Natural History Visit

Wednesday, September 14 2005 - 0 Comments

Spent a good amount of time at the American Museum of Natural History here in New York yesterday. I could spend hours looking at the dioramas from all different parts of the world, but it's usually the North American kind that I get most into. I love looking at them for the first time and trying to guess the region depicted before I take a look at the little info plaque that outlines the scene. Not that it's too difficult, but I think I'm pretty decent at guessing what the curator is trying to depict. It's fun to look at the display and say you know, that really looks like the Cascades as opposed to the Sierra or Rocky mountains. Or that looks like the deserts of Utah or Colorado not the extreme south of Arizona or California. I get a weird kick out of it. I think it's because I lumped all these displays into a generic Western category when I was younger. I never figured that they actually existed or that the environments weren't stylized to some extent. It's an rare example of childhood/youth-hood offering a less imaginative and exciting view of the world than I now have as an adult.

Another thing that the museum does well, albeit sometimes in a little bit of a 1990s gloomy kind of way, is mix environmental health information with it's depictions. While noting the biodiversity of some oceanic ecosystem the display points out the biodiversity that has already been lost and what elements are still under threat. It left me strangely motivated. I think it just helps me remember that there are important problems to work on in the world -- problems whose solutions will make a positive difference. I'm not talking (just) about saving the plankton or some esoteric detail like that but more about big picture bright green type stuff.

I'm a big fan of the website World Changing, and their founder Alex Steffen recently did a three part interview at Grist (1,2,3) which is a great outline of the reframed, optimistic, and sustainable/responsible technology embracing view of environmentalists who are looking forward to a bright green future. If you've ever cringed at the mention of the word environmentalism or environmentalists (I know I have and still do in some contexts) I'd encourage you to read all three parts of the series and pick up on a little of the excitement and optimism that Alex relates. I don't know if bright green the next big thing or that we would really want it to be (I'm actually quite sick of the next big thing seeking mentality), but the potential has got me excitied in a way that the space program did when I was a kid or the Internet back in 1994.

Posted by Ben at September 14, 2005 10:30 AM

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