Planting an Idea: Critical and Creative Thinking About Environmental Issues

Praise for Planting an Idea

"Planting an Idea carries a critical message about global sustainability and environmental justice while suggesting a practical and hopeful approach to solving the world’s most pressing issues. Jerry Apps’s historical storytelling combines with Natasha Kassulke’s fine journalistic writing to entertain while they teach. Most importantly, each chapter shares lessons to help bring people together, a welcome antidote to our divided nation’s public discourse. A must read for book clubs, students, and community leaders!"

—Terry Daulton, environmental educator, artist, and founding president of Wisconsin’s Green Fire

"There is no time like the present, and with ever-increasing levels of population growth, consumption, and technology, the present is critical. So just when we needed it most, Apps and Kassulke have given us Planting an Idea: Critical and Creative Thinking About Environmental Problems. Decidedly not esoteric, we now have a guide to understanding the environmental issues of our time, but we also have a pragmatic text that shows how to evaluate and act on these threats. Planting an Idea shows us how to live on our home planet and have a future. We all need to read, and apply, this book to our lives!"

—Richard Knight, Professor Emeritus of Wildlife Conservation, Colorado State University

What happens when one of Wisconsin’s great storytellers collaborates with a top-notch environmental journalist, who just happens to be his daughter-in-law? The resulting book gives the reader a fresh take on environmentalism, with an emphasis on hopeful stories from Wisconsin. It’s neither a history textbook nor simply a celebration of Wisconsin’s conservation traditions. Rather it engages the reader and helps point a way forward in times when environmental threats can seem overwhelming. Wisconsin’s great conservationist and writer, Aldo Leopold, took a somewhat similar approach in his classic essay, Good Oak," and now Planting an Idea adds to Wisconsin’s rich tradition of environmental literature."

—Stanley A. Temple, Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Senior Fellow, Aldo Leopold Foundation

Copyright © 2023

Jerry Apps and Natasha Kassulke

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Apps, Jerold W., 1934- author. | Kassulke, Natasha, author.

Title: Planting an idea : a guidebook to critical and creative thinking about environmental problems / by Jerry Apps and Natasha Kassulke.

Description: Wheat Ridge, Colorado : Fulcrum Publishing, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022041308 (print) | LCCN 2022041309 (ebook) | ISBN 9781682753422 (paperback) | ISBN 9781682753644 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Environmentalism. | Environmental protection. | Environmental degradation. | BISAC: SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Environmental Economics

Classification: LCC GE195 .A66 2023 (print) | LCC GE195 (ebook) | DDC 363.7--dc23/eng20230111

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022041308

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022041309

Printed in the United States

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover art and design by Kateri Kramer

Interior illustrations by Kateri Kramer

Unless otherwise noted, all websites cited in endnotes were current as of the initial edition of this book.

Fulcrum Publishing

3970 Youngfield Street

Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033

(800) 992-2908 • (303) 277-1623

www.fulcrumbooks.com

Contents

Introduction: Just Think About It

Chapter 1—The Environmental Movement

Providing a Brief History

Chapter 2—All About Thinking

Evaluating How You Know What You Know

Chapter 3—A Game Changer

Combining Critical and Creative Thinking

Chapter 4—Climate Change

Finding Our House Is on Fire

Chapter 5—Agriculture

Growing from a Complex History, Facing an Uncertain Future

Chapter 6—Forests

Discovering Deep Roots and Branching Out

Chapter 7—Water

Riding a Wave of Complex Issues

Chapter 8—Energy

Building Up Steam for Sustainability

Chapter 9—Air Quality

Finding It’s Too Soon to Breathe a Sigh of Relief

Chapter 10—Natural Resource Issues

Where Enjoying Meets Exploiting

Chapter 11—Land Use

Seeing the Need for Resilient Road Mapping

Chapter 12—Endangered Species

Going, Going, Gone

Chapter 13—Biodiversity

Protecting Healthy Ecosystems

Conclusion: Just the Beginning

Acknowledgments

Notes

For Further Reading

About the Authors

Introduction

Just Think About It

Why write this book? And why now? For us, as environmentalists, the answers to these questions are black and white. From our perspective, we are at a critical time in the history of our planet. We are at a tipping point that is leaning toward disaster. But we also believe that we can stand up for the environment, and we can straighten out this calamity.

To some, this response might sound a bit—perhaps a lot—optimistic. But it is vital. In the planet’s long history, concern for the natural environment has never been more important. Today, a strong argument can be made that no corner of the globe is immune from environmental degradation, as evidenced by widespread climate change impacts. Across the world, we face water quality and quantity concerns, land use conflict, air quality degradation, rampant species loss, and food insecurity.

