tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post5575550760024878674..comments2024-02-20T13:32:06.704-05:00Comments on Resource Insights: National parks and the idea of conservation in the fossil fuel ageKurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-58231862240007839072009-10-22T10:09:08.900-04:002009-10-22T10:09:08.900-04:00Very interesting question.
I think the idea of th...Very interesting question.<br /><br />I think the idea of the national park being special can also be extended to what we've done to our towns and cities in favour of suburbia, too.<br /><br />The few walkable, human-scale towns that are left have been frozen in time and turned into tourist destinations because they are such nice places to be. But this used to just be how towns were built. And now we look back on them as if they're something from the past to be protected and can't be had in the present.<br /><br />Strangely, though, the necessity of ravaging land to feed the railroad also brought forth some of these nice towns. I guess there is a kind of progression from natural environment to nice town to city to dirty city, and then everyone with means escapes to suburbia and creates private versions of a weird combination of all those things. But nobody's in the driver's seat.<br /><br />I can't imagine anyone wanting to go back and visit surburbia in 100 years time.mattbghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531548248683577666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-12414281354952200482009-10-05T10:52:45.652-04:002009-10-05T10:52:45.652-04:00Kurt, it is good to see you back and it sounds lik...Kurt, it is good to see you back and it sounds like your time off was well spent. I live next to two of the largest and most spectacular national parks and a few days ago I was at the top of Hanging Canyon high in the Tetons looking down at Jenny Lake and the highway and parking lots teeming with cars and people on perhaps that last warm and sunny day of our fall season. I was alone and the silence was deafening and it struck me that the only way to get to our national parks for most folks is by automobile and as the automobile age winds down, so will park visitation.Seeing the parks on foot the way John Muir did is the best way to experience them. Linking the parks by rail was a grand idea. Linking them by road has almost destroyed them.sv kohohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058401490041584973noreply@blogger.com