Destroying? Or Destroyed?

I live in the city of Minneapolis. Like most cities, there’s light pollution, car noises, and all the other things we associate with cities. Having lived here my whole life, I have also watched our yearly snowfall tick down as the temperatures tick up. I’ve seen this place change for the worse over the years, especially for our Earth. 

For the past two summers now, I’ve had the chance to go to summer camp in the Temagami region of northern Ontario. We spend six weeks in small groups of girls paddling wood canvas canoes through rivers and lakes throughout the area. There is where my interest in sustainability and the climate was sparked, not because the camp has anything to do with teaching you about this, but because I had the privilege of witnessing what cities like my own had replaced. I, for the first time, truly understood what needed protecting. What was disappearing, and what had already disappeared. 

On my canoe trips around the area, I often went days without seeing a soul outside of my section. I spent early mornings quietly watching bald eagles soar past the sunrise, and spent my nights around the campfire watching the sunset. I’ve never felt more connected to the Earth. I slept outside, peed outside, and yes, I pooped outside. I didn’t see a toilet for forty two days. The most special thing to me was the sky. It wasn’t blue, like it is on a sunny day in Minneapolis, it was blue. Blue means something different up there in a way I’m not sure how to explain. It’s just brighter. And apart from that, you learn to appreciate the sun more when you lack shelter from the rain much of the time. Speaking of rain, that suddenly mattered more to me too. In drought seasons, we couldn’t make fires, meaning lugging a stove, one extra item in your canoe or on your back during a portage. I learned to appreciate each and every aspect of the natural world around me, from the blueberries I ate daily, to the sun, to the rain, to the trees that gave me shade and a place to hang my hammock. Quiet days on the water gave me a chance to think about what the world would lose if this place was turned into a city. I imagined attempting to explain tall trees and blue sky to my grandchildren, all of it having disappeared.

After returning home, I missed the thousands of stars. I missed being able to drink lake water without purifying it. I missed the blue sky and I missed the thickness of the forests. I realized that what is now Minneapolis used to have all of that. I was able to look past the snow I had watched fade away, and realize what had been fading for hundreds of years before I was born. I could finally visualize what had been before. I realized what we had destroyed, not only what we are destroying. We destroyed our blue sky, and our starry night sky. We destroyed our water. We destroyed thousands of our trees. Now, after seeing just how much we have lost, I want to make sure we don’t lose anymore.