Last week I started reading My Green Manifesto: Down the Charles in Pursuit of a New Environmentalism by David Gessner. It's hard to grow up near the Charles, study rivers, and work on the Charles and not pick up this book. The book tells the story and history of the river, while the author canoes and enjoys the natural and urban sides of it.
What has stood out for me so far (I haven't finished it yet because of my Hydrology and Chemistry classes...) is his focus on acting and thinking locally for environmental and community problem solving. It's easy to forget about local issues when there are so many exotic ones. In my hydrology class this semester for example, we had to pick a river to do water modeling projects on all semester and my mind of course jumped straight to looking in states I know nothing about like North Carolina and Idaho to find some wild and free river. My professor on the other hand uses the Aberjona River, which flows just a few miles away from my classroom in Winchester. In the same vain it's so easy for me to plan and dream up canoeing and kayaking trips in the far reaches of Vermont and New Hampshire, but why not explore the Charles River and Boston Harbor Islands some more?
Gessner is a funny and humble narrator during his own study of the Charles. He is curious and eager to learn, which is where his friend Dan Driscoll comes in to fill the heroic void. Driscoll is a government employee who has fought for years to save and protect the water and land of the Charles River and is an inspiring character in his fight to save nature along such an urbanized river. He shows that you can really think and plan big to make a difference in your own backyard. The book has the typical transcendental touch of most New England environmental writing, an homage to Thoreau and his Walden.
What has stood out for me so far (I haven't finished it yet because of my Hydrology and Chemistry classes...) is his focus on acting and thinking locally for environmental and community problem solving. It's easy to forget about local issues when there are so many exotic ones. In my hydrology class this semester for example, we had to pick a river to do water modeling projects on all semester and my mind of course jumped straight to looking in states I know nothing about like North Carolina and Idaho to find some wild and free river. My professor on the other hand uses the Aberjona River, which flows just a few miles away from my classroom in Winchester. In the same vain it's so easy for me to plan and dream up canoeing and kayaking trips in the far reaches of Vermont and New Hampshire, but why not explore the Charles River and Boston Harbor Islands some more?
Gessner is a funny and humble narrator during his own study of the Charles. He is curious and eager to learn, which is where his friend Dan Driscoll comes in to fill the heroic void. Driscoll is a government employee who has fought for years to save and protect the water and land of the Charles River and is an inspiring character in his fight to save nature along such an urbanized river. He shows that you can really think and plan big to make a difference in your own backyard. The book has the typical transcendental touch of most New England environmental writing, an homage to Thoreau and his Walden.
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