Bad Environmentalist

I guess I'm a Bad Environmentalist.  Like many earnest liberals, I donate to as many environmental organizations as my feeble budget will support.  Among these donations is $15/month to The Nature Conservancy.  I appreciate that sometimes it is insufficient to place land under federal supervision to actually preserve it.  It is sometimes necessary to buy the land outright, working with nearby stakeholders and land owners, and that is the mission of The Nature Conservancy.

I joined The Nature Conservancy in 1987 as part of a membership drive in southern Arizona.  At the time, a number of Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) were under consideration for Wilderness status.  We were encouraged to adopt a WSA and track its progress.  I adopted the Dos Cabezas WSA, but in typical Bad Environmentalist fashion, I never spent any time there, but sometimes waved hello from my VW Bug as I passed distantly by on Interstate 10 on trips to Albuquerque.

But I kept donating to the organization.  So, after 35 years, unbeknownst to me, I slowly bubbled into view of Conservancy leadership.  I received a nice letter:

"I am writing to share my sincere gratitude for your 35 years of support....  [I]t would be my privilege to learn what inspires you to be a champion for nature.  If I may, I shall call you in the next week, or so, to say hello... We are so fortunate to have you as part of the conservation community."

The phone call was SO nice!  It was very flattering for a small donor like myself to get this kind of lavish attention.  But little doubts arose in my head.  Why were they being so nice?  Eventually, they got to the point.  As I approach the oblivion of death, I need a Legacy.  Would I consider The Nature Conservancy in my final arrangements?  They already have benefitted from magnificent legacies, such as a large ranch in Southern California.  I could join them.

Well, I have my house, but I don't it will be worth so much as to preserve all that much land.  Maybe enough land to get idle teenagers into trouble, but not enough to extricate themselves.  And I still need the house to live in.  I'm not dead yet.  And what about other legacies to my family?

Still, I was getting distracted by my "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" books, so I put all this and much else out of my mind for several months.  In that period, my credit card was replaced, which stopped the automatic $15/month donation to The Nature Conservancy.  I wasn't paying attention, though.  I'd get around to fixing the problem when I had time.  And I stopped reading my correspondence.

So, I finally noticed I got a letter:

"I'm writing to confirm that your Conservation Champion status and $15 recurring gift have been canceled.... If there is anything we could have done to make your experience as a Conservation Champion better, or more rewarding, I hope you let us know."

Ow!  I hurt their feelings!  But I wasn't trying to throw shade, I just wasn't paying attention.  I didn't read my correspondence, so I didn't even know I was a Conservation Champion.  It sounds exalted, like a green superhero, but somehow I never noticed.

So, now I'm trying to restart my $15/month donation.  I'm no longer a Conservation Champion, which I guess confirms that I'm a Bad Environmentalist.  But I feel a weight has somehow lifted from my shoulders.  I take it all as an omen that becoming a Bad Environmentalist means I won't die after all, so have no need for a Legacy.  I'll just keep rolling down the freeway, waving at WSAs I'll never visit, and ignoring earnest letters.