One thing that I think a lot of Environmentalists in America really overlook is that humans are supposed to be part of an ecosystem.  Humans are part of the food web; we fill an environmental niche, just as much as beavers and wolves do.   

We are SUPPOSED to interact with the environment- the problem arises when we begin interacting with the environment in UNSUSTAINABLE ways. This idea that we should try to “return” the environment to the way it was “before” humans so so so often ignores the way that Indigenous people all over the world were (and are) an important part of their environments- and trying to “preserve” those places without people filling their ecological niche can cause harm in super weird ways. 

You know how its shitty for deer populations if you take out all of the wolves? It’s just as bad if you stop all human hunting too. Humans hunting deer has been an important part of the food web for thousands and thousands of years! Deer populations NEED hunters- human, wolf, cougar- to stay healthy. 

Yes- massive clear cutting of forests and strip mining is bad. HOWEVER, not allowing Indigenous people to practice traditional controlled burns of grass lands? Not only makes wildfires worse, but ALSO fucks up the bio-diversity of those grasslands. Totally unmanaged “pristine” grasslands without humans are actually less healthy than grasslands that are sustainably managed by people.

Mono-crop super farms are not good- but humans have been farming for thousands of years- tending for plants and increasing their yield, monitoring the soil, in ways that benefit those plants and the other animals that eat them, and the other plants that use that soil, and the insects that make their home there. Sustainable, diversified farming isn’t bad. 

Laying out acres and acres of asphalt and oil pipelines? Bad. But digging natural cisterns in the dessert that catches rainwater for grazing animals to use? Benefits the entire ecosystem and all the animals in it. 

We are part of the environment. We belong here. And the ecosystems that human beings evolved in and lived in need us just as much as we need them. We aren’t parasites on the planet, we are a part of it. It’s just that global capitalism has thrown us terribly out of balance.  Colonialism and profit-seeking are the problem- not human beings existing.  

it’s because every chapter ends in a cliffhanger. and i’m not kidding when i say that it is so flawlessly paced that you can’t put it down, but those beats are so crucial to why the book is so amazing to read. think of the end of the literal first chapter of the book: “it’s primrose everdeen.” that is a BOMB that she drops in that first chapter, and after the introduction, you as the reader are as blown away as katniss. so, you can’t help but turn the page and keep reading!! because you HAVE to know what happens next. and how does the second chapter end? like this: “of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late.” you, the reader, are instantly thinking, oh my god, what is going to happen? are the odds going to be in her favor? is she going to have to kill peeta? you HAVE to know. so you turn the page.

the reason this works so well is because suzanne collins wrote for television and you can tell. it is my personal belief that thg should have been adapted for television and not into films, because missing those beats, even just the white space of the page, i think fundamentally warps the pacing and the structure of the novels. i know i go on and on and on about the “because she came here with me” and “if it weren’t for the baby” lines but seriously this is why peeta is a media genius, its’ because suzanne COLLINS is a media genius. can you imagine watching that on television and the screen just cuts to black and goes to commercial or the episode ends and you have to wait to see what happens next?? it’s GENIUS

furthermore, the hunger games series as a whole is divided into a trilogy, but within that, divided into three sections each. and each section ends with an even bigger cliffhanger than the last. i see these, in the world of television, as mini season breaks within the larger three “seasons” of the show (that being the whole trilogy). here are the first three endings of all the sections. imagine you’re watching this on television and these lines drop, and then you have to wait several more weeks for the next installment. you would be climbing the walls for it. part 1 (the tributes): “beeta blushes beet red and stammers out. “because. because. she came here with me.” part 2 (the games): “before i can stop myself, i call out Peeta’s name.” part 3 (the victor) (the end of the book): “i take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when i will finally have to let go.” those are ALL cliffhangers and make it impossible to stop reading.

(also, we can talk about the fact that all three of those beats are focused on peeta, the one who seems to most intrinsically understand dramatic timing and using his words to create a narrative.)