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Summer 2004
Life Without Water
I'll concede that nature doesn't usually rank at the top
of most opinion polls. When asked about their concerns, people put the economy
and jobs, national security, education, and crime before the environment.
Unquestionably these are legitimate issues, and I share the widespread concern
about them. But I think nature ranks so low because we take it for granted.
Nature is so essential to our existence — literally, we are nowhere without air,
we are nothing without water — that we dismiss its significance. Nature, we
think, is a given.
How can we begin to treat nature as a necessity and not
an amenity? Since we are utterly dependent on healthy nature for our survival,
why is securing an adequate supply of fresh water and arable land — indeed, the
very preservation of our web of life — not the primary focus of human security,
much less national security?
To illustrate my point, let's conduct a thought
experiment: Imagine a day without water. Brush your teeth in the morning with
paste and saliva (No rinsing!). No shower or bath, or face-washing. No flushing
the toilet. No coffee or tea. No pop, no milk, no juice, no wine (unless you
dehydrate them first). No chats by the water cooler. No shampoo at the gym. No
rocks and no Scotch, no dip in the pool. You get my drift? (If any of you
actually try this — alone or as a family — send us your journal entries and we may
share them online.)
Our dependence on water links us — happily,
mysteriously — with much of the rest of creation. Look at the seeps of Lockport
Prairie (see Groundswell
For Groundwater), where groundwater moves through dolomite bedrock to form
one of the world's rarest ecosystems. Species such as the leafy prairie clover
and the Hine's emerald dragonfly utterly depend on these seeps.
True, our technological wizardry may buy us a bit more
latitude than the Hine's (for instance, we can invent water filters or bring in
water from somewhere else), but ultimately we are in the same predicament.
Through our intercession and care in the form of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Forest Preserve District of Will County, the Illinois Department of Corrections, the Lockport Township Park District, and
other partner agencies, we humans have monitored and modified our consumption
of water to ensure the survival of Lockport Prairie's inhabitants.
Efforts to remove dams along area rivers and creeks (see Giving a Dam
for Wild Rivers) and to reintroduce rare butterflies to habitats that will
harbor them (see Restoring
the Butterfly Tapestry) also demonstrate how humans are seeking a just and
right relationship with nature. That's Chicago Wilderness — people and nature.
Together we can change those opinion polls and learn to take nothing for
granted. Together we can honor our fathers and one particular mother, Mother
Earth. Let's get to work.
Debra Shore may
be reached at editor@chicagowildernessmag.org.
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