Climate change is real and dangerous and we must take it seriously, but I am not trying to convince you of that. It would be odd to open up this paper to find a title like “Allegheny Student Xander Malin Calls To Support Climate Change; ‘Make As Much Carbon As You Can!’”
I am writing this because I love the woods. I know on this beautiful campus, I am not alone in this feeling. There is no singular solution to the climate crisis and I believe that a solution — not “the solution,” — is to properly care for Earth’s forests because these beautiful wilds are essential for us not only to survive, but live.
I am thankful everyday for where I grew up, not just Hatfield PA where I was born and raised, but my home, and the land it was built on. Being neurodivergent in the way I was and still am, it was always difficult for me to find a place where I felt I belonged.
My family was always supportive and encouraged curiosity and imagination, and I could express that when I would spend time in the woods – imagining everything. Crafting my own wands out of sticks and using a “Phoenix” (chicken) feather as a core. Searching for shining stones in the stream and calling them kyber crystals. Taking long hikes carrying my replica of the One Ring around my neck. Letting daddy longleg spiders walk on me and imagine they gave me superpowers. All while my favorite fictional characters stayed by side, mixing and mingling from across universes.
As I grew up people have come into my life and I have a family that everyone needs and deserves. I am thankful for them everyday. But I have learned more and more about the damage that is being done to the small patch of woods around my house, nestled in the center of a sprawling suburbia.
Streams are mostly dry, only flowing during rain. The Lenni Lenape earth dam built centuries ago was washed away by floodwaters. The freshwater spring went dry. The green underbrush disappeared.
No new trees grow, they only die, like the Ash trees killed off by a disease brought by an insect transported here by humans. The overpopulation of white tail deer means our little forest no longer has an understory or young trees and brush that used to serve as habitat for a myriad of species. But we are like them because the decisions are not really in our hands.
You are not to blame for climate change. It is not your fault you drive a car that produces emissions, internal combustion has been the only option for cars until relatively recently. It is not your fault that there is so much trash; nearly everything is packaged in materials that cannot be recycled or composted – by companies that blame us for not recycling their non recyclable packaging.
It is not your fault that big business has grown so massive, when you live paycheck to paycheck, you need to get goods as cheaply as you can. It is not your fault that planes and boats produce so many emissions. It is not your fault if you cannot get electricity from a renewable source.
You are as much to blame for any of these issues as you are for needing to breathe. Not. One. Bit.
Yet, society has placed this responsibility on us as individuals. We can use this to our advantage. We organize ourselves as individuals to show the select few who act like they speak for us when they only speak for themselves.
In blaming us they have thrown the ball into our court; we the people have the power. I consider myself fortunate in the free time I have, and back home I am doing what I can with what I want.
My family have been working on the process of “wilding”— the process of restoring the forest— but with our own spin. We are planning an underbrush that deer will not eat. We are planting native species of trees that can grow from seed to sapling and eventually into a full tree without being eaten.
For me, my hope is that the new generation of forest in my tiny corner will be something that I can preserve for my children and grandchildren just as my grandfather left it to my father, and me.
We can all do something to care for a tiny corner of this planet, no matter how tiny it may be, and maybe if we do, we have a chance. We have had this responsibility thrust upon us, but we do not have to use it the way those in power intend.
All of us have infinite potential, whatever you may put your mind to, I believe in you. We have the power, we all deserve to use it. Never forget that there is no fate but what you make.