As a result, we are calling for bold collective action based on facts that inform critical and creative thinking about solutions.

But we greenies cannot do this alone. We need people from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds; of different genders, ages, educational backgrounds and affiliations; and diversity in all areas of human nature. We are at a time when policy makers, politicians, environmental organizations, and individuals must work ever harder and together to protect the future for our grandchildren and the generations who follow.

Yet, never in our lifetimes have we seen such dramatic divisions between those who want to protect the environment and those who wish to exploit it for its monetary return. In the 1960s, when environmental protection was a topic for widespread discussion and action, both conservatives and liberals worked together to fashion legislation to improve and protect water, air, land, and wild creatures.

Since the Great Recession (2007–2009), policy makers have taken sides—often extreme sides. On one side are certain conservatives who view the environment as an impediment to economic development and job creation. On the other side are certain liberals who wish to protect the environment at all costs. The two groups are at loggerheads, with considerable emotion and strong opinions shared and debated, often with the facts of the matter ignored or manipulated to fit a particular point of view.

What is needed, in our judgment, is for both groups to stand back and examine their basic beliefs and values about the environment and do some critical and creative thinking, followed by action. We also need long-term planning that ensures environmental and economic policies are centered around health needs—both ours and the planet’s.

While we come from different genders, educational backgrounds (Natasha has studied mass communications and biology, and Jerry holds a PhD in education and rural sociology), life experiences, and generations, we agree that thinking without action accomplishes little. And action without careful thinking is dangerous and often futile.

Aside from the various groups that have taken sides for and against the environment, each one of us, every last person, has an individual responsibility for caring for the environment. Belonging to an environmental group is a good idea. But concern for the environment goes beyond concerned groups. It is everyone’s responsibility, whether working alone or working with others.

We don’t mean taking some willy-nilly action without first examining the position you are taking. It does not mean joining a group that appears to agree with your position when you have not carefully examined what your position is.

This book is designed to help you figure out what your position is on a particular environmental problem, and ultimately not only know that position, but also help provide evidence to back up your position. And not just any evidence, but accurate, verifiable evidence from reputable, reliable sources. So, in a way this is a guidebook for examining, and thinking critically and creatively about the important environmental problems that face our planet today.

We have both contributed to each chapter of this book, but have divided up the primary writing responsibilities for those chapters based on our experiences and expertise. Here is the lineup of who was the primary author for which chapter.

For chapter 1 (The Environmental Movement: Providing a Brief History), Jerry has set the stage by writing a brief history of the environmental movement and how we’ve gotten to where we are today regarding the country’s concern, or lack of concern, for environmental problems. For chapters 2 (All About Thinking: Evaluating How You Know What You Know) and 3 (A Game Changer: Combining Critical and Creative Thinking), Jerry delves into the meaning of, and how to do critical and creative thinking. We believe that by carefully examining environmental problems through the lenses of these two types of thinking, progress can be made in helping solve many of the issues facing our natural environment today. Jerry is also the lead author for chapter 5 (Agriculture: Growing from a Complex History, Facing an Uncertain Future), as well as chapters 6 (Forests: Discovering Deep Roots and Branching Out), 7 (Water: Riding a Wave of Complex Issues) and 8 (Energy: Building Up Steam for Sustainability).

Natasha wrote chapters 4 (Climate Change: Finding Our House Is on Fire), 9 (Air Quality: Finding It’s Too Soon to Breathe a Sigh of Relief), 10 (Natural Resource Issues: Where Enjoying Meets Exploiting), 11 (Land Use: Seeing the Need for Resilient Road Mapping), 12 (Endangered Species: Going, Going, Gone), and 13 (Biodiversity: Protecting Healthy Ecosystems).

We share the writing of this introduction and the concluding chapter (Just the Beginning). There is an extensive references section, with books that describe in great detail how to do both critical and creative thinking, as well as books that tackle the various challenges currently facing the natural environment.

Jerry Apps

Natasha Kassulke

CHAPTER 1

The Environmental Movement

Providing a Brief History

In the United States, the identification of an environmental movement is generally traced to the 1960s. But concern for the environment goes back many years before that. Winona LaDuke, a Native American, writes about the concern Native people had for the environment from their earliest days on the land. The Native Americans’ concern for the environment goes back to the Indigenous philosophy of a reverence for the interconnectedness of all life forms.¹

The coming of the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840) resulted in considerable environmental pollution, especially air and water pollution. Several groups were formed in response to these environmental challenges. One was the Emergency Conservation Committee, founded by a New York socialite, Rosalie Edge, in 1929.

