Make the Earth Your Passion

Johnathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist with a unique passion: birds. His respect and passion for these feathered friends have given him a fresh perspective on conservation and environmental protection. In his TedTalk "Save What You Love," Franzen talks about how attitudes towards the environmental movement have shifted over the years. It started off as something so "green," something that people would join in because they truly loved nature and wanted to protect it. This mindset has mostly been replaced with one of fear, self-righteousness, or anger, feelings that we are much more familiar with.

Franzen's main point of the talk is to illustrate how effective our conservation efforts are when they are fueled by passion or love. This is ultimately his solution to an ever-evolving crisis. In an article he wrote, "Why Birds Matter," Franzen gushes about the magnificence of birds and how they connect us to a world beyond ourselves. He vouches for this natural world in his talk by suggesting we divert and spread our resources and energies to several passions. This creates resilient, adaptive, thriving ecosystems. He talks about one example regarding the magenta petrol, a sea bird. What was once thought to be long extinct is now on the road to a stable population, all thanks to a family who loved the bird. Franzen loves this world, and he wants us to find what we love so we can be just as inspired to save it.

I can definitely see myself incorporating some of Franzen's ideas in my own advocacy project. We have similar ways of approaching conservation; we want to preserve this world simply for its beauty and natural state.