Cold Warrior Battles Pipeline

Walsh, Bryan. 2012. "Cold Warrior." Time. 12 March.


This morning I read a profile on Bill McKibben, a climate change activist who was arrested this year for protesting the Keystone Oil pipeline. McKibben is the mind behind 350.org, a website calling people to do something about the growing carbon problem in the atmosphere.


I've heard much of what was said in the article before, here are some of the often repeated facts about the global warming debate:

• The global climate has warmed by one degree Celsius (44).
• Poor countries (such as Bangladesh) suffer more from climate change than the rich countries (45).
• The atmosphere is in a dangerous state of change after it passed 350 carbon parts per million (ppm) (47).
• If the United States rejects Canadian oil sands pipelines, the oil will just travel to China (47).

What really strikes me in this article is the clearly divided tone. The last image shows McKibben leading a group of protesters with a sign that says "Big Oil Bought Congress." His hand is up in the air and it looks like he's yelling. In the article, the government and oil companies are clearly ignoring the factual claims of the scientists. McKibben, in the first quote, states "While the scientists were talking patiently into our leaders' ear, the fossil fuel industry has been screaming into the other" (46). The rest of the article circles Obama's political decisions to reject the Keystone pipeline—which happened after McKibben lead protests against it.

McKibben's last quote continues the us-them theme, saying "the only way to win is to spend our bodies on this, and we'll do that" making him the environmental martyr (47). At the end, I recognize the significance of such a large political vote against a jobs-creating opportunity. It seems that Obama is not willing to risk the environmental toll taken that the oil sand industry. But the article divides the sides too clearly and ignores the millions of Americans who still only here McKibben's yelling as another wacko who things the apocalypse will begin in our backyard tomorrow.

 

Book: History of Media and the Environment, pre 1960

Neuzil, Mark, and William Kovarkik. 1996. Mass Media & Environmental Conflict: America’s Green Crusades. Sage Publications, Inc: Thousand Oaks, California.

I found Neuzil’s book in the MSU library yesterday, along with another one which I’ll write about later. I didn’t realize they were both written by the same guy until I had brought them home. The author must be a journalism professor who works in green media.

Books on the topics of environment and mass media will help my research because they will provide background on how the public has and does receive messages. This book also has a chapter about trees called “The Media and Social Change: I. Mother of the Forest.” I’ll have to wait to read that until winter break. Right now I have deadlines for this prospectus looming (tomorrow night) and many papers to grade.

In the introduction to his book, Neuzil says it is about “environmental conflict and the mass media in American history before the 1960s” (xi). I appreciate this because there is much written about the post-‘60s environmental movement. He mentions the explosion of interest in the environment at that time was a result of several leading factors built up over time (from the 1850s to the 1960s). But several current statistics he states could benefit my research as well.

Neuzil mentions that by 1988, 7 million people were involved in an organization benefiting the environment (ix) and cites Udall, 1988. I could find out the population of the US at that time and create a percentage of the population involved. After that, I could find a current estimate and generate a percentage. I could then create a chart or graph to represent the difference from 20 years. Such a graph could help me estimate the percentage of the population who would be willing to pay for remediation for their trees in the Mankato area.

Later in the intro, Neuzil describes a theory of social control by Denis McQuail. The theory provides three ways to view media. One is the media as supporting important community values because of audience pressure. A more neutral way is that the media “supports the status quo” because of converging business and social pressure. A stronger view is that the media are a tool used to suppress the masses. However, Neuzil does mention that many scholars don’t believe the media moves any social change (xii). Then he gets into social theory and why people value certain things as opposed to others.

I’m excited to read more in this work.

Article: Conservation Writing

Johnson-Sheehan, Richard and Lawrence Morgan. "Conservation Writing: An Emerging Field in Technical Communication." Technical Communication Quarterly. 18(1) 9-27. 2009.


This article argues for a new category of genre in technical communications. Because of the past writing and the future need, the authors argue that conservation writing should be taught in technical communications departments as a form of technical writing. 


