Wendy Paulson and Carl Safina tackled that question, speaking first of salmon in the Pacific northwest, then looking at right whales (as they are pertinent for the Georgia coast), before delving into the philosophical nature of the worth of biodiversity to the world.
One of the things I most liked was Safina's story of a comedian he'd heard. The tale was of a student taking a test which required him to give three examples to describe the universe.
How to take something as vast as that and boil it down to only three descriptors?
Well, let me see if I can extract three key concepts from this talk.
1) Writing a book is not going to do it unless you plan to tour energetically in order to promote the message contained in its pages.
2) Bear in mind that for that message to be heeded, a decade - yes, ten years, at the minimum - of drumbeating will have to be maintained.
3) The message is going to have to be tied in to some personal aspect of the audience's life in order for that audience to want to take action.
Most importantly, remember this: it isn't that most people don't care about ecological and environmental issues, it's just that they are busy working for a living, trying to keep the roof over their heads and food on their tables.
If you want the majority to move on an issue, teach it to their children in school.
What is that saying about a picture being worth more than a thousand words on a topic?
Who better, then to answer such a question than Brian Skerry, a photojournalist and National Geographic Explorer.
As the subtitle claimed, he sought to use his own photographs to "inspire a conservation ethic from deep within our oceans", again concentrating on the right whale.
Wondering about that name for the mammal?
The fishermen bestowed its moniker, as it was "the right whale to kill".
So, let me distill this hour-plus discussion into three points of light.
1) Concentrate on the positive, not the negative. Showing photos of mothers and their calves will win over listeners. No one responds well to visuals of animals being maimed.
2) Don't regard the audience as well-versed in the subject. Take the time to point out the importance of the photos: where, when, what, how. That attention to detail speaks volumes and keeps the talk lively.
3) Urge others to take photos of ocean life, shore life, marsh life! That documentation of biodiversity in one's own backyard prompts folks to take action to preserve it.
Moreover, remember to have children do so to share at school.
This time, Drew Lanham and Josiah "Jazz" Watts were the panelists for the discussion to tackle the thorny issue of "making our conservation movement more inclusive and equitable for all".
Professor Lanham is an ornithologist, getting his start with birds from his grandma and her love of sparrows. (As she told him, "God keeps his eye on them, so I will too.")
Watts is an activist for Sapelo Island, his birthplace, and for the need to remember the role that slave labor played in transforming marshes into rice paddies.
(He should also know better than to claim the slave labor created the marshes. I noted that Lanham shot some exasperated glances at him for repeatedly making that claim.)
What can be discerned from this panel?
1) Be sure to stay on the topic at hand. Allowing someone to stray off on a personal vendetta is not fair to the other panelist nor to the audience at large.
2) Another topic, such as the historic culture of an area, can be tied in to the conservation efforts, adding more interest to preservation of the site.
3) Concentrate of the positive, not the negative. There are ways to win people over and ways to drive them away; winning them over is the goal.
Local history certainly has its place and time, and that should be in a classroom setting, informing the next generation... and, thus, their parents.
Brionte McCorkle, the director of Georgia Conservation Voters - yes, c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-o-n is correct - has a deep appreciation of trees here in Savannah. She grew up in the Mojave Desert area and has a firm grasp of the biodiversity nurtured in this coastal environment and the importance of saving it.
Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org and author of books for three decades about climate change, spoke with her from his home in Vermont.
Billed as "an intergenerational call to action on climate", that was certainly true. She is a mid-30's black woman and he is a 65-year-old white man. Both, however, were of a like mind when it came to the need to a full commitment for change, now, if the Earth is still to be a habitable place three generations from now.
In many ways, their conversation back and forth, answering questions from the audience, reminded me greatly of talks I have with my first niece.
Why do I mention that?
Christina and I are of similar ages to the two panelists.
And what three points what I speak of to her?
1) Exercise the right to vote at every opportunity. Every one of them.
2) Encourage others to vote at every opportunity. Moreover, keep tabs on what those electing are actually doing. Make sure they vote for what is best for the environment and the planet, not for what the wealthy and powerful want.
3) Emphasize the good, not the bad. Any politician that doesn't vote pro-Earth can be put back out on the street at the next election.
By all means, teach the next generation that dishonest, greedy, biased politicians need not re-apply for another term.
This final query of the five questions posed over the past five weeks by the 5th Annual Choosing To Lead Conference of One Hundred Miles looked back at "Jimmy Carter's Legacy of Conservation" to show the difference that can be made by one good politician.
The panel consisted of Jonathan Alter, the writer of a recent biography of the former President from Georgia; Jason Carter, the first grandson of the former President and chairman of the Carson Center; and Gus Speth, the environmental lawyer and advocate.
President Carter may have only served one term, but he accomplished more in those four years than most do in eight years. He passed a whopping fifteen pieces of environmental legislature through Congress, including the 1978 Energy Act and the addition of lands for preservation in the national parks established by President Theodore Roosevelt. He even had solar panels installed on The White House to lead the way toward less consumption of fossil fuels and was on his way to updating the USA to the metric system of weights and measures. I went into the Navy in December of 1976, sure that my country was on its way forward into a greener, more planet-friendly, economy.
Silly me.
So, what can I say I learned about this time?
1) Vote, vote every time an election comes around. Check on the politicians first and be sure to not elect any more closed-minded oil barons.
2) Have confidence that history will tell the tale of success much better than the media pundits of the current day.
3) Do the best that you can, for as many as you can, for as long as you can.
Teach the children to do the same.
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