Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
Nature should not be forgotten in rush for GDP
By Greg Cusack |
March 31, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
DEAR Mr Wan Lixin,
On March 25, you wrote sadly about the great drought facing parts of China. And you concluded with this thought: "If the drought does not instil a proper dose of humility and awe in GDP-proud policy makers, they will continue to extract GDP by destroying the very elements that are essential to their existence." Amen to that! All of us, wherever we live, face that same dilemma.
Even where wise policy makers are in power, they face incredible pressure from their citizens to respond quickly to demands for "more."
In the March 27 edition of Shanghai Daily you become almost lyrical in discussing the book "Spring in Washington," by Louis Halle.
As you chronicle some of the more beautiful scenes of nature reawakening, you lament: "Today many measure degrees of human civilization by its distance from nature. Modern homes and offices can satisfactorily insulate the inmates from the world outside, and the danger of exposure to natural elements while migrating between the two locations is minimized by the air-conditioned metal boxes." Indeed.
While Shanghai's growth over recent decades is unparalleled, one does not have to live in a giant city to become separated from nature.
Only a few generations ago in the United States most people knew someone involved in agriculture. My father, following the early deaths of his parents when he was not yet 10 years old, was raised by an aunt and uncle who lived on a small farm.
After graduate school at the university in Iowa City, only a few miles from that farmstead, he moved to a larger city bordering the Mississippi River where he engaged in real estate and insurance.
That is where my siblings and I were born and raised. While the farm remained in our family after the death of his relatives, we seldom visited it.
Many years ago now the farm buildings were torn down, and the land rented out for farming.
My memories of youth are similar to yours: nature was very close, and it took only minutes on my bicycle to reach open country.
But as I grew older, graduating from university and taking my first job in teaching, I grew further away from regular contact with the natural world, increasingly living within walls.
When I neared retirement, my wife and I found our present home a few miles outside a small village on the Mississippi, about 60 miles north of where I had been born.
Here we are so privileged and happy to live with nature again. It brings the greatest joy to my heart each day to watch the changing face of the great river, to hear the various birds - songbirds as well as geese, ducks, herons, pelicans, hawks and eagles - and to watch their soaring antics.
We also are regularly visited by foxes, coyotes, turkeys and deer.
Keeping our children aware of this wonderful world within which we live, and to which we have the more serious obligation of co-existence, is a vital effort for us all.
(The author was a member of the Iowa State House of Representatives. He also served in the Iowan executive branch. He retired in 2004.)
On March 25, you wrote sadly about the great drought facing parts of China. And you concluded with this thought: "If the drought does not instil a proper dose of humility and awe in GDP-proud policy makers, they will continue to extract GDP by destroying the very elements that are essential to their existence." Amen to that! All of us, wherever we live, face that same dilemma.
Even where wise policy makers are in power, they face incredible pressure from their citizens to respond quickly to demands for "more."
In the March 27 edition of Shanghai Daily you become almost lyrical in discussing the book "Spring in Washington," by Louis Halle.
As you chronicle some of the more beautiful scenes of nature reawakening, you lament: "Today many measure degrees of human civilization by its distance from nature. Modern homes and offices can satisfactorily insulate the inmates from the world outside, and the danger of exposure to natural elements while migrating between the two locations is minimized by the air-conditioned metal boxes." Indeed.
While Shanghai's growth over recent decades is unparalleled, one does not have to live in a giant city to become separated from nature.
Only a few generations ago in the United States most people knew someone involved in agriculture. My father, following the early deaths of his parents when he was not yet 10 years old, was raised by an aunt and uncle who lived on a small farm.
After graduate school at the university in Iowa City, only a few miles from that farmstead, he moved to a larger city bordering the Mississippi River where he engaged in real estate and insurance.
That is where my siblings and I were born and raised. While the farm remained in our family after the death of his relatives, we seldom visited it.
Many years ago now the farm buildings were torn down, and the land rented out for farming.
My memories of youth are similar to yours: nature was very close, and it took only minutes on my bicycle to reach open country.
But as I grew older, graduating from university and taking my first job in teaching, I grew further away from regular contact with the natural world, increasingly living within walls.
When I neared retirement, my wife and I found our present home a few miles outside a small village on the Mississippi, about 60 miles north of where I had been born.
Here we are so privileged and happy to live with nature again. It brings the greatest joy to my heart each day to watch the changing face of the great river, to hear the various birds - songbirds as well as geese, ducks, herons, pelicans, hawks and eagles - and to watch their soaring antics.
We also are regularly visited by foxes, coyotes, turkeys and deer.
Keeping our children aware of this wonderful world within which we live, and to which we have the more serious obligation of co-existence, is a vital effort for us all.
(The author was a member of the Iowa State House of Representatives. He also served in the Iowan executive branch. He retired in 2004.)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
