In Praise of Walt Disney’s Nature Advocacy and What May Be Missing with 4 Questions

 

In Praise of Walt Disney’s Nature Advocacy ... What May Be Missing with 4 Questions

“How could this Earth of ours, which is only a speck in the heavens, have so much variety of life, so many curious and exciting creatures.” Walt Disney

There is no doubt that Walt Disney was an advocate of nature and conservation. Even at the beginning, he brought live deer into the studio so Bambi could be characterized correctly. He brought to life animals, birds and fish photographed in living color to capture every move and emotion. He helped us to walk with elephants, hunt with jungle cats, swarm with dolphins and wait patiently as penguins survived another blizzard. There is no doubt through his nature documentaries and feature films, we were educated, affiliated, bonded and even protective of our wildlife neighbors.

Perhaps more than anyone he highlighted the meaning of Anthropomorphism which attributes human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things including objects, plants, and supernatural beings.  Who hasn’t watched the Lion King and shared the emotions of youthful exuberance and curiosity,  angry and jealous family tensions, unknown overwhelming dangers, and the redemption of the circle of life? My 5-year-old niece cried inconsolably, but so did I share a few tears of joy. The spark of sublimity was lit for lions for all time.

No doubt his cartoons of Mickey Mouse brought to life a walking talking mouse with his family, friends, adversaries, a nice home with everyday problems. He was cute with big round eyes, button nose, normal  tail, an outlined plump body dressed in red shorts and wearing large yellow gumboots. As onlookers we could relate to everyday people problems but may not look as kindly at a real mouse occupying our own house.

But a mouse is not a human character who worries about shopping, driving or partying. The cartoon did not help to explain how a mouse lives and struggles in the real field … his burrows, food supply and food web, his numerous offspring, his lifespan and purpose in the environment. Only a basic understanding of ecology could validate his existence and worth to his true community.

Perhaps, too many Disney fairy tale characters are flawlessly pictured that may imply to children that a perfect face and body can live happily ever after.  Perhaps, too many of the fire-bolting, muscular exaggerations of mighty superheroes may imply that supernatural powers are needed for success...the bigger the better.

The timeless power of nature in its collective multidimensional forms is the strongest of all forces that dominate our Earth’s life support without which we couldn’t survive.

The more you learn, the more you understand the good news that Nature follows ecological principles which means that its real power is not about might, disorganization or destruction,  but about managing connections and restoring balance and unity.

Only interactions with humans disrupt these cycles. Could it be because they just don’t know enough synchronicity from the soil up to the clouds? Or how the missing link of a small honeybee could seriously limit the world’s food supply?

We need to hear this message loudly and clearly because ecological emergencies must be reduced all around the planet before natural cycles can’t redeem the imbalances or mediate the suffering of all living beings. Only a diversified communication mass media conglomerate like Disney can share the information creatively with facts and fantasy … combining science with creative art.   

What may be missing is a character from an eco-fiction source. Imagine if water could talk about its survival or a tree celebrate its partnerships and succession?  

Eco-fiction is a story that talks about the relationship between natural settings and human communities. The characters inhabit an ecosystem based on ecological principles that call attention to act responsibly to be good ethical stewards of the Earth. They share the reality of microorganisms, photosynthesis, food webs, carbon dominance, pollution, and changing weather patterns as first-person experiences. They share their joys, fears and hopes. They give warnings of dangers to ignore their messages.

A good eco-fiction asks 4 key questions:

1. Can storytelling help to change societal norms and feelings about conservation and sustainability?
2. Why is biological diversity so important to environmental sustainability?
3. Why are cycles the language of nature from nitrogen to carbon to nutrients to pollutants to greenhouse gases and more?
4. Why look at the environment as a work in process … not a given constant or photograph?

So, here is an eco-fiction idea for consideration called The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots.

In a culture where fantastical superheroes and Mickey Mouse abound, maybe it’s time to meet a real superhero whose live is essential to sustain all life on Earth.  His mission is to discover Earth’s Cyclical Truths with natural affinity as both a water element and plant that makes him a primary consumer in the ecosystem.  He narrates his personal journey as he walks and talks through his  many experiences with lifeforms essential to ecology and shares his amazement at several natural cycles. He falls in love twice ... the impossible and the probable. It is only when he encounters humankind that he feels a loss of self; and learns consciously, and sometimes painfully, the truth for the need for preservation of balance in nature. 

