AU Wackerlin Center for Faith and Action

Monthly Musings

August 2006

I’m troubled by the cutting-down of trees. Perhaps this is due in part to genetics. My mother got her BS in Forestry and Soil Science, and my father has worked for the Department of Natural Resources since forever. Maybe it’s just because I’m a conservation-minded person. Either way, I don’t like seeing trees cut down and discarded, especially not to make way for suburban sprawl. But then again, in many ways I’m just as guilty. Even environmentalist vegetarians must live in a world of combative duality with nature.

Until I joined the employ of Aurora University, I worked at a printing press, where I constantly moved and cut and arranged and folded and collated paper. Paper comes from trees. If I was a serious conservationist, I should have gotten a job working at a paperless factory. I would drive to and from work every day. I used gasoline. My car gets fairly good mileage, but if I seriously wanted to cut down on carbon emissions, I would have ridden my bike. You’ll occasionally see hippies driving absolute junkers and still ranting about US oil interests in the Middle East. If we really wanted to make less of a dent in the environment, we’d all ride bikes to work. But that’s not always practical.

I recycle, too. Every shred of unneeded paper goes into a box in my apartment that ends up in a giant bin at the end of every week, along with plastics, metals and glass. But there are some things that don’t recycle, and I’m not about to collect empty bottles from everyone I know just to cart them myself and recycle them (not to mention that the more weight I put in my car on the way to the recycling center, the worse fuel mileage I’ll get). I do what I can, but I’ve gotta live, right?

And I’m a vegetarian, too. I don’t eat animals because I don’t think they appreciate it. But lots and lots of plants have to die for me to be nourished. Should I feel guilty about them? Perhaps I should start my own organic garden on my balcony and “slaughter” my own carrots and broccoli, thereby reducing the need to pay someone minimum wage to pick them in a field in California and ship them frozen to Woodman’s. This would also cut out the gasoline needed to transport them across country. But then again, my balcony is only so big, and mangos don’t grow well in Chicagoland.

I guess when it all comes down to it, I still make a pretty big impact on the natural world. I drive a car, I throw away lots of garbage, and I use electricity to power computers and toasters and razors. I consume food that has to be processed in a factory (soy is seldom simple). While I don’t go out and cut down trees myself, my continued existence makes it necessary for growth to occur to make room for more homes for other people. I long ago discarded idealism for practicality, so I suppose I can console myself with the knowledge that I’m simply trying to lessen my impact upon this planet, at least when it comes to natural resources.

— Tim Brauhn