As technology continues to become more advanced, studies on the environment continue to become more detailed and intertwined with other aspects of ecology and global urban life. I can see how the authors expect this form of writing to advance. Indeed, many of us need a concise, simple description of the advanced, detailed environmental problems, such as climate change, because they—or their study methods and implications—are too detailed for us to understand.


The authors lay out their argument through a literary study. They make a quick case in the introduction for how conservation writing shoots the hole surrounding emotional nature writing and ultra-logical science writing. Conservation writing does both, they argue, but never so much as to be extreme or leave out emotional impact. 


They seek to convince the audience through a dense literature review of past conservation writers and new genres which have emerged. The lists are not complete lists, but good examples from different eras.


However, they offer no theory to back their claim of new genres. In fact, I believe Caroline Miller dismissed one of their claimed genres (the environmental impact statement) on the claims that the content was just too diverse, I can't recall the specific article, but I think it was in the early 1990s. 


Also, should we in the technical communications field look to create curricula when the jobs aren't present to support the finished degree? What good is it to engage 200 students in a genre, have them graduate only to find they have to hold a degree in biology in order to get a job with the company (or government agency) that disseminates the genre? The authors make no attempt to discuss these questions, they only suggest we start teaching before technical communications misses the bus.


Here's a breakdown of the article.


Introduction 


The authors show why much of the public has a new, pro-conservation attitude about the environment. They state their three goals:

1. "Offer a history of conservation writing in order to define it as a field of technical communication."
2. "Describe the most common genres and conventions in this emerging field."
3. "Offer strategies for bringing conservation writing into the technical communication classroom and building new curricula around it" (10).

Context 

• History of Conservation Writing. "Conservation writing is an umbrella term for a range of writing about ecology, biology, the outdoors, and environmental policies and ethics" (10). Although conservation writing shares concern for ecology as nature writing does, and shares emphasis on evidence as science writing does, it differs from both in that it is pragmatic and calls the audience to action.
• The authors provide a quote from Luke Wallin's book, Conservation Writing, which mentions audience awareness. 
• History
• Early 1800s: Gilbert White, William Bartram, John James Audubon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. While not all the works by these authors can be considered conservation writing, several should be, such as Nature and Selected Essays by Emerson and Walking and Walden by Thoreau; because they argue for a change in the way we act toward the environment.
• Late 1800s: George Perkins Marsh, John Burroughs, and John Muir. These authors expressed "concerns about the environmental destruction caused by rapid expansion into the Western United States and the industrialization of the Eastern United States" (13).
• Early 1900s: Conservation Clubs, President Theodore Roosevelt, and the Antiquities Act. The clubs promoted conservation writing in their pages, President Roosevelt wrote a book promoting conservation, and the Antiquities Act created new conservation genres, "such as natural histories and technical descriptions" (14). Soon colleges created extension services and more conservation writing ensued.
• Mid 1900s: Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson. These two writers made strong cases for ethical use of land and pest treatments. They both wrote with care for the ecology and a core of knowledge about the environment.
• Current: Federal Conservation Writing and Contemporary Conservation Writing. While the government demands many types of writing today, other authors such as Terry Tempest Williams and John McPhee have continued to open the genre Carson and Leopold made more popular. Even Albert Gore got in on the action.
• Genres of Conservation Writing
• Natural Histories
• Feature Articles and Essays
• Analytical Reports
• Technical Descriptions
• Environmental Impact Statements
• Grants
• Brochures, Handouts, Websites
• Newsletters
• Natural Resource Inventories
• Environmental Management Plans
• ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems

Teaching Conservation Writing

• The authors outline what they can do to "prepare students for this emerging field" (21).
• Learn about biotechnology and conservation issues.
• Practice writing in the genres.
• Learn conservation laws.
• Create service-learning projects.
• Learn about other writers in conservation and politics.

Conclusion

The authors conclude by mentioning again that the field of conservation writing will only increase. They stress how important it will be for students to connect clear information with a variety of audiences.