What is more important to Earth’s survival than fresh clean water?

What is more important than a fresh, clean water cycle?

Disney is a natural fit to produce a movie like this but there may be other production companies who may be interested in an eco-fiction movie to help educate the masses and preserve our fresh water supply?

"No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced."  Sir David Attenborough

Please comment about your favorite Disney movie or documentary. 

Questions and comments are always welcome.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

833 4471 4661 (please leave your best time to talk)

Excerpt... the water sprite returns to the pond now polluted...

Then I stop, unblinking and unthinking in shock. What I see is more frightening than the strangest invasion of any alien beings, I'm sure.

A new colony has appeared on the bottom sludge. A series of finger-like tubes are projecting out of the mud with long bluish grey worms twisting and turning their way to the top. Moving through and around the tube worms are other blood red worms, wriggling and waving back and forth with lapping tongues clearly seen in their open mouths picking up any food particles on the currents. Is that saliva dribbles I see floating by?

.

 

...these are actual biological changes in polluted water with less oxygen

Personal Discovery of Eco-Fiction, an Author’s Genre that Celebrates Our Relationships with Nature

 

Personal Discovery of Eco-Fiction, an Author’s Genre                   that Celebrates Nature's Relationships 

 

“As environmental crisis grows ever clearer, the best eco-fiction can help 

                           realign our conception of nature…”

It was a special discovery that finally answered my question what kind of e-books talk about water and trees as real characters with plots, problems and resolutions.

Eco-fiction is defined as nature literature based on the relationship between natural settings and human communities. It is a voice drawn from ecological principles that calls attention to act responsibly to be good ethical stewards of the Earth. There may be warnings of dangers to ignore it.

This special author's genre can help answer two questions:

1. Can scientific facts be understood better through an imaginative creative license as an emotional, interactive first-person experience?
2. Can the unique power in figurative language known as personification give human characteristics to non-living things or ideas to make better associations to better relate with a sense of empathy that it matters?

I can now proudly say that I wrote 2 e-books that can be classified as eco-fiction by combining 2 parts: the science of ecology with the art of story writing.

Part 1: Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment including both nonliving and living factors

Part 2:  A story composition includes basic elements of believable memorable characters, immersive settings, suspenseful plot lines, goals and challenges with resolutions at the end.

The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots has the scientific basis of  the water cycle that describes the continuous movement of water as it makes a circuit from the oceans to the atmosphere to the Earth and back again.

The main character is a water sprite with roots who has natural affinity as a water resource and as a plant at the primary level in the ecosystem. He is a complex character existing in three states with a range of abilities, but the mystery is his mission to discover other Cyclical Truths as he returns to the ocean. Indeed, along the way, the suspense and amazement grow as to how many he will find and how they fit into interdependent ecosystems.

Indeed, he develops affection for a micro-organism, shares her pond’s education and experiences pollution at the micro level where it begins. A sub plot develops when he discovers a hydrocarbon molecule and is surprised at their mutual organic bonds for affecting climate change because they share carbon as well as hydrogen molecules. At the end, floating over the ocean he finds peace with his internal conflict  that in order to survive people need to balance and protect their ecosystems.  

Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch introduces a sensitive birch tree who undervalues his existence until a tree dryad inhabits him and her wisdom explains his functions and connections to his community. He lives through the value of seasons, why nature doesn’t produce garbage through the humus cycle, the interdependent food web, the variation of adaptations and seeds, and how a spider web can help to explain morality versus consumerism. He sees the ecological succession that happens after a forest fire and plays his own integral part in supporting his community as his legacy.

Ecological principles were the basis of both stories with a common theme that flourished about diversity and cooperation. The hostile antagonists were people who in short-sighted selfishness attacked or abused these principles. They didn’t understand that DNA starts in the nucleus of the smallest life-form and cycles through natural bio-systems, including the Earth's biosphere.    

In the end, the main question or challenge is how an eco-fiction story can help to change societal norms and beliefs about ecology, environment, and sustainability?

There are lessons to be learned from Nature's elements as real personalities. They can show  how to make the less visible more visible because the greatest law of Nature is we are all connected…if one part is missing, we all suffer.

How else can the water cycle come alive with surprise and mystery by a unique personality that deeply cares about his survival committed to common goals?

How else can a birch tree come alive with his curiosities, fears, flaws, strengths and affinity for his family home and community?