The Great Depression (1929–1941) not only resulted in an economic calamity with millions of people out of work, it also revealed what would happen if grassland not especially well-suited to agricultural crops was plowed and planted, and then the needed rains did not come. Starting in about 1930 and continuing through much of the Depression years, these once stable grasslands, many in the southwestern states, now cultivated for crops, saw massive dust clouds, created by the dry winds from the West that arrived and refused to leave. The cry for soil conservation strategies began emerging. Then President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Soil Conservation Act on April 27, 1935, which created the US Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service.

Two years earlier, in 1933, President Roosevelt and the Congress created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Unemployed young men, organized into camps of about 200 each, planted trees, built dams to prevent soil erosion, advocated contour farming, helped construct state and national parks, fought forest fires, and participated in many other environmentally focused programs. The CCC, which operated from 1933 to 1942, helped build an awareness of the environmental challenges the country faced and set out to correct them.

Following the end of World War II, dramatic changes began occurring in this country—changes that in many ways went well beyond the obvious advances in science and technology. For example, electricity became widely available, and agriculture changed from small family farmers to larger holdings focused on single enterprises such as dairy, poultry, hogs, or grain crops. In contrast, the small family farms were diversified with several small enterprises.

As a result of these revolutionary changes in agriculture, thousands of rural people fled to the cities in search of jobs and a new life away from the land. When they accumulated enough money for a down payment, they left the inner cities and built homes in the surrounding areas, on farmland that soon became extremely valuable as homesites.

As the rural population dwindled to a fraction of what it was in the 1930s and 1940s, and the resultant urban population increased, more and more people had little or no firsthand experience with the natural world. What they knew about nature they heard from the stories their parents and grandparents told of life on the farm, or from a book they might read, or a TV show or movie they might see. Nature had a different meaning for most urban people who had not experienced it directly. Many were interested in learning more about it to be sure—bird-watching clubs emerged, and communities developed parks and nature preserves where people could hike and observe nature. Author David Suzuki wrote, The most destructive aspect of cities is the profound schism created between human beings and nature. In a human-made environment, surrounded by animals and plants of our choice, we feel ourselves to have escaped the limits of nature.²

By the early 1960s, hordes of people drove gas-guzzling automobiles that were as large as hay wagons and spewed exhaust pollution into the atmosphere with no concern for the future. Technology was on a roll—new insecticides, such as DDT, emerged—a savior spray, some said. A way to control disease-carrying mosquitoes and pesky flies. Unbeknown at the time, DDT also prevented millions of raptor eggs, such as those of the bald eagle, from hatching.

Water and air pollution—the results of the country’s so-called progress—had increased to dangerous levels. Blatant use of pesticides ravaged certain populations of wildlife. Land conservation efforts were just beginning in many parts of the country—with still-fresh memories of those Dust Bowl years of the 1930s when millions of acres of topsoil blew away on the westerly winds that raged across the central and southwestern parts of the country.

One time during the early 1960s, I was driving around Gary, Indiana, on an early evening and the sky was a sickly red from the manufacturing plants operating there at the time. Also, around that time, I was driving in West Virginia and came upon entire hillsides of dead trees—killed by the effects of acid rain, I was told. The acid rain resulted from coal-burning power plants located many miles to the west spewing sulfur-laden coal smoke into the air.

People with breathing problems suffered, animals suffered. Fish from polluted rivers and lakes could not be consumed. Birds were dying. But most people were slow in realizing that unless something changed, and quickly, nature would evoke its wrath on the people—as it was already beginning to do.

Some people, mostly students in high schools and colleges read Henry David Thoreau’s Walden but found it difficult to understand, or simply dismissed his words as those coming from someone living at another time, in a different place, who wrote with long sentences and described a quaint lifestyle that was no longer found in our modern world.

The idea of being concerned about nature was not on anyone’s mind. People were too busy buying things, trying to amass wealth, raising families, purchasing homes—and wondering, and sometimes worrying about and participating in the civil rights movement and the anti–Vietnam War protests that had begun to erupt on college campuses in the 1960s across the country.

By the early 1960s, planned obsolescence, a term used to describe products that were built to wear out so they could be replaced and thus keep people employed in making replacements, became popular. Everything from cars to radios, kitchen appliances to ballpoint pens were manufactured with a limited lifetime.

Advertising began shouting to a population that it must not