Narrative: Finding the Beast

When I made it to the shop on the day in early April 2009, my fellow coworkers were shouting out the news.

“It is here! The bug has landed and it is going to change everything!”

I rushed to tell them I had seen the news the night before, when the Minnesota Department of Agriculture confirmed Emerald Ash Borer’s presence in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. One of our own co-workers at Rainbow Treecare, a recently hired lanky sales arborist, found the infestation. On the news he stood near a 40-foot green ash, grinning wildly, telling the reporter how he looked closer at the boulevard trees after he responded to a homeowner’s request to examine a backyard ash. 

The news cut to the confirmation by the Department of Agriculture’s spokesperson, a tall blond-haired man who couldn’t have been over 35 years old; he spoke soberly, but with a quickened pace, as if the bugs were spreading further even as he spoke.

Our crew of arborists we drove to ground zero after a short meeting at the shop. The infestation was right off University Avenue in St. Paul, where several ash trees were partially debarked at eye level. It was early spring and silver maples had yet to break their buds. From the thin-tipped branches and deep gouges in the surface of exposed wood, we could tell the trees were toast.

The dime-sized bug currently threatens more than just the street in St. Paul. An army of them will soon be attacking Minnesota’s urban and wild forests. The Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) Fairmaire (EAB), a flying insect with emerald-colored wings from northern China, was first found in the United States in 2002.

In the short time of nine years, the EAB has posed a threat to much of northeastern North America. To slow the progression of the but, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) already imposed a quarantine on ash wood from the following states: Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Kentucky (emeraldashborer.info).

EAB feeds on ash trees, specifically green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica). Because Minnesota is home to more ash trees than any other state in the US (besides Maine), the potential loss of forest canopy has both environmental organizations and forestry companies concerned. Many companies have come forward with suggestions to save the urban canopies in Minnesota since infestation was found in 2009 (in two separate places—St. Paul and a small town right near the Mississippi River). But the response to chemical injections and sprays is less favored than some possible biological alternatives suggested by the DOA and other environmental organizations.

Narrative: The Start of a Crisis, Crossing the Mississippi

In early April, 2009, officials confirmed some bad news for Minnesota's ash trees. The news originated in Victory, Wisconsin, just across the Mississippi River from Minnesota's Houston County. 


A stand of ash trees in Victory were dying for no apparent reason. When inspected, thousands of little tunnels were revealed under the bark of the trees. These tunnels signaled a new turn of events in the battle for many forests and urban trees near the Mississippi River.


Many small green bugs created the tunnels. As they grew from a larvae stage, the bugs chewed through the phloem, the life-veins of the trees, and emerged out of the bark as full-grown flying beetles with brilliant green wings.  During their short life span they mate and burrow back into the bark to reproduce and die. 


But while their life cycle continues, the tree they call home slowly withers, unable to get the resources needed through its phloem. Within a three years, its foliage is completely gone and its bark, dry and brittle, peels off.


So for Houston County, bordered by Iowa to the south and the Mississippi River to the east, trouble was at the doorstep. Reporters carried the broadcast to every major city in the state. People hundreds of miles north, in Ely, Grand Marais, International Falls, winced at the news. The Emerald Ash Borer had nearly arrived.


The Minnesota Department of Agriculture moved quickly to carry the messages about not moving firewood, and they set a quarantine on any logging or movement of hardwoods in Houston county. County meetings were called and the MDA discussed their future plans to search for the bug in the vicinity. But it took another full year until infected ash trees were found in the county. The MDA gave confirmation of the infestation on April 29th, 2010. 


By then, the flying bug already migrated 175 miles northwest—to the Twin Cities. 




“Forest Protection Reserve Appropriation.” Minnesota Department of Agriculture. 15 Oct. 2009. PDF. <http://www.mda.state.mn.us/news/government/~/media/Files/news/govrelations/fpr-firstquarter2010.ashx>

“MDA Confirms Emerald Ash Borer Infestation In Houston County.” MDA.state.mn.us. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. 29 April 2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2011.