What’s more important than fresh water and a clean water cycle?

What’s more important than a tree to clean the air and combat climate change?

What amazing friends and true superheroes for children to know!

In fact, perhaps, the more we can understand the natural world from real participants, the more we can apply common experiences relative to both nature’s and people’s communities. In fact, don't we all need to adapt to changes in the environment and face common issues of how to manage connections, maintain diversity, broaden participation, and foster adaptive thinking…all ecological principles that require tolerance and patience?

 In the end, science and imagination synchronize and weave fascinating stories that only a water sprite with roots and a living tree can tell; that in order to survive, we need to balance our Earth’s ‘Cyclical Truths’  and protect its ecological ecosystems. 

Most importantly, the hope is for children of all ages to accompany and respect them in our natural environment even more around every chapter and care deeply for Nature's manners, fears and hopes.

Check out the e-books here.

Have you read this unique genre called eco-fiction? The question has been asked why more books aren't written to help explain Nature's point of view when in crisis. 

Comments are always appreciated.

Please note the series of podcast questions in these blogs... 

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661 (leave a time to talk)

Who can better describe the microscopic food chain than a microorganism called Stentor as part of the Great Ecological Cycle?  He teaches the Water Sprite and his class, 

Excerpt: “This is one of the great Cyclical Truths … if one part lives, then the other part lives; if one part is destroyed then the other part will be destroyed in time? Isn't co-operation wonderful, a true democracy through diversity?"

PS:  Much more information about the evolution of Eco-fiction and examples of literary works can be found on dragonfly.org

Overview of Podcast Shows about Ecology's Cyclical Truths with this One-of-a-Kind Special Water Character

Overview of Podcast Shows about Ecology's Cyclical Truths with this One-and-Only Special Water Character

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”– Albert Einstein

Who doesn’t want to hold our beautiful blue planet in protective hands, symbolically? Who doesn’t like a walk in sunshine, breathe fresh air, feel a splatter of rain or eat a fresh salad, baked potato with chives-up sour cream and a cool glass of clean fresh water? That’s a nice package with a bow of gratitude, but how many parts are inside this package that need assembly to make sure that nature works as programmed? 

Bottom line, if we can’t negotiate with nature, then we better relate to the interdependent parts and functions; so we can pass Earth's priceless gifts to future generations. 

To that effect, a Facebook ad or video, does not do justice below the surface. I am looking for podcast shows interested in discussing important questions about ecosystems, natural cycles and how to resolve disruptive problems.

On one side, I believe that the audience may be amazed at the many functions of  a water cycle or ecosystems in general. I know I certainly am, learning so much through research; especially feeling, that an elementary knowledge of basic facts is not good enough to visualize the depth, co-dependence and intricacy of natural systems.

On the other side, why me as a podcast guest? You might think I lack expertise because I’m not a trained scientist with years of study. But I am a serious, respectful Earthling human being concerned enough to educate and protect our future within Earth's finite resources. Also, I am a retired teacher with an inborn DNA to value education and share more learning in an organized, open-ended way. 

To that motivation,  I wrote a one-of-a-kind e-book about a water sprite with roots based on scientific realities. Below, note the previous blogs that address ten possible podcast questions and answers.

Here are two more questions with references to the e-book and possible podcast shows.

Why does the water sprite hero have roots ... doesn’t this make him immobile?

Can scientific facts be understood better through an imaginative creative license as a first person experience?

First, it’s no wonder that dominant water forces have also played important roles in the realm of imagination, folklore and mythology. The theme of water becomes the flowchart by which people can explore, understand and integrate their cultural values based on living together whether philosophical, social or even ecological, constantly responding to change.

• It’s very interesting to note the number of deities, named by the thousands in Greek and Roman mythology, who were ascribed powers to control the elements of all water. Their names were associated with seas, storms, waves, currents, sea-creatures, lakes, springs, rivers, fountains, marshes and ground waters. The most common was Poseidon as the king of the seas and lord of the sea-gods living in a golden palace on the seabed with his queen and son Triton who looked like a merman with the upper body of man and tail of a fish, calming the waves by blowing his conch shell horn.
• Folklore from Western Native American tribes talked about water babies as mysterious and dangerous water spirits living in ponds and streams whose cries could signal distress or fore-warnings.
• Modern aquatic superheroes display supernatural powers to champion a return to justice with extravagant cinematic powers that may momentarily dazzle without facts. 

