|
 In the age of political
correctness, reporters should take a page from Edward Abbey and write
stories that inspire readers to care about environmental issues,
panelists Sunday told a room full of journalists.
"There is an absence of
narrative in environmental writing today that is almost frightening,"
Mike Lacey, editor of New Times in Phoenix, told about 50 journalists
gathered at Biosphere 2.
Lacey joined three other
panelists in a discussion called, "Writers on Writing: Focus on Edward
Abbey and Environmental Radicalism" as part of the seventh annual
conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
"Journalists have lost
sight of the connection between environmental writing and reality," Lacey
said. "I'd like to think that Ed Abbey, for all his wackiness, never lost
sight of that reality."
Abbey, a Southwestern
novelist, inspired a movement of environmental radicalism throughout the
70s and 80s with books like "Jonathan Troy," "Fire On the Mountain" and
"The Monkey Wrench Gang." Individualism over the government, and the
environment over mankind were major theses in Abbey's writing. He died
from surgery complications in 1989. He was 62.
"Abbey would not fit in
this room because he was the personification of the wilderness," author
Richard Manning told the crowd composed primarily of environmental
writers. "But Abbey was wild and unpredictable and if we can't fit him
in, we can't write about the wilderness."
Manning, author of
"Grassland" and "Last Stand," said journalists today are too concerned
with
being politically correct to cover the environment effectively. He said
good environmental journalists should make their editors and their
readers feel uncomfortable.
Panelist Charles Bowden,
an author and former journalist, agreed that environmental journalists
are too careful.
"Abbey would have been a
disaster as a reporter because balance was never his forté," Bowden
said.
"He told us that the state, coupled with industry, were not only evil,
but they were killing the whole damn planet."
Bowden said journalists
should learn from Abbey's ability to turn readers on to environmental
issues. He said journalists have strayed from story-telling techniques
that make readers care.
"Fiction used to come out
of people like yourselves when alcoholism caught up with you in your late
30s and you started writing novels in the newsroom," Bowden said.
While he didn't endorse a
complete departure from objectivity, Bowden said journalists need to
search for the reality in today's environmental issues.
"I'd like to walk into a
room full of journalists where Ed Abbey is relevant," Bowden said. |
