On Saturday, September 17, I was flattered to be one of five individuals and one organization honored as a 2011 “environmental hero” by Resources for Sustainable Communities in Bellingham, WA.
As I pointed out when accepting the award, I take em where I can get em, but I’m not much of a hero. I’ve written about the environment as a journalist and author for decades, but that was writing about real heroes, not me. I’ve contributed to local environmental books, made speeches, and served on boards. But I know hundreds of people who “walk the talk” better than I do.
I drove our Prius to the ceremony, but that’s my wife’s car. I usually pilot our small SUV, a RAV4.
My fellow heroes, who are real ones, are tireless volunteer Marie Hitchman, energy conservation leader John Davies, environmental educator Robyn de Pre, the late activist Gerald Larson, and the Bellingham Food Bank.
Still, it’s an opportunity to comment on an abiding interest. The keynote speaker was Denis Hayes of Seattle’s Bullitt Foundation, the first national coordinator of Earth Day way back in 1970. He made two good points. First, we’re in deep doo-doo – world population is seven times what it was in Napoleon’s day, the UN just upped its estimates of expected population growth, climate change is rattling the weather, and the national conversation is one of denying science and resisting regulation.
Second, Denis and I both see hope. One reason is that despair isn’t much of a rallying cry, and pessimism is not a strategy. Not only can things improve, they have to, or we’re screwed.
Another is that a lot of good is happening along with bad. The Bullitt Foundation itself is building a state-of-the-art zero consumption headquarters illustrating the technological innovation that’s coming in fits and starts to the world. (Today’s news story irony: Chinese protesting the pollution from a solar panel plant!)
Another example is Resources itself, a remarkable story. It started in Bellingham in the early 1980s. When the city wouldn’t consider curbside recycling a group of neighbors started their own and brought it into the schools until the city took it over in 1989.
And in 1993, Carl Weimer and remodeling contractor Carl Odom started the Re Store, which takes old windows, doors, fixtures, and lumber, and resells them instead of sending them to landfills. The Bellingham store was followed by one in Seattle, an example of sustainability that could inspire a nation.
All this has evolved into an organization, now overseen by Bob Ferris, that does everything from watch-dogging the cleanliness of Bellingham Bay to protesting a proposed port terminal to ship Wyoming coal to China, after railroading it through every major city in western Washington – an idea I consider one of the dumbest I’ve heard in a long time. (Our governor, a former director of the state Department of Ecology, supports it. Yikes!)
My biggest hope comes from working (until recently) with college students on a quarterly environmental magazine called The Planet. The kids I met were smart, inspiring, committed, and serious. Judging from them, the future is in good shape.
As a writer, I lead a somewhat schizophrenic life. Though some of my novels have an environmental influence here and there, they are primarily historical adventures that draw readers from all over the political spectrum. Many of my fiction readers would have no interest in my non-fiction environmental writing, and vice versa. And rightly so.
But I feel blessed to do both. My life has been immeasurably enriched by going to beautiful places and meeting dedicated people while writing about the environment. I also like to think about stuff other than pollution and greenhouse gases at times, be it Nazis or Napoleon Bonaparte. Some people relax with football; I gravitate towards history, science, and fiction. My novels provide terrific balance, and what I learn doing them improves my environmental writing, and vice versa.
I hope to give voice to environmental ideas for a long time to come; right now I’m a gadfly protesting a proposed water bottling plant in my own city of Anacortes.
But what’s really exciting is when someone reads something I’ve written and runs with it. There are so many heroes! If you’re curious about Resources for Sustainable Communities, the website is: http://www.re-sources.org/home.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Mr. Dietrich,
I would first like to thank you for great novels. However, I love how you bring our modern issues into your novels….. Please do not forget that change takes time. many do not understand the real issues we face. Hopefully, we can begin to educate our neighbors.
jim
Stumbled into an article you wrote in for the Seattle Times depicting your concerns for the health and future wellness of Puget Sound and “thumb sucking”. I was entranced and have reread the piece many times. I applaud your comprehension of this multi-layered toxic situation we have in Washington State.
I come from a NW family that goes back 4 generations. As a little girl I learned to water ski on Hood Canal and later, camped by that shore in a teepee when my own babies were only weeks old. Then Hood Canal could no longer sustain its shellfish so we gravitated North to a cottage on a small island with a pristine ecosystem and a sacred abundance of marine life. I felt we had been blessed with a second chance and I would always remember Hood Canal.
Our new island had a small community of year round residents but most of the waterfront property was owned by recreational weekenders like us. Upon arrival on the island, you were greeted by a community sign asking everyone to “Please Conserve the Water”. We had been informed by our realtor of the water situation but since our teepee didn’t have any water the concept of a shortage was simply luxurious and that has never changed.
Unfortunately, other things have. Our island and watershed has fallen prey to the same pressures as all of Puget Sound. For the past 10 years, I have been a dedicated steward searching for solutions to protect the shellfish and reverse the previous destructive decisions that hurt the environment.
It’s a thankless position. I’ve never reached a benchmark of success and it’s getting worse all the time. I think you understand.
My story goes on forever, with discrepancies and apathy, even from the people
who are paid to protect our natural resources. I fluctuate from frustration to fury while the fecal bacteria increases to the point the DOH closes the beach for swimming!
What to do? Ten years ago, our PUD set a plan to install public water throughout this island. We voted against it, hired lawyers to stop it, campaigned and complained to no success. After six years, the PUD pulled rank, counted vacant properties a yes vote, hired out of state contractors who tunneled and drilled through wetlands, fields and streams without a single SEPA, Shoreline or ACOE permit. And today, where there was none, water gushes in at 90 psi then exits as sewage to be treated by old inadequate septic systems, failing drain fields, cesspools or nothing at all. When I asked the PUD, they denied any position or responsibility claiming they only deliver the water what happens after that is none of their concern. I was outraged!
And that is when I became an environmental activist.
Always looking for a miracle. Calling Olympia 100′s of times. Going to the meetings of agencies, nets, committees, partnerships, departments, administrations, councils, and coalitions. Always asking for any practices, proceedures, cures to help save the sand dollars!
It’s all such a sad shame. Remember, this inlet was the last surviving pristine natural Eco system only 10 years ago. It’s survival was due to the Navy as they own the facing island and it’s vacant, with the shoreline completely undisturbed.
It’s truly a quiet unknown gem in the midst of Puget Sound.
I apologize for my yawn….are thumb sucking?
Haha
Anyway, please let me know if you hear of any miracles. I do believe!
Tori Hansen
[email protected]
past 10 years I have been driven
Would love to take you on a “Poop tour” and show you what the over 80 polluting factory farms/dairies/feedlots are doing to the Yakima Valley and its people, air and water.