Environmentalism as Religion (Part Four)

While the movements and organizations founded by Muir, and inspired by Carson become the foremost evangelists of modern environmentalism, perhaps the most important person in regards to the broader study of nature in America was John Burroughs.

Burroughs—loved dearly by Roosevelt who called him ‘Oom John’—is described by Kanze (1993), who tells us about the effect he had on nature study, America’s most popular recreation.

“In the late twentieth century, among active forms of recreation, nature study is more popular than baseball, football, and tennis combined. According to recent estimates, more than 80 million Americans watch birds, and they spend more than $14 billion annually on birdseed, nesting boxes, feeders, baths, binoculars, books, and travel. Impressive as these figures are, they are not comprehensive. In the woods, meadows, deserts, prairies, and oceans of the world, bird-watchers are joined by hordes of avocational botanists, herpetologists, mammalogists, nature photographers, whale watchers, mycologists, entomologists, and others with particular interests. “Ecology” is a buzzword among children and adults. Around the world, national parks, established as reservoirs of solitude, serve as meeting places for movie stars and heads of state. To sleep in the woods at Yellowstone and Yosemite, it is often necessary to reserve a campsite more than a year in advance. No suburban town is complete without a “nature center”.

“The nature study movement is a juggernaut. Among the men and women who helped to get it rolling, Henry Thoreau, John Muir, Rachel Carson, and a few others proponents of conservation and the simple life stand out. But the single greatest push may have come from the writing of John Burroughs. As Paul Brooks observed in Speaking for Nature (Houghton Mifflin, 1980), Burroughs made more converts to nature appreciation than anyone else, and “they and their successors have been fighting our conservation battles ever since.”

“If I were asked to bestow a single honorific upon Burroughs, I would call him the Father of Recreational Nature Study. Unlike Thoreau, who used nature as a rock from which to mine ethical principles, and Muir, who sang of the sublime beauty of wilderness, Burroughs looked upon the natural world as a source of simple joy.” (Kanze, E. (1993). The world of John Burroughs. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers. p. 142)

Roosevelt (1999) in a letter to Burroughs, said:

“Dear Oom John:—Every lover of outdoor life must feel a sense of affectionate obligation to you. Your writings appeal to all who care for the life of the woods and the fields, whether their tastes keep them in the homely, pleasant farm country or lead them into the wilderness. It is a good thing for our people that you should have lived; and surely no man can wish to have more said of him.”
(Roosevelt, T. (1999 [first published 1905]). Outdoor pastimes of an American hunter. Birmingham, Alabama: Palladium Press. p. v.)

The focus on conservation and nature study lasted for many years, but then, largely because of Rachel Carson’s writings, the work of the Sierra Club and similar groups, it slowly became modern environmentalism, about which a recent report by Shellenberger & Nordhaus (2004) said:

"Environmentalism is today more about protecting a supposed “thing”—“the environment”—than advancing the worldview articulated by Sierra Club founder John Muir, who nearly a century ago observed, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” (Shellenberger, M. & Nordhaus T. (2004). The death of environmentalism: Global warming politics in a post-environmental world.

In an interview with Michael North, president of Greenstar, from Grist Magazine (2004), a couple of the practical aspects of this are explored:

“Grist: What's one issue about which you disagree with other environmentalists?

“Michael North: That protecting endangered species and ecosystems is more important than protecting people, communities, and culture. Implicitly, by their actions, environmentalists sometimes overlook the historic human element, the fact that people are part of the global ecosystem too. Environmentalists would never actually say this, of course, but sometimes their actions express it -- and people in developing countries detect this quickly.


“Grist: What could the environmental movement be doing better or differently to attract new people?

“Michael North: Have a more constructive attitude toward business, especially small businesses and entrepreneurs, who are creating all the jobs these days and employing more and more people. Environmentalists often treat business people as exploiters and polluters, as the enemy. They try not to, but their instincts need a lot of retraining. Even very large global businesses (like Shell, BP, HP, many others) can see the moral and practical value of sound environmental practice and will do real, influential things if you communicate thoughtfully with them, learn to listen, and reward them when they do something positive.”

Grist Magazine, (2004) Online Interview with Michael North, president of Greenstar.