Practical environmentalism in the woods of New Hampshire
Brenda McCartney
By Brenda McCartney
Finance Manager
Clean Air-Cool Planet
Halloween is over and November is here, bringing its chilly winds and the smell of wood smoke to my neighborhood. In November, I remember that I need to wear red if I walk in the woods. It’s hunting season and as far back as I remember, in November, we wore red.
Hunting season reminds me of a conversation I had with my dad a while back about global warming and what I did here at Clean Air Cool Planet. Let me first state that my dad is a traditional New Hampshire Yankee. He’s lived here all but the first 6 months of his 75-year life. His sports of choice are hunting and fishing. If he talks politics at all, he’s firmly in what would be considered the Republican camp. He’s frugal, resourceful and practical to a fault. Hmm… sounds like me.
Anyway, I went away to college, picked up some Democratic leanings, and got a degree in accounting. After several years in the big time, I stepped aside, started a family and got a part-time job doing bookkeeping for this little environmental organization called Clean Air-Cool Planet.
It was shortly after I started here seven years ago that our conversation took place. We were sitting on the edge of the lake at his camp and he asked me about my new job. Knowing Dad’s background, I was a little hesitant to tell him exactly what CA-CP did. I was certain he’d think it just a group of wacko tree-huggers out to make a buck off the sympathies of left-leaning, Kumbaya-singing money folks. It was a nice day and as much as I loved my job and knew it was not that at all, I didn’t feel like going on the defensive. I chose my words carefully, emphasizing the practical aspects of our work, such as how we work with businesses to find and promote solutions to global warming. And I braced for the onslaught.
I should not have worried. “Good,” he said firmly. “It’s about time someone is doing something about that.” My astonishment must have shown on my face because he continued, “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You can’t spend as much time in the woods as I do and not notice things are changing.”
We continued on to have a very engaging conversation about the indicators of climate change in New Hampshire’s forests and about CA-CP’s work to track these changes and do something about them. It occurred to me then that hunters and fishermen, regardless of their political leanings, are on the front lines of climate change. They see the changes first-hand on a daily basis. And they are concerned, even if they don’t speak out about it. I’ve come to see them as “practical environmentalists.” And speaking as a New Hampshire native myself, isn’t that the best kind?
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November 16, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Terrific piece, Brenda. It really gets to the heart of the experience of climate change and how so many – regardless of political orientation – do , in fact, get it. I’ve often made the same misjudgment as you about your dad in both directions. Liberals must be with it, conservatives against, but climate is in our bones and the bones go deep.