Nowruz Sabzi vs. Christmas Tree

سبزی نوروز و درخت عید میلاد

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Context •Environment •Sustainability •Garden of Eden •
Posted by Rezwan • Mar 22, 2009 • (1) Comments •
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Happy Nowruz to all!

Nowruz celebrates the first day of Spring, the change of season, the new year.

Every nowruz, each Iranian household sets their haft-sin table, complete with a plate of grass (sabzi).

Compare this to the tradition of people in Christian countries who celebrate their seasonal holiday by cutting down an entire tree.

The major environmental differences between east and west are embodied in these two traditions.

In these traditions lies the obvious truth: Our northern and western neighbors have environmental abundance - far more natural assets - than we have.

Those from temperate climates, blessed with regular rain, can afford to chop off a tree. How many Christmas trees are cut down in the US alone? Ten million? A hundred million? They cut them down, and throw them out after Christmas. They can afford to. They farm the trees. Trees just pop back like weeds.

Meanwhile, in Iran, trees are few and far between. There are many in the cities, where city dwellers can pump ground water up to feed them. But outside the city walls, the true environment shows itself. I have to laugh when people here speak sincerely of our "jungles". They use the word "jangal" to describe a scrubby plain with a scraggly tree holding on for dear life every 100 meters or so. "Forests". They call these sparse plains "forests". It seems like denial to me.

In Iran, we celebrate our seasons by trying to coax a plate of grass to life. On sizdah-be-dar, at the conclusion of spring festivities, we seek out a body of flowing water to release the plate of grass into.

Wake up and smell the environmental call to action!

Both the planting of grass, and the search for a flowing stream are profound environmental symbols.

The book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" brought the socio-environmental importance of grass to my attention. More importantly, the book is a comparative history of the development of civilizations based on environmental assets. Read the book. Hang out in Iran after hanging out in upstate New York. These things will turn you into an environmental determinist. I have more work to do to develop this thesis. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the environmental history and possibilities of this country.

This is one of my life goals:

To make a documentary that paints a clear picture of the comparative environmental history of Iran. The documentary needs to show what we have to work with and also how culture and civilization follows environment. That will bring us up to today, where, due to international trade, energy and technology, environmental disadvantages can be more easily overcome. However, you need to be really conscious of them to know what it is you're up against.

This seems to be missing in so many conversations of Iran's place in the world. There seems to be massive denial about our environmental disadvantages.

We had a thunder storm in Shiraz two nights ago. The storm was right over the city, crashing and flashing. In the end, I think we only got 3 mm of rain. This is a land where rainfall is measured in millimeters. You know you have water issues when you're measuring your rainfall in millimeters. And yet everyone talks about the great "ab o hava" here. Water and air. What water? Show me the water!!! It's all brackish, and you're pumping it up from below.

When you're at an environmental disadvantage, your best strategy as a country would be to engage in trade and intellectual property development, yet our country seems to have policies that are dead set against this, ignoring intellectual property treaties, cutting itself off in so many ways from the outside, clinging to a traditionalist course, avoiding change while seeking to be relevant to the global scene through strong rhetoric.

That's not going to work. We have to take stock of what we have. Take a good, long, hard, honest look at our assets and liabilities. All these issues are related to the environment and I will try to flesh them out this year.

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