Transcripts For CSPAN2 Author 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN2 Author July 3, 2024

Of the Royal Society when catesby landed in charleston, so you had the ferment and the coffee houses were the places to be where for a penny, you get a saucer of coffee and read all the newspapers that you wanted to and also, there were pirates. So, catesby landed in the golden age of piracy in the caribbean. Talk about that, he responded in his efforts by black beard. Not directly, but black beard blockaded charleston before catesby arrived there. And one of the things we dont understand, think about how many obstacles that were to the safe passage of plants and animals, collections and specimens, from the new world back to the old when you had storms, you had pirates were definitely an issue. In his letter, he mentions that certain shipments were way laid by pirates on the way back to london and the animal specimens that he was unfortunately forced to kill, he would sometimes put them in rum, which didnt always make it across the ocean from the Atlantic Crossing the ocean thanks to thirsty sailors. So it was quite an opportunity to learn more about that entire world and so many things beginning. Great britain was just beginning its rise to imperial power at this point. The royal navy was becoming the force that we would know it as in the following century 50 years later after catesby, some the sun never sets on the british empire. So you had all of those historical sources making up the historical times he lived in and im never unhappy when i Research Like that. So i use that had to shape his story. Thank you. In a moment we will begin taking questions, so if you have any, please approach the podium and the microphone there and well come to you in a moment. Dean, i wanted to ask you, with john muer, would the early Environmental Movement have been so successful or as successful as it was if john muer wasnt such a beautiful writer himself . And tell us about that and the persuasion of the pen and effectively what he meant when he was writing . I think john muer did give voice to nature in a new way through his relationship with century magazine, certainly, that was a very influential magazine by way of having done an incredible Civil War History that doubled their circulation and made that really one of the leading instruments of intellectual exchange, but and muer was kind of their correspondent they would take anything he could produce for them. He was not good at producing on demand. If they asked him something, often did not get it done. That was a source of frustration at times, when he was motivated and sit down together to look at the sequoias or write about the Sierra Nevada in various places he was eloquent and beautiful and seemed to find himself in just magnificent situations, a point where hes in Yosemite Valley and its flooding and flooding from all the edges of the mountain and its pouring in and you know, the average person might go looking for a tree to climb up, but hes wading through it and trying to get to the, you know, the craziest points and then trees and boulders are filling up the streams and then theyre coming crashing down when the pressure builds up and he describes this in magnificent ways and famously he went up in a tree during a storm. So he made experiencing nature, i think, very accessible to a lot of people and ultimately, i think its one of the misconceptions we have about him is that he wanted nature to be pure and forests to be pure and sierra club to bring nature and he wanted to bring people to nature because thats where he felt you got spiritual redemption and meaning in life. His writings lean that way to trying to make nature accessible and bring people to nature. And San Francisco wanted to dam up to create a reservoir. He was able to marshal groups across the nation to defend it, tried to defend it and lost that battle, but won the war and he had influence to bring a lot of people to be concerned for our natural world. Through the beautiful writing, yes. I believe we do have a question. If youll give us your name and tell us where youre from so we know how far you traveled to be here. Virginia, we came here to watch minor league baseball. [laughter] and gratefully learned about the book the Minor Leagues . Are you saying that were the Minor Leagues . [laughter] so, jack, ive got a question for you. As you have lived with the concept of the bald eagle for so long and i was unaware of audubons disdain of the bald eagle about you certainly, many of us know that Benjamin Franklin was very much opposed to the bald eagle, a scavenger bird being the National Bird and he of course, wanted the wild turkey. And how would our nation would have been different if franklin succeeded and wanted the wild turkey. Thats a myth. There are two myths you just stated. He did not want the wild turkey for a representative of the united states. He did compare the quote, unquote, morality of the wild turkey with the wild eagle and he was offended by the bald eagles behavior of stealing fish from osprey. He believed it was a craven a craven thief and that he did state and he but he never advocated the wild turkey to represent the united states. Now, audubon did. Audubon said the bird was the wild turkey and he wanted it to be his the countrys national representative. Now, and the now, the second myth here you said National Bird. We have no National Bird. We have a national mammal, which is the bison, the national tree, which is the oak. The flower which is a rose, but Neither Congress nor president ial proclamation has designated a National Bird and so, tomorrow congress could, indeed, appoint to the post, a sidewalk pigeon. And, but im part of this National Bird initiative thats being launched by the National Eagle center in minnesota. Anybody here from minnesota by chance . Or come that far to try to get congress designate the bald eagle once and for all the official National Bird. Thank you. Good question. Next gentleman here. Tell us who you are and how far you traveled to be here today. I live in mississippi. So seven miles. Yeah, not that long after drive. The gentleman from virginia has beat you so far. I kind of have a question for all of you all and just a thought for everyone in the room. What do you guys think about the people in my generation that are fighting against Climate Change and fighting against the people who wish to ignore it . Are you a millennial or a gen z . Gen z. Do you want to start or all right, so i teach at university of florida and ive taught for 30 years now and Charles Wilson in the back can probably attest to this. You know, its been interesting to see students across the generations, right, charles, and how different they are. I actually i have hope for the gen zs and people always ask me, you know, im a historian and they want to know about the future and i say im depending on the gen zs to turn things around, that you know, they recognize i think your generation recognizes that im a baby boomer, that my generation didnt leave you in such good shape and in more ways than one. And you recognize that its foolish to destroy to devalue your own nest. And obviously, there are exceptions among your generation, but im really hopeful and ive seen