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From the Director:  Striving for Perpetual Bounty

New Biodiversity Project Publication: Ethics for a Small Planet

Why Should We Talk About Ethics, Values, and Biodiversity?

Giving Thanks for Nature's Bounty: Biodiversity-the Thanksgiving Table

Biodiversity and Smart Growth Ads- CD Rom Available

Cease-fire at Pinkham Notch: Defusing the Wise-Use Movement

From the Director: Striving for Perpetual Bounty   The Thanksgiving season is a time when we can all reflect upon the remarkable bounty that the Earth brings to our lives.  In this issue, Tami Lee provides a look at four species that anchor the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, and their pathway from the wild to our tables.  If not for space constraints, we could have added dozens, if not hundreds of other species that contribute to this feast, whether it is sage in the stuffing, the nutmeg in the pie, or the pollinators that make the cran-blossoms turn into cranberries.  In my own family, I hold a place of honor for the cardamom seeds that flavored Grandma Johnson’s special bread.  (I’ve often wondered how an Indian spice became a staple in Swedish bread making, but I’m grateful that it did.)    Beyond the species on the menu, we owe an extended debt of gratitude to the diverse ecosystems that made this variety possible.  So, here’s to the American bogs that are home to cranberries, the woodlands that support wild turkeys, the high country of the Andes for the possibility of mashed potatoes, the warm climates of the Americas from which the sweet potato flourished, and much of the Americas for the pumpkin.  Also, thanks to the hands and knowledge of many human cultures that make our feast what it is today.  Thanksgiving is a true celebration of diversity and the web of connections that support and enrich human life. While we celebrate this bounty, we also need to be mindful of our responsibility to sustain it.  At the recent Waters of Wisconsin conference I was part of a small group discussion on the concept of sustainability.  When asked to define sustainability, the phrase “perpetual bounty” formed in my thought.  Sustainable means now, but it also means the future, and it doesn’t mean scarcity, it means we will always have what we need to live, and to live well.  Conflicting definitions of “living well” may be at the root of a lot of today’s ecological crises.  We live on a planet where humans are mining the ‘ecological capital’ that is at the heart of our global life support systems.  Americans consume more material goods, more water, and more oil per person than any other nation on the planet.  At the same time, many of the world’s people do not have secure access to safe drinking water, and millions go hungry every day. And also every day, we are losing habitat to pavement and deforestation, and the rapid rates of extinction are largely unabated.  Clearly, not everyone is enjoying the bounty so many of us take for granted, and the environmental costs of current actions are huge.  If my bounty translates into someone else’s deprivation or extinction, then we have a long way to go before we reach sustainability. And this is where ethics come in.  Solutions to the biodiversity crisis are rooted in ethical choices: how do we choose to live with each other and the Earth’s living systems?  A solid majority of Americans firmly believe that we have a personal – some say moral – responsibility to protect the life that sustains us.  Sow how do we help people act on that conviction?  We need to help people understand what is at stake, the choices we face, and ways to act ethically for humanity, for life, and for the future. As a first step, we’ve published Ethics for A Small Planet: A Communications Handbook on the Ethical and Theological Reasons for Protecting Biodiversity.  We hope it will spark a conversation about protecting biodiversity through the lens of ethics – our sense of right and wrong.  In my heart, and in yours, we know that protecting this miraculous diversity of life is the right thing to do.  We also know that we can choose to live in ways and to promote choices that help sustain biodiversity.  This handbook will help us talk about it in ways that reach beyond our choir of like-minded friends - and that’s another thing to be grateful for.     Jane Elder

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New Biodiversity Project Publication:
Ethics for a Small Planet

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Why Should We Talk About Ethics, Values, and Biodiversity?
by Jane Elder
(excerpted from Ethics for a Small Planet)

Why step into the murky world of values, ethics, moral perspectives, and theological viewpoints?  Why not stick to the facts, the purely rational?  Why?  Because humans are complex beings, and we make decisions about what to do, about what is right and wrong, through a mix of thought and feeling, rational argument and intuition, head and heart, data and gut instinct. 

Whenever environmental problems are debated, there is almost always someone who encourages environmental advocates to set aside personal feeling and focus on the facts.  Facts are useful, but they aren’t the whole of the matter.  All the data in the world won’t persuade you to do something if some inner voice is screaming, “That’s wrong!”  Underlying that inner voice—the one that tells you, “this is right, this is important, trust this, but not that,” your sense of right and wrong—is a tapestry of ethical history, cultural norms, and personal values.  Ethics for a Small Planet is about exploring that tapestry and better understanding what makes people (Americans in particular), come to conclusions about what they value in relation to biodiversity, how those values shape decisions about biodiversity, and how we can better address those values and weave ethics into our outreach. 

Four Reasons to Talk About Ethics. 

Here are four reasons why understanding and addressing the moral and spiritual basis of biodiversity protection can make us more effective in expanding the dialogue about biodiversity and fostering solutions to current problems.

