Ray Anderson, A Light in the Darkness

By Pierre Howard

His words fell like hammer blows on the hushed room. A crowd had gathered at the Carter Center in 2005 to hear Ray Anderson speak about sustainability during a dark political period for those who care about the protection of the environment. As he began to speak, I sat transfixed as he began to recite "The Litany," a riveting list of examples of how we were going to lose the very planet that sustains us if we do not reverse our destructive assault on the natural world. His question to us was simple: “How would a living planet  --  the rarest and most precious thing in the universe -- lose its biosphere, its essential livability?”

It would happen insidiously, he said, like hearing loss, a small bit every day until your hearing is gone:

One silted or polluted stream at a time; one polluted river at a time;
One collapsing fish stock, one dying coral reef at a time; one acidified or entropic lake at a time;
One overfertilized farm at a time, leading to one algae bloom at a time; one eroded ton of topsoil, one developed
wetland at a time;
One mansion built on a fragile marsh hammock at a time; one disrupted animal migration corridor at a time;
One butchered tree, one corrupt politician, one new open-pit coal mine in a pristine valley at a time;
One decimated old growth forest, one lost habitat at a time; One disappearing acre of rainforest at a time;
One political payoff at a time, resulting in one regulatory rollback at a time; One leaching landfill, one belching
smokestack or exhaust pipe at a time;
One depleted or polluted aquifer, one desertified farm, one overgrazed field at a time; One toxic release, one oil
spill, one breath of fouled air at a time;
One-tenth of a degree of global warming, one manipulated river channel at a time;
One thoughtless city planner at a time, leading to one advance of urban sprawl at a time;
One songbird at a time;

He went on until he concluded, “One entire wild species at a time, and one poverty stricken, starving, diseased or exploited human being at a time.”

I thought about "The Litany" a lot that night, and I have thought about it a lot in the ensuing years. While Ray had given us a reason for despair, he had also given us a reason for hope. He was telling us that we can change the future by changing minds. He was saying that we must wake up and realize that the small steps toward sustainability that we make in our own lives and in our communities can make a difference in the eventual fate of mankind. Ray believed that our individual steps toward sustainability will form a mighty tidal wave of change, inexorably sweeping down the most powerful forces of resistance.

The Georgia Conservancy was proud to have Ray Anderson as the Chair of our Board of Trustees and to have him as a generous and trusted friend for many years. Word now comes that Ray passed away peacefully this week, surrounded by his family. All of us at the Georgia Conservancy are greatly saddened by his loss. Ray was a light unto our path, and we will miss him greatly.  To honor his life, we rededicate ourselves to his purpose: to work for sustainability in all human endeavor.  We will work to change minds about how we can take better care of God’s Creation and thus, better care of the future of generations yet to come.

Thank you,

Pierre Howard