seen a change from the millennials to the gen zs in that sort of attitude. Im not knocking the millennials, i think that many of them feel the same way about the national environment. There you go. Yeah. The gentleman ill say as an old millennial ive taken both, i love reading and studying his life and i begin my book with thoughts about what it means to fall in love and to fall in love with a single creature and i think we often talk about falling in love with a partner, but i think its really interesting to think about falling in love with a with another kind of partner, one thats not human and having both in our lives. Anderson fell in love with the Brown Pelican and certainly i did, too. And once you fall in love with that one and learn everything you can, it leads to so many other things. I became, you know, in the writing of this book which was in the early covid years, i became a big birder. So now i travel all over latin america birding is my new hobby, i just got back from guatemala. And it kind of started with this bird that was a symbol of my home state of louisiana which i always knew was there, but never recognized as anything important than just being this flying creature. Didnt know its history. And so, thats what i encourage. You know, i have a ive been thinking about this a lot. I just became a father three weeks ago exactly. Three weeks and a day, and i cant wait for him to like find his first creature, his first thing that he loves or plants. You know, what is that thing or algae, whatever it is, and then see where that he sees a snail, see where that leads him. I think thats what it is. And thats, you know, any generation can do that, yeah. Patrick, your wisdom and thoughts . I may be the worlds oldest gen x, actually. But thats what i claim, where i put myself. I guess im a realistic optimist. I think i know pretty well how things are, but im just let me tell you, i believe that there are ivorybilled wood peckers, i believe that. I drew up in the mississippi delta, and cant tell me there are not enough where it is today. And i believe in the resilience of nature and the ability of humans to in the final analysis figure out what has to be done and make the, you know, the very broad sacrifices and changes in our lives that were going to have to do to really solve this problem Going Forward so i think for one reason or another, one cause or another will make us do that. So im cautiously and i hope realistically optimistic about it. I dont see sacrifices. I dont think we have to make sacrifices and one thing i like about the gen zs and many of the millennials, they recognize that, too. Our quality of life depends upon a good, clean environment. Thats where we live. A huge difference because i walked in the fields of my neighborhood a lot and i started walking in covid years so i took a lot of time walking and ive seen a huge difference in the decline of that area. Its not even from particularly outside factors, just its really dry, it doesnt look the same as it was a few years ago. Yes, yeah. Its really sad. And i think that, you know, we pride ourselves as a country of inventive genius. I think its a really exciting time for the millennials and the gen zs, you know, to be creative and turn things around and accomplish things and so i dont see that as sacrifice at all. I see that as actually see that as opportunity. And you know, again, we can rise to the occasion. I think weve started doing it and i think that gen z, they have a Bright Future in a green economy. And its bright and exciting. Thats just me. So i had my daughter is a gen z so ive got to be optimistic. James, your thoughts. Yeah, i think reaching back into history with john muer at the end, they said he died at a broken heart, when he lost the battle, but he didnt die of a broken heart. He believed people would ultimately would do the right thing. I see too many people in the older generations are entrenched in their ways of life, not flexible, not able to change, not even able to recycle and do the basic things we need to do and i think its a combination of sacrifice and opportunity and this is an exciting time, but hopefully gen z comes in with a new mentality and we need to make big shifts in the way we live. And probably, you know, for the better. I think theres we need to value the quality of life issues over material issues in a lot of way and hopefully that shift will take place in your generation. Thank you for that question. Important. [applause] and charge ahead. We have we do have time for one final question. Could you give us your name how far, where youve traveled. Im joey from arlington, virginia, with this guy. I assume you knew one another before you got in the car. You know, the question. Maybe 40 years, i dont know. A question for dean. Im glad you referenced john muers story about climbing up to the top of a pine tree in the storm in yosemite and that story was one of the first ones i read when i was getting involved in conservation advocacy and it spoke so much to me of the connection we can all have with the world around us. But here we are in mississippi. Can you talk a little about his thousand mile walk to the gulf . Oh. Well, im also from virginia, but the thousand mile walk to the gulf was one of the things i read when i was thinking about doing this and i thought, this is incredible. Right after the civil war walking through, experiencing nature through florida, you know, and facing alligators and mosquitos and, you know, getting malaria and all kinds of stuff, but in the end, you had all of these amazing experiences and i touched on those and recreated some of those. I decided, i left that out. Its a paragraph in the book and i thought it was going to be, you know, a big thing and it was so moving to me, but in trying to cut that narrative, and clean up what we know, you know, that what his vital history was, that got out of this book largely. Its wonderful, you can read this book and you can read the descriptions and taken out of the journals and he never wrote that up in an account, but it was done posthumously by his literary executor. But i think its a fascinating part of his life where hes pulling together a lot of sort of seminal thoughts and ideas that will sort of resonate throughout the rest of his writing and career. Can i add to that real quick . I wrote about this in the gulf, thousand mile walk in the gulf and finishes up at cedar key, or cedar keys as it was known. And we think of him as a werner, sitting westerner, and sitting at cedar key looking out at the gulf and he started to formulate the concepts that he took west with him and that became the basis of his environmental sensibility. So i think thats the east coast and i would say with some bias, the gulf of mexico is great contribution to this, americas perhaps greatest conservationist. Great question. Thank you. Before we end, i want to remind each of you that these four gentlemen will be at the signing tents at 11 a. M. So, you can continue your discussion with them. Have a book signed. But please, do visit them at 11 a. M. At the signing tent. Thank you for coming to the session today. Thank you. Thank jack davis, dean king, patrick king, and rien fertel. Thank you. 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