Environmental politics and policy frameworks

¶ … Water" by David James Duncan which commends the author in his elaboration of the importance of the ecological system in lieu of our human needs.

The words of one reviewer as she commended this book said, "I thank David James Duncan for putting into words the profound idea that the salmon's presence is a breathtaking reminder of the rightness of the earth's own plan." And theses words are thus the thesis of the narratives in "My Story as Told by Water" by David James Duncan.

As the human civilization progresses we see that the environment is being affected adversely. There are tens of instances where humans have polluted nature and the results can be seen in the greenhouse effect and extinction of various species. This raises the question of the relevance of nature to the human. Environmentalists are focusing on the concepts of sustainable progress and in such a scenario books, which relate to the issue become indispensable. Thus, the book "My Story as Told by Water" by David James Duncan is one such contribution to the world.

Duncan is a nature lover he loves all the elements of nature is not afraid to say so. He is vociferously critical of the policies, which have goverened the nations around the world, and his rage at human progress at the expense of nature is apparent. He is one of the few environmental writers who are capable of tempering his rage with humor. He does not preach, rather he relates and acknowledges the worth of the environment and through his tributes puts the world to shame.

My Story as Told by Water is a selection of essays and articles which Duncan has written about the environment and which each evoke memories for the reader. As child Duncan used to go through his hometown fishing and playing in the river. Growing up in the Portland area he was close to the wilderness and it the destruction of the same caused him great unhappiness. This need to be close to nature and the inevitable loss of it caused him to feel more passionately than most about the environment. His words are an intricate web of the emotions he has regarding the joy he received from nature and the grief brought on by the loss.

The characters in the essays and the tales that are told are unforgettable and the humor that touches each evokes a sense of feeling in which the reader is able to relate to the situation. The narratives are not corny even as they condemn and the touch of realism allows the reader to cherish the moments that have now become mere memories.

Through his flair for creative writing and his exquisite use of the facts he paints a humorous picture of the past. Sentences like "current mining regulations in America were signed into law by Ulysses Grant" mingle with, "the caution of Mary Tyler Moore crawling across a floor covered with thousands of baby gerbils" all capture the imagination of the reader.

The book's theme is simply a love for the environment and the essays become the memoirs of his love affair with nature as he relates his tales of the rivers, creeks, streams and other natural water forms all of which he saw in Portland as a child and gradually lost as he grew to be an adult. For once we see a writer who has actually experienced nature condemn the politics, which have destroyed it. The writer cannot be called an idealist or a preacher for his experience and words are all too human. That he has left his hometown to live in Montana on the edges of the wilderness gives truth to his words, which evoke a love of nature.

As he writes of the 'myriad suburban streams' and the life in them the reader is left to wonder at the profound inspiration the writer must have felt at the time.

Yet, to say the book is all cream and peaches would be undermining its potential -- cause while it pays tributes to the natural waters it also condemns the political and economic policies of the governments presenting a much more complex argument. The debate of 'Is nature worth more than progress' arises and the writing could have become a series of cliches save for one redeeming factor. It has style. Duncan condemns the destruction of Montana's Blackfoot River, where the Snake River was dammed in four places, causing the extinction of the river's wild salmon stocks. He is merciless in his words and succinctly places the blame on the state policies while pleading for their removal. The fact that he does not mince words while doing so suggests that he is more worried for the salmon than of being politically correct.

Duncan writes that the Dams that were built there are really unnecessary. He states that the Snake dams provide only 3.5% of the Northwest's hydropower and "of the same vintage of federal pathology that gave us . . . 3.5 trillion lethal doses of nerve agent released by the Pentagon into Mormon- and Navajo-populated deserts . . . And a present-day epidemic of cancers." Such statistics and analogies cannot but astound the reader and shock their interpretation of the need for dams. The situation is humanized as he presents the salmon not as mere fish but rather as living creatures. He writes, "Wild salmon are not economic units. They are transrational beings whose living bodies bring far-reaching blessings to a watershed." These words bring the formerly simple creatures to life and give them the value they deserve.

At times the authors views do become more emotional and create a feeling of excessive awkwardness as he relates the need for a grasp of the situation. His suggestion that economy does not matter, that the states don't matter and that the people who want progress don't matter is hard to swallow. For as a realistic reader it is a fact that these do matter. People want their comfort and that they will try to achieve it as the expense of others is human nature. To suggest otherwise is a fallacy and tends to at times weaken the argument. Yet, his saving grace is his humor. Even while making arguments that are at the edge of tethering into 'preachiness' he is capable of writing 'the Californians and their air-conditioners don't matter' and with this the reader snorts at the obvious sarcasm and relaxes accepting a rebuke of selfishness as the humor is intended to be.