Looking Within and Without in the Amazon

David Cassuto

I’ve returned from the Amazon where a wonderful time was had by all.  This trip — part of the Pace Law School Comparative Environmental Law class — was a complete success.  We saw toucans, caimans, sloths, monkeys, and all kinds of other wonders, including the Meeting of the Waters.  We lived on a boat that took us up the Rio Negro, one of the major feeder rivers of the Amazon, swam in the coffee colored water, and reconnected with the reasons so many of us went into environmental law.

Of course, the less wonderful was never far from sight.  Our hotel in Manaus had a little “zoo” where animals (including jaguar, giant turtles and others) are imprisoned in small cages so guests can come by and gawk (few do).  The fish served on the boat and everywhere else came from industrial farms, which have arisen to meet growing demand for fish that once proliferated throughout the region.   

Our boat had no water treatment capability; it discharged sewage directly into the river.  When I raised my eyebrows, the captain pointed out that it makes little sense to worry about a boat like his when the entire city of Manaus (population 2 million) discharges its sewage directly into the river as well.

These things give one pause.  And yet, we still had a great time.  Our good time derived in part from an ability to ignore or look away from disturbing things.  This willingness to look away from that which we do not want to see is a root cause of inertia,  facilitating everything from climate change to factory farms.  I spend a lot of my time critiquing this trait, decrying it, and attempting to remove it from the policy-making realm.  And yet, I do it too.  

The world is simultaneously bleak and beautiful.  Focusing exclusively on the former deprives one of the latter.  But willful ignorance of the former allows many horrors — both anthropogenic and non — to metastasize.  Balance would seem to be the key. 

Part of the reason I do what I do is because I am continually inspired by the world around me.  Another reason is because I am continually horrified as well.  Sometimes my motivation derives from the one and sometimes from the other.  These past few days, I managed both. 

My gut tells me that is a good thing.