Green Thumbs Vs. "Green" Politics

Every year, at about this time, I make my personal protest against environmentalism by going out and enjoying nature.

How, you might ask, can enjoying nature be considered an act of defiance against environmentalism? Consider how -- and why -- I enjoy it.

I do not enjoy nature in some vague, general way. I enjoy my own particular patch of it -- the few acres where my wife and I live in a wooded, rural area. And the most precious part of our property, to me, is my orchard. What makes it so precious is that these dozen or so fruit trees -- just saplings at the time -- were a birthday gift from my wife a few years ago. Every April, we tend to these trees together as they start to put out their leaves and blossoms. Soon, they will bear apples, cherries, pears, plums, peaches, and even a few quince -- an old-fashioned fruit that we added for my mother, who grew up eating her mother's quince jelly.

But every year, I must defend my orchard. To enjoy my patch of nature, I must go to war with nature. I must fight off the insects, the fungi, and the wildlife who want to eat my trees. I fight this battle with all the weapons made possible by industry and technology. I spray my trees with pesticides to ward off insects. I use plastic traps with artificial insect hormones to cut down on Japanese beetles -- which can defoliate a cherry tree in days. I use a gas-powered chainsaw to cut down the trees I don't like -- the cedars that harbor a fungus called "cedar-apple rust," and the wild cherry trees that contain the nests of tent caterpillars. And I'm about to use pressure-treated lumber and a whole array of power tools to build a wall to keep out hungry deer.

All of this is anathema to any radical environmentalist. Pesticides? Perish the thought -- and perish the trees under a six-legged onslaught. And what about all those gas-powered tools, which allegedly besmirch the air? And why should the deer be walled out? After all, as the environmentalists are fond of saying, "they were here first."

But the environmentalists would object to more than just the tools I use, more than just the pesticides and power tools. They would object to the whole spirit of the endeavor. The things I do to nurture and protect my orchard are not an attempt to "tread lightly on the earth"; they are an attempt to reshape the earth, to use it for my own purposes. I don't just want trees on my property; I want the kind of trees I enjoy. I don't want "indigenous species"; I want hybrids bred to produce more and better fruit. I don't want to let nature take its course; I want to control the course of nature.

Why? For the most selfish reason of all: to have a quiet, beautiful spot to talk with my wife in the evenings, or to sit with our dogs on a sunny afternoon -- a place designed by us for our own enjoyment.

But this is not what the radical environmentalists want Americans to do. They want us to give up the yards of our suburban houses -- which they denounce as "urban sprawl" -- while we preserve every inch of barren Alaskan tundra or leech-infested Borneo jungle. What is important, they say, is that nature is preserved, not for human use, but for the sake of leaving it alone. As one environmentalist declares: "Human happiness . (is) not as important as a wild and healthy planet."

For these greens, the earth is "sacred," and we have to sacrifice our enjoyment in order to keep it "pristine."

This is why, for example, environmentalists in the Clinton administration halted road maintenance on federal lands, making these areas inaccessible. That's also why eco-terrorists set fire to ski resorts. After all, the land won't be "pristine" if campers, hikers and skiers can come to enjoy it -- excuse me, to "trample" it. And that's also why they want to take away our yards and all of the things the average homeowner uses, on a beautiful spring weekend, to tend to his own land.

I have a different view of what is sacred. What is sacred to me is my own life, my love for my wife, and the wonderful life we share on our own, carefully tended patch of nature. It's for the sake of this patch of green that I defy the "green" ideology.

Robert Tracinski was a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute from 2000 to 2004. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Mr. Tracinski is editor and publisher of The Intellectual Activist and TIADaily, which offer daily news and analysis from a pro-reason, pro-individualist perspective. To receive a free 30-day trial of the TIA Daily and a FREE pdf issue of the Intellectual Activist please go to TIADaily.com and enter your email address.