“If every single person with a little bit of lawn begins to plant native plants, ones that feed native wildlife, collectively we will have the equivalent of the biggest national park in the country.”
(Milkweed Editions, 2021)
Many of us are anxious about everything related to nature and climate—and also worried about a slew of other social and political challenges. But what should we fix first? Author and New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl gives us her answers.
Margaret Renkl’s new book “Graceland at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South” is a graceful mix of observations about nature and practical solutions.
“We have a lot of different sources of anxiety right now, but what it all really comes down to is, is climate change and the loss of biodiversity,” says Margaret Renkl. “If we could fix those two things, we could go back to worrying about smaller things. But if we can’t get those things sorted out, the other things we worry about will be made so much worse in the world that’s coming: the income disparity, the racism, the misogyny, the ugly things that happen when people are under duress.”
How to Find Out More
You can absorb more of Margaret’s observations on a regular basis. She has a column in The New York Times that appears each Monday.
Buy and read both of Margaret’s books: Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (Milkweed Editions, 2019) and Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South (Milkweed Editions, 2021). Ask for your local bookstore to order them for you, or try Jill’s favorite, Seminary Coop Books/57th Street Books. You can order from their website—and if you live in Chicago in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago (or somewhere reasonably close) they’ll deliver you order right to your doorstep—without the heavy duty packaging of Amazon and with only a wee, barely measurable environmental footprint.
In the episode, Margaret mentions the Xerces Society, an organization that asks people to take the Pledge for Protection of Pollinators. The Xerces Society’s Bring Back the Pollinators campaign is based on four simple principles: Grow pollinator-friendly flowers, provide nest sites, avoid pesticides, and spread the word.