1. Most lasting social change is anchored in a deep moral imperative. Throughout human history, human society has demonstrated its capacity for positive change, whether it is rejecting slavery, increasing global awareness of basic human rights, or enacting child labor laws.  While social change is played out on a complex stage of economic,

social, and political dynamics, at the heart of progress in human culture is a driving force that the change is the right thing to do—the moral imperative.  Increasingly, leading thinkers in the field of biodiversity—from E.O. Wilson to Jane Goodall to David Suzuki—have given voice to the moral dimensions of the biodiversity crisis.   Biodiversity advocates must expand the dialogue to explore and claim the moral imperative to protect Earth’s life support systems.  What larger moral question have we faced, if not the future of our species and the rest of life on Earth?   If we fail to tackle the moral and ethical aspects of the biodiversity crisis, the  “Sixth Great Extinction” (the current and largest loss of species in human history) will remain primarily the concern of science and academia.  People will view it as a problem for experts to solve, not all of us.

2. Values-based rationales for protecting biodiversity are widely held and persuasive. Protecting biodiversity is important to people because they believe that they have a responsibility to protect the Earth for future generations, and because they believe that nature is God’s creation and that they should respect the work of God.  In the Biodiversity Project’s 2002 and 1996 polls, these two reasons outranked all others in the survey. In our 2002 poll, a majority of those surveyed strongly agreed with one of these two statements in a split sample question: “we have a moral responsibility to protect biodiversity” (65%) or “we have a personal responsibility to protect biodiversity”  (69%). Values are the lenses through which we judge the information we receive.  Factual data—including scientific and economic statistics—are interpreted, shaped, and evaluated through the prism of our values.  Therefore, values are as important, if not more so, than facts in getting a message across.
	3. Reframing the debate humanizes and personalizes choices about biodiversity.    The more we can humanize biodiversity, and the less it remains in the realm of numbers, science,
and something that happens “out there in nature,” the better chance we have of connecting with people of diverse backgrounds and interests.  Addressing the ethical dimensions of a biodiversity debate—what’s right for my family and the generations that follow us?—changes the conversation.

4. Understanding ethics will help us make better decisions on complex issues.
Many of the questions we face about biodiversity aren’t going to come with easy answers as to which choice is the best, the most effective, the most likely to succeed.  The more we understand about the ethical roots in our diverse and increasingly global culture, the more easily we can assess the complex issues that arise out of the context of our history and our present environmental crisis.  Charting a pathway for biodiversity protection through multiple value systems, political systems, and the best of what science can tell us isn’t easy.  By increasing our own awareness of the value systems at play, we can better understand the playing field upon which biodiversity decisions will be made.

Scratch just about any biodiversity problem, and under the surface is a collection of ethical issues waiting to be addressed.   We need to be able to identify and talk about these issues because it will help us find solutions.

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Giving Thanks for Nature's Bounty: Biodiversity-the Thanksgiving Table

As you sit down for Thanksgiving, you may see the familiar faces of family and friends.  Chances are, you’ll see some familiar culinary friends too – the traditional dishes of the American Thanksgiving dinner.  But what do we know about the foods that have come to define Thanksgiving?  And how have these species flourished in the Americas, surviving thousands of years to provide yet another example of how our history, our culture and our survival are intimately connected to biodiversity?

	At the core of most Thanksgiving tables, we find the turkey.  The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is an American native, originally ranging from southern Canada into Mexico and Guatemala.  In the 1500s, Spanish explorers, having found that wild turkeys were domesticated in Central America, returned to Europe with this edible bird.  Colonists landed in North America with these turkeys, which eventually crossbred with the wild turkeys of North America.  This fusion has resulted in the variety of domestic turkeys we find at our tables.
Although wild and domestic turkeys are genetically the same species, their similarities stop there.  The wild turkey has strong feet and legs adapted for walking and scratching, and short wings adapted for short, hurried flight.  Domesticated turkeys have strong, modified breast muscles, and do not fly.  Wild turkey plumage exhibits a variety of iridescent colors.  Most domestic turkeys have white plumage, which has proven to attract consumers because of their “cleaner” appearance.  Five subspecies of wild turkeys inhabit the lower 48 states, including Hawaii, and prefer woodlands near water.  Research has shown that wild turkeys will consume over 600 species of plants and animals!  The domesticated turkey is no longer able to survive in the wild.
To obtain Vitamins A and C, we reach for the yams.  Or do we?  The true yam, a tuber of West African and Asian origin, is a member of the genus Dioscorea.  The African word “nyami” was adopted in the English form, yam.  The yam is often confused with the sweet potato, but this is not botanically correct.  Originating in Central and South America, and one of over three hundred food crops cultivated by Native Americans, the sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, is a member of the viney morning glory family (Convolvulacaeae).  Sweet potatoes or batatas, which eventually became patata in Spanish, became known as the potato in English.  Because it thrives in a hot, moist climate, the sweet potato has been grown in the Southern United States but more so, throughout the tropics.  Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon), along with the blueberry and Concord grape, are one of North America’s three native fruits.  Glacial deposits of sand, peat, gravel, and clay in areas from Maine to Wisconsin, and along the Appalachians to North Carolina, made these locations ideal for cranberry bogs to flourish.  Cranberry bogs naturally flood in spring to wash away insects, proving that you don’t need a lot of pesticides to add color and zest to a turkey dinner.  These bogs provide refuge for a variety of wildlife, including Great Blue Herons, eagles, otters, frogs, and snakes. A cranberry vine, if left untouched, can continue to produce berries for 150 years!  Colonists in the New World are credited with naming the “craneberry,” in recognition of the small, pink blossoms that appear in the Spring, resembling the head and bill of a crane.  The flowers fall in the summer, leaving spectacular red berries.

