season.  This has not been the case for the last two years.  One possible explanation is a ‘weakening of the earth’s carbon ‘sinks’ [oceans and forests], associated with global warming, as a kind of climate feedback mechanism.

 

The recognition that the Nobel Peace Prize has granted to Wangari Mathaai and the efforts of GBM to spread their message of nurturing environmental sustainability is well timed and deserved.  Too often, we take this gracious planet for granted, mesmerized by her bounteous gifts of fresh air, forests, meadows, rivers, lakes and oceans.  We must recognize our roll in her conservation, and continually seek out and support ways in which we can be better earth stewards.  

 

Catharine Cooper loves and supports wild places.  She can be reached at ccooper@cooperdesign.net.