The United States of America has boasted to the world regarding the land of the free. The “American dream” has influenced the minds of people around the world specially those searching for a greener pasture. The world dubbed America as the land of flowing milk and honey. Through out the 19th century, America’s image was food and the land. It is the kind of land in America which is spacious and full of wilderness that differentiated them from their brothers and sisters in Europe. They cultivated the wilderness and made it fruitful through advance agriculture technology. Literally, they tamed the wild Americas. Anne Marie Todd quoted the 1895 poem by Katherine Lee Bates in her article entitled A Call for Environmental Patriotism. The poem stated: “O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain; For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!” (5). It is the wide and wild land that gave them freedom from economic problem and religious persecution in England.
Today however, environment destruction is a serious issue with technological developments and massive progress of industrialization. Big corporations has no care for the environment. They only think of how to amass profit at the expense of the environment. Todd stated in her article that before the turn of the 20th century, the unspoiled nature symbolized the dreams of American citizens for a country that is not faltered by the dangers of urbanization (8). The dreams however of well-off Americans failed mother nature. The voracious consumption of natural resources has drastically changed the environmental landscape of the land of the free. Pollution has appeared in the face of the inspirational America. The mindset of people changed from being environmentally patriotic to being crazy over industrialization. Todd stated that with the rise of industrialization, the mindset for the natural world became obsolete and people were amazed with the factory system. The use of natural resources was not already based on the needs of people but based on how the people sustain and develop the booming industries. The environmental activists were not silenced then. They campaigned against the indiscriminate destruction of natural resources just to feed their greed. Todd also mentioned that conservationists groups in America campaigned for a need-based utilization of resources which is considerate of the future of the children (8).
Moreover, the World Wars in the 20th century has aggravated the environment. Yes, America was able to defend its freedom but it has depleted its natural resources because of the massive mining for arms, ammunition, and other requirement for the wars. This scenario has greatly contributed to environment pollution. After the wars, consumerism has become a lifestyle among Americans and seemingly, the love for the free America including its environment died. One of the factors as mentioned by Todd is the shift of values of Americans from collective thinking to being individualists who only think of their own development above the development of America itself (9).
The experience of America shows that the death of the love for the land or the environment is also the death of patriotism. Going back to the ways of how Americans reconnect to their environment, stewardship is important. Stewardship is a value which native Americans and all other indigenous peoples around the world possess. Being stewards does not give a person a right to own the land. They consider the environment as sacred as they are nourished by it and in return, they protect it from environment degradation. This value is also rooted to the concept that the land gives them life therefore, their lives are deeply connected to the land, without the land, there is no life. To this day, stewardship is still observed among the indigenous people who do not consider land as their individual property. They even consider the land as a living being who owns the people living in it and it is the responsibility of the people to conserve and protect it. Environment patriotism is then a value which can be learned by living the values of stewardship.
Today America is but an emblem of consumerism and industrial development. It only needs time before the environment give up on the people. Yes, it is true that America is great with its industrial success. However, the foundation of the land of the free is continuously degrading and this is its environment. It does not already embody the phrase “land of flowing milk and honey” because what is flowing in America today is extreme pollution in the Atlantic Ocean and towards the sky. It is only when America relearn its stewardship that the land of the free will gradually return. Environment activists will have to learn how to catch the hearts of Americans to restoring their attachment to their land like how their ancestors were attached to it.
Until Americans will only think of how they profit from their business at the expense of the environment, America will eventually drop to its knees. The drastic development of industrialization is not grounded unlike development which is grounded on environment sustainability. This is the true spirit of patriotism. As Todd stated: “Patriotism establishes membership in a community and an obligation for stewardship grounded on an attachment to communities and environments” (6).
Works Cited
Todd, Anne Marie. “A Call for Environment Patriotism.” TAPROOT, 23:2. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