But there has never been a character quite like this water sprite with roots. He is small, kind, sensitive, vulnerable as he is curious, speaks the language of Earth’s biological citizens. He personifies the total water cycle: he is the cloud, the dewdrop, the snowflake, the currents in a pond, the sap, the saliva, the solvent for synthetic pollutants. He is given the chance to pick his own name: Corddo-mont the Sixteen-Hundred-Billionth, the Variable, the Life-Giver, the Earth Sustainer or Cordd for short.

Why does the water sprite hero have roots ... doesn’t this make him immobile?

This water sprite is a highly specialized organism whose body composition is 96% pure water surrounded by two elastic cell layers, an inner one composed of cellulose and an outer one of protein fibers. Three characteristics:

• his brain is found in his stomach where it can better regulate his complicated respiration; sometimes inhaling oxygen or carbon dioxide, depending on the role of plant or animal he  happens to be in. 
• his heart is found in his head, directly connected to his eye spots so he can both see things and have feelings without others' observations and opinions. 
• for protection, he has a typical encyst button like a belly button in his chest, which can shrink him into a state of dormancy until a more favorable time for re-emergence.

One unusual characteristic is that he can be classified as both animal and plant for two reasons:

• first, he can also anchor himself into the ground by special root-retractors between his toes. Like any other root, he can absorb minerals from the soil and digest them as necessary vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates.
• second, his outer cell layer contains chloroplasts cells which are visible like green freckles. Because these cells contain chlorophyll, he can directly convert the sunlight's energy into food energy, namely sugar, just like a plant can.

Most importantly, he can communicate with any other organic life form because they share carbon as well as hydrogen molecules.Therefore, he can express their stories, their dangers, imbalances, fears, and hopes from their realities about cyclical truths essential to ecology.    

Hopefully, people will feel a special bonding with this water character; thereby, making an emotional connection through his trials, tribulations and inclusions of all lives in a balanced natural environment. As the water sprite falls in love, so will the readers in kinship and motivational affinity to protect Nature at its best.

Can scientific facts be understood better through an imaginative creative license as a first person experience?

There is a unique power in figurative language known as personification when you can give human characteristics to non-living things or ideas. Associations help to better relate to the object or idea and have a sense of empathy that it matters. 

What more precious bonding can there be than to consider water as a valuable friend, as a person and necessity for survival? You wouldn't hurt or bully a good friend, right? 

  

Here are a  few situations where I feel personification helps to focus on water as a real entity in its own right for sustainability and protection:

• how else can you describe evaporation from the ocean as frolicking with friendly air molecules, rising higher into snowstorms and freezing into a glacier?
• how else can you describe the joy of a plant bathed in sunlight and drinking nutrients though it roots, feeling its body structure becoming stronger cell by cell?
• what better way to show the family and community life of microorganisms, like rotifers, and their special bonding to fresh water except by developing mutual feelings of respect for each other?
• who can better describe the microscopic food chain than a microorganism called Stentor as part of the Great Ecological Cycle?  He teaches his class, “This is one of the great Cyclical Truths … if one part lives, then the other part lives; if one part is destroyed then the other part will be destroyed in time? Isn't co-operation wonderful, a true democracy through diversity?"
• how else can the horror of pollution be experienced except at a personal level and loss of a personal community with a forewarning of larger systems?
• what better way to personify people as a block called humankinds which contains their inquiry, progress and power; however, the onus is left to the individual person to be responsible to make a difference outside the block?

In the end, science and imagination synchronize and weave a fascinating story that only a water sprite with roots can tell; that in order to survive, we need to balance our Earth’s ‘Cyclical Truths’  and protect its ecological ecosystems. Most importantly, the hope is for children of all ages can accompany him and respect our natural environment even more around every chapter. At the end, we should all  care deeply for his manners, fears and hopes. 

What an amazing friend especially for children to get to know!

Your questions, comments and referrals are always welcome.
What are some questions you wonder about the Earth's biology?
What are some solutions you think might help to fix imbalances?

Sincerely,
Annnemarie
amarie10@gmail.com
833 471 4661
https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

This list outlines answers to previous questions:

BLOG:  Why is environmental sustainability based on biological diversity?
             What are some amazing Cyclical Truths discovered in a water cycle journey that                   may be less known?

BLOG:  What are the relationships between Earth’s biosphere, ecology, ecosystem and                     environment and us?

