This Earth Day, Put Down the Screens & Get Outside
By Maggie Anders
The past three years have been a period of intense contemplation and reflection for many Americans. Lives were upended in abrupt and callous ways due to the emergence of a disease that, for all we knew at the time, could have made us obsolete. Was this nature’s way of punishing us? Had we grown accustomed to the natural world bending at our will?
Many environmentalists will tell you that we have been at war with nature since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. We have conquered the world, and with the spoils of this war we have set it aflame. It would only be natural then for the earth to strike back its one final blow before the apocalypse.
This antagonistic relationship that has been framed by those who care for the environment begs the question: If we are at war, then who will win? Unlike what many want us to believe, the battle between man and nature is not a zero-sum game. I see our relationship with the environment more as a familial one.The fruits of the natural world raised human civilization, and now it is our job to take care of it like we would our parents.
The rivers and forests near the Mississippi River in St. Francisville, Louisiana raised me. I spent most of my childhood getting splinters from running around barefoot outside, exploring the woods across the street which stretched all the way to the Mississippi state line, and learning how to fish with my Disney branded fishing pole. My brother and I began naming parts of the woods so as to never get lost. I had a thick country accent growing up and a penchant for climbing trees at very inappropriate times (like after church in my nice dresses).
This idyllic and wild childhood ended rather abruptly for me when my parents announced that we’d be moving to the city nearly 40 minutes away. Soon, the sky at night no longer glittered with thousands of stars, but stayed a pale pink from light pollution. Forests turned to sidewalks, my Southern accent completely disappeared, and I logged on to social media for the first time. As I grew into a teenager, I became more and more checked out of reality and plugged into the virtual world.
I did not fully lose my deep appreciation for nature. I felt a deep peace whenever we traveled to my grandmother’s mountain home in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and I would often daydream of the creek behind their home and the fireflies that would appear every May. When stuck in the hustle and bustle of city life, I would always have Georgia on my mind.
When I moved to Georgia last spring, that mountain home was closer than ever, and I could not believe how green the city of Atlanta was. The number of trails, mountains, and rivers was the first sign that I would feel home in my new state. I have hiked many trails in my short time here, including Blood Mountain at the start of the Appalachian Trail, and I look forward to finally “shooting the hooch” (tubing down the Chattahoochee River) this summer. This state has offered me so much in the way of outdoor activities, that my phone usage has dropped significantly since moving here.
This Earth Day, I hope you can put your phone down as well and enjoy the incredible gifts that the natural world has to offer us. Earth Day is often “celebrated” as a doom and gloom day of reckoning for how close to total destruction we are, but I prefer to think of it as a reunion. We cannot save our forests, waterways, air, and earth without first seeing ourselves as part of its grander design. By spending time in nature, we grow in our appreciation for God’s creation and our roles as stewards of the Earth.
Maggie Anders is a content creator and digital strategist who worked with the American Conservation Coalition on this piece. She is originally from Louisiana and now resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
