Easing the Biodiversity Crisis One Flowerpot at a Time

GUEST ESSAY—NEW YORK TIMES 11/25/2024

By Margaret Renkl

Ms. Renkl is a contributing Opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South.

This article is part of Times Opinion’s Giving Guide 2024. Read more in a note from Times Opinion’s editor, Kathleen Kingsbury.

With very little time left to prevent the most hideous effects of climate change, Americans elected a president and a Congress whose policies will cost the planet four years of progress and send us backward at the same time. In this crisis, the greatest risk we face is the temptation to surrender to helplessness. For people who care about preserving life on Earth, the stakes are too high to do nothing, but it is all too easy to believe there is nothing we can do.

With any question of justice, the big picture can feel overwhelming. At those times, I have almost always found it helpful to zoom in, to focus on the same problem at a smaller, more manageable scale. I may not be able to save the zebras and the leopards, but I can help save the zebra swallowtail butterflies and the giant leopard moths. I can do that, at least in my own small yard, by nurturing the host plants they need to reproduce. Making a discernible, measurable difference to my wild neighbors is an act of resistance, too.

Plants and animals evolved together. To create a microhabitat that sustains your own wild neighbors, you’ll need to grow the endemic flowers and shrubs and trees they evolved alongside. The problem is that exotic plants are now ubiquitous in American gardens, and few of us know the difference between a native plant and one from the other side of the world. Most garden centers stock mainly the roses and lilies and pansies and chrysanthemums their customers recognize. And those plants evolved to feed some other continent’s creatures.

Two undersung nonprofits aim to change all that.

Wild Ones began in 1997 as a garden club in Milwaukee. Today it is a national conservation nonprofit with more than 125 formal chapters and “seedling” chapters that advocate gardening with native plants as a form of active conservation. One of the greatest threats to biodiversity is the loss of habitat. Preventing habitat loss on a global scale is complicated, but there is nothing complicated about converting garden space, no matter how small, into a wildlife sanctuary.

The Wild Ones website is a crash course in how to create habitat that is every bit as beautiful as any garden full of introduced plants that feed nobody. The site offers downloadable landscape designs tailored to specific growing regions, a path for your garden to earn certification as a native habitat, advice about how to climate-proof a yard, webinars about gardening as a conservation tool, a state-by-state list of native-plant nurseries, as well as local plant sales and seed exchanges, among others.

Another grass roots call to action comes from Homegrown National Park, which is inspiring the creation of an entire network of homegrown wildlife sanctuaries that seek to stem the loss of biodiversity, one yard and flowerpot at a time. Through its website and its robust social media activity, this nonprofit continually makes the case for converting every available bit of soil — not just in yards and balcony planters but also at schools, businesses, public parks, places of worship, even sidewalk hellstrips and parking-lot margins — into habitat.

It lays out the arguments for eliminating herbicides and insecticides, explains the importance of keystone plants, makes the case for letting fallen leaves serve as natural weed control and offers tips for making the most of a container garden. It includes a searchable directory of resources and links to native-plant databases at other conservation organizations. It offers resources for helping teachers and parents inspire young people to become habitat stewards, too.

We are not entirely powerless in the face of the biodiversity crisis, but in the dark time that is coming, we will need regular vibrant reminders of that truth. What both of these nonprofits understand is that planting a little garden, if only in a window box, will make you feel better. The bumblebees and the butterflies and the lightning bugs will come. So will the songbirds and the tree frogs and the box turtles. You will, almost instantly, be making a visible difference to the struggling natural world. And the more people who take up a trowel, the more visible that difference becomes.

A changing climate, a changing world–sidebar

Climate change around the world: In “Postcards From a World on Fire,” 193 stories from individual countries show how climate change is reshaping reality everywhere, from dying coral reefs in Fiji to disappearing oases in Morocco and far, far beyond.

The role of our leaders: Writing at the end of 2020, Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, found reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency, a feeling perhaps borne out by the passing of major climate legislation. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been criticisms. For example, Charles Harvey and Kurt House argue that subsidies for climate capture technology will ultimately be a waste.

The worst climate risks, mapped: In this feature, select a country, and we’ll break down the climate hazards it faces. In the case of America, our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths.

What people can do: Justin Gillis and Hal Harvey describe the types of local activism that might be needed, while Saul Griffith points to how Australia shows the way on rooftop solar. Meanwhile, small changes at the office might be one good way to cut significant emissions, writes Carlos Gamarra.