Have room for dessert?  Indigenous to North America, the pumpkin is cultivated widely in temperate climates.  According to archaeological records in Mexico (8750 B.C.), the pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) appears to be one of the first domesticated plant species.  Native Americans considered pumpkins, planted along with beans and corn, the “three sisters.”
Bean vines use the cornstalks as supports and fix nitrogen in the soil.  For the benefit of itself and kin, the large squash leaves shade the soil and retain its moisture.  As the story goes, the origin of pumpkin pie occurred when colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and filled the insides with milk, spices, and honey and baked it in hot ashes.

As you make your plans for Thanksgiving, consider taking steps that will allow these species and their habitats to flourish thousands of years longer.  Pick up your family and friends and carpool to the celebration, purchase free-range turkeys and organic, locally grown produce, reuse or recycle any paper, aluminum, or glass, and compost your vegetable scraps. 

If you’re feeling dizzy, or sleepy, after this bountiful feast, eat some pumpkin seeds.  They’re thought to relieve dizziness.  But before nodding off, say thanks.  Thanks to the Earth for Giving.

For more information on the biodiversity of Thanksgiving, see:

National Wild Turkey Federation http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/cranberry/top.html

Talking Turkeys: They are not always what we think they are  http://www.uga.edu/srel/ecoview11-14-99.htm

What is the Difference Between a Sweet Potato and a Yam? http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-23-a.html

Cranberries: The Most Intriguing North American Fruit http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/cranberry/top.html

Squash
http://www.soupsong.com/fsquash.html

Three Sisters: An Ancient Garden Trio
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/pages/news_threesisters041901.html

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Cease-fire at Pinkham Notch:
Defusing the Wise-Use Movement

The following is an excerpt from an interview featured in Ethics for a Small Planet.  Here, Bob recounts how he introduced his personal values and ethical concerns into a confrontational situation, and the transformation that resulted from it. 

Biodiversity Project:  Bob, tell us a little bit about the situation you were in.

Bob Perschel:  We were holding a meeting at the Appalachian Mountain Club facility at Pinkham Lodge, in the middle of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  About twenty or so property rights people showed up with painted vans and placards.  They marched on the highway and then came inside.  The group attacked us for allegedly trying to ruin their communities and trying to “greenline” the entire Northern Forest.  They became louder and angrier.  The conservation community was in danger of taking a major hit.  But there was an opportunity as well.

Biodiversity Project:  What was that opportunity?

Bob Perschel:  The tactics of the property rights side presented us with an opportunity to inject something entirely new and compelling into the mix, enlarge the possibility of collaboration, and move to a new way of dealing with the issues.  They gave us an opening to talk about values, and by doing so, to recognize each other as people.

Many of the people who think of themselves as property rights advocates do so only because this issue was the first thing that came along that appeared to speak to their core values.  But they have other values that can be awakened, if they can be moved away from their affiliations for a moment.  When that small amount of room is created, it is time to introduce values that represent the higher aspirations of the human spirit.

Biodiversity Project:  How did you do this?

Bob Perschel:  I spoke very slowly in an attempt to demonstrate that I was choosing my words with great thought and care.  I said, “I know that not all of you will agree with what I have to say, but I want to thank you for listening to me.”  Something changed in the room.  We now all had an individual sense of identity, even though we recognized that we didn’t all agree.  From that place it was truly possible to listen to each other for the first time.

Then I said, “For me to answer your questions, I think it is important that you understand who I am and what I do.” I told them that I had been a forester and worked in the woods for many years, and that I believed that we needed both wilderness and a healthy forest industry.

Then I described how, during my time as a forester, my perception of my responsibilities changed.  I became aware that we might lose 20% of all the species of life on the planet in the next 30 years.  This possibility burned in my mind.  I thought of my legacy to my son and all our legacies to future generations.  What would my son say to me in 30 years?  “Dad, what were you doing?  What could you have been thinking?”  I told the crowd:  “I cannot accept the possibility of this loss.  I cannot allow this to happen, not on my watch.”  I also told them: “I can’t accept that we have to choose between protecting the environment and protecting jobs.  There is a way to do both.”

Biodiversity Project:  How did the property rights demonstrators react?

Bob Perschel:  What was interesting was that in the end I never had to answer the question originally put to me about “greenlining.”  No one ever asked me about it when I was done.  There was no longer any need to debate this or seek conflict.  Everyone in the room was, at least for a short time, beyond the conflicts that had so engrossed us.

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