Cory Willingham
“We’ve gotta get people outside”:
an interview with Daniel Hudon

On a slightly rainy afternoon this May, I had the pleasure of meeting with Daniel Hudon, a Massachusetts local who lectures in astronomy and math, and in his free time studies ecology and writes lovely poetry. This interview was to be a discussion of nature and art, ecology and poetry, and how they all intertwine. For it to get anywhere, though, I had to start with the basics: what actually is ecology? Daniel answered simply that it is the study of the relationships between species. This is a field with which many may not be very familiar-I wasn't especially familiar with it, and I consider myself an environmentalist-but over the course of our discussion Daniel explained to me the ways in which ecology is a vital field of study.

First, from a purely practical aspect, ecology can tell us what nature can do for us. Without ecology, we wouldn't know that wetland ecosystems filter water, or what drugs are useful for medicine. Ecology has also taught us the importance of biodiversity. Ecosystems that have more biodiversity have greater resiliency and redundancy and are thus able to function better than those with less biodiversity; no species exists in isolation, instead, species depend on each other for the transfer of nutrients and energy. Species depend on each other for the transfer of nutrients and energy. Without biodiversity, we stand to lose the practical benefits afforded to us by these ecosystems, but Daniel wanted to stress another important benefit we derive from biodiversity-emotional well-being. Without biodiversity, we wouldn't see plants in bloom. We would lose an infinite source of beauty and inspiration. A loss of biodiversity isn't just a loss of some medicinal herbs; as Daniel put it, "A loss of biodiversity is an existential crisis for us."

It is apparent that humans threaten biodiversity-our roads cut ecosystems to pieces, and climate change is threatening to destabilize every ecosystem on the planet. Daniel approaches this problem from the standpoint of an artist. He explained to me that humans generally don't respond very well to numbers; no matter how many scientific articles are published listing percentages of ocean acidification or glacial melt, we don't have the visceral reaction that we should. That's where the artists come in. Art can elicit the kind of emotional response needed to push people into action, the kind of response that quantifiable science often can't arouse. "We rely on the artists," he told me. Scientific essays can instill a sense of the importance of preserving nature, but Keats' odes can instill a deep fear of loss into our hearts. With thoughts like this on my mind, I turned to Daniel's newest book, Brief Eulogies for Lost Animals: An Extinction Reader, for an example of how exactly art can help save the world.

Brief Eulogies is a collection of short prose pieces detailing various extinct species. He doesn't spend very long on any particular species, and when I asked him about his choice of form, he confirmed that that is intentional. He calls it "flash prose:" we only get a glimpse of each species, because sometimes, that glimpse is all we have. For some of these creatures, there isn't enough information to fill a longer essay. His form mirrors his subject matter. Of course, human intervention didn't drive all of these species to extinction, but we contributed, either directly or indirectly, to most of them, and extinction rates are only increasing as time passes. Daniel hopes that his Brief Eulogies can impress upon people the beauty that we've destroyed, and encourage us to avoid destroying any more.

Remarkably, at the end of our interview, I was more hopeful than dismayed. Daniel has a positive outlook on these things. Yes, humans have already done terrible damage to our world, and yes, much of it is irreversible; but we can't be all doom and gloom, all the time. He indicated to me that in his next project, he plans to stress the beauty of what still exists, as opposed to the beauty of what is gone. He hopes to drive people to preserve what remains. He intimated to me his ultimate goal just before I left: "We've got to get people outside."

He explains: Once we step outside, we can start to better appreciate the beauty that surrounds us and become more aware of the various ways our actions affect it. Once we step outside, we can take a closer look at the wildernesses and habitats that we threaten, consider the species which live in them, and begin to take action to protect them. [HW]

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