             What is the interesting relationship between a water molecule and a hydrocarbon?

BLOG:  How climate change disrupts the water cycle via the Hydro-logical Express - Cause               and Effect?   

BLOG:  How is pollution related to the water cycle...the worst pollutant of all

BLOG:  How does water teach us morality?  Does ecology have an ethical base?

  

              Cordd...the water sprite                             Roti...his best friend

Introducing The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on Earth Day

INTRODUCING: The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on Earth Day, April 22, 2019

"Young people: They care. They know that this is the world that they're going to grow up in, that they're going to spend the rest of their lives in. But, I think it's more idealistic than that. They actually believe that humanity, human species, has no right to destroy and despoil regardless.” Sir David Attenborough

There are many reasons for writing this Water Sprite with Roots story on his journey to find Cyclical Truths especially on Earth Day in honor of this "blue speck" in the universe.

In the nebulous world where the difference between the real and the imagined is only a matter of perception and preference and in what direction the sun's beams are slanting and in what direction the shadows are falling, there is cast into the atmosphere a young water sprite to begin his cyclical journey in one of the Earth's most essential cycles. He takes this undertaking very seriously and calls it his mission of Cyclical Truths. His accounts and feelings set a purpose and demand for morality for all generations in preservation of a finite planet.

His short name is Corddo-mont, and he personifies the most valuable, but limited resource, known as pure, fresh water.  He is unique because he is also part plant with retractable roots and cellular chloroplasts with which to make his own food from the sun's energy.  This gives him a unique perspective on the symbiotic interdependence among plants, animals and even micro-organisms at the four important levels of healthy ecosystems..

He is young, ebullient and curious with an attendant sense of humor and freshness of experience.  Along the way, he encounters various experiences that impress him with a number of cycles that describe the cooperative natural world where everything has a purpose and a right to exist to maintain potential.  In fact, he won't admit it, but he has formed a close bond with a special micro-organism known as a rotifer.

He becomes more aware of his vitality as he learns about the difficulties that threaten and exploit his nature; even to become an agent of pollution to gravely affect the myriads of life-forms that rely on his solubility factor and all-embracing sustenance.  A unique encounter impresses him with the most abundant carbon element found in all organic matter including the hydrocarbons in fossil fuels.

It is only with his encounters with humankinds that he feels a loss of self; and learns consciously,sometimes painfully, the truth of the need for conservation and preservation of balance in nature.

This story combines imagination, fantasy with scientific reality. The figurative language personifies the water sprite as a friend we should all care about his manners, fears and hopes.  Because he shares an affinity with any organic life form derived from carbon and hydrogen, he can communicate with other beings and express their stories from their realities. Most importantly, they help explain the cyclical truths that are very real and essential to ecology and the Earth's bio-systems.    

   

It is important to introduce this valuable superhero water sprite with roots on

 Earth Day, April 22, 2019.

By relating to his journey, you will also relate to Cyclical Truths and understand the confluences of Climate Change speeding out of control:

....The highest reliably recorded temperatures on Earth have happened in the last couple of years. Temperatures have reached 129 degrees (oven temperature) plus humidity. How can people work? What if “no-go zones” continue for weeks on end? How will humans survive before forced migration? 

...Climate change will have major and unpredictable effects on the world's water systems, including an increase in floods and droughts, powerful storms, and causing in turn, an impact on food supply, displacement and conflict.

...Polar ice is melting, coastlines are receding, rising sea levels threaten entire nations on low-lying islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, increasing ocean salinity, degrading the iconic Great Barrier Reef.

...Climate change is shifting the seasons with extreme weather conditions such as precipitation patterns which will impact farming and agriculture, a source of food and livelihood for more than half of the global population.

It is time to treat our Blue Planet with respect and spirit of Ecology where every community has a purpose, right to exist and maintain potential. 

Check out this valuable story for all ages today.

Your comments are always welcome.

Sincerely, Annemarie 

Excerpt: My thoughts wander about the kind of ecology that humankinds believe in, as I have witnessed. Do they get it that natural life begins with DNA in a nucleus, one celled animals and plants, then species and then an ecosystem? Do they know that every small ecosystem is part of the total large biosphere on Earth that connects them all; water, air, food, resources, and shelter? Do they realize that perpetual growth, industry or destruction of any habitat is not sustainable on a limited planet?