Hope

Small changes can make big differences—and have.

Small numbers of people can make big differences—and have.

Human will and self-interest have wrought vast changes on the California landscape, for better and (in ecological terms ) for worse.  The same human will and self-interest can finish the job from Eden to Hell or just as well back to Eden.  Long-term, enlightened, educated self-interest will do the latter.  Short-term, ignorant, myopic self-interest has done the former.

Anyone who cares about quality of life—for themselves, their descendants, and all the other plant and animal life we share the place with—will “do the right thing”.  Altruism or selfishness—the motive hardly matters; the result will be the same, give or take some details.

The only hope for the future of the place (and our species) comes from these simple facts.

Mindset, politics, educated decisions.  All are subject to rapid change, and to progress.  Real progress means improvement, growth—in knowledge, wisdom, motivation, ethics.  We congratulate ourselves for coming a long way from the cave.  In many ways we have.  In others we have regressed, above all in our connectedness (and therefore knowledge) to the “natural” world.

Our challenge is to rebuild broken links, to relearn lost knowledge.