Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
news of the incident were rendered futile when atmospheric monitoring stations in Sweden, hundreds
of miles away, reported high levels of radioactive fallout.
In the case of Chernobyl, measurable amounts of fallout were recorded more than 1,200 miles away.
As a result, the authorities ordered the destruction of thousands of cattle, pigs, and chickens out of
fear that a contaminated food chain would lead to adverse human health impacts. Nevertheless, re-
lated sicknesses have subsequently occurred, and many public health officials predict more problems
in the years ahead.
The role of attitudes toward nature
People generally have kindly attitudes toward some natural environments and less kindly
attitudes toward others. These differences may result in concerted efforts to preserve
some components of the natural world even as others are allowed or encouraged to be
degraded or destroyed.
Consider, for example,
forest
and
swamp
. If you are like most people, then these two
terms probably evoke different feelings. More specifically, most Americans have a rather
benevolent and protective attitude towards forests and a much less benevolent and pro-
tective attitude toward swamps. Forests, of course, are places we humans can read-
ily walk through and even make our home. Swamps, in contrast, are places we cannot
similarly experience and are much less likely to call home. Wildlife may also play a role
in explaining why these habitats are perceived so differently. Cartoons and other media
have generated a generally positive mindset towards chipmunks, squirrels, deer and oth-
er forest animals (a phenomenon that has been called
the Bambi Complex
), but a less
cuddly set of attitudes towards the reptiles and amphibians that tend to populate swamps.
This, of course, is bad news for swamps, which provide unique and necessary habitat
for a great number of species. But how can one protect natural habitat and successfully
lobby legislators to that effect if people simply have negative attitudes toward the thing
that you seek to protect? In this case, the solution has been to drop
swamp
from the
environmental vocabulary and replace it with
wetland
. Accordingly, a substantial body of
environmental law aimed at wetland protection has been enacted during the past few
decades and enjoys broad public support. People, it seems, are perfectly willing to pro-
tect a wetland rather than a swamp, even if the two places in question are one and the
same.
