"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself." - Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire)
@GusmanUTAH Too bad the vast majority of ORV users do not operate their vehicles responsibly. I've seen plenty of scarred lanscapes and damaged plant communities due to typically irresponsible ORV use. And maybe the noise is just a temporary problem, but if you go hiking into a vast wild area for solitude and spiritual renewal, and you are in earshot of ORVs in operation, well, your day has been ruined. The noise is very intrusive over a broad area, temporary as it may be. I hate ORVs.
He is right, SE Utah is one of the great adventure places left on earth. He wants to keep it wild. He says that its beauty and wildness is its chief value. Thank goodness we have OHVs that can take those who are physically handicapped into these areas to view and enjoy. Responsible OHV operation does no more damage than a good rain storm or runoff from the snow. Does SUWA plan to stop nature from raining and melting snow that causes these natural erosion processes?
Natural erosion does not impair the wildness. Roads do. Not because they allow erosion but because they allow machines in. A place accessible by machine is by definition not wild. It is impossible to allow access to wilderness by building roads because in the building the wilderness is no more.
Well, luckily, it is everybody's land to enjoy and not just Abbeys. He has his opinion, and even though it's wrong, we live in a wonderful country where he can express his opinion just as others can express their opinion.
the very visitor center in Arches is visually half dedicated to him and yet swarmed with minivan parking lot get the picture and leave hikers that have to be carefully monitored by rangers so they dont get heat stroke on the mile hike to the big weird rock they want to have in a selfie for their friends to see (very important)
@@bikesgoodgasbadTypical. he would have much rathered that they forget about him as a man, but take his words seriously… but of course, exactly the opposite has been done.
That's a mindless comparison. Rain falls relatively uniformly on the land and doesn't leave distinct tire-track scars, nor does it cause fumes and unnatural noise. You act as if rain is something artificial, rather than a force of the ages. Most irreparable erosion caused by rain is due to people altering plant cover that existed for many centuries. Same goes for wind. The 1930s Dust Bowl was a man-made situation. Find a better line of reasoning.
Do you happen to think the Sun is causing the global warming blamed on Man, perhaps with the angle of "responsible CO2 emissions" being harmless? You leave out the context of human impacts being *on top of* nature's "background noise." Also, people who can't enjoy nature without fumes and noise tend to not be all that "responsible." The Rubicon trail in CA is a prime example. Too many of them drive the trail to get drunk, and don't care that toilet waste doesn't decompose well on granite.
RESPONSIBLE off road vehicle operation causes no more damage than 1/2 inch of rain falling in a 1 hour period. Nature does far more damage in a shorter amount of time than RESPONSIBLE off road vehicle operation. I choose to use off road transportation due to the amount of time I have to see these places. If the money that was spent on bogus lawsuits and trying to close places was spent on enforcement of laws that non responsible people are breaking, the problem would be greatly reduced.
I guess that sadly you have not seen the forces of nature at work and how quickly it changes the landscape. RESPONSIBLE off road vehicle operation does not damage plants. They create very little noise pollution which is only a temporary pollutant that dissipates within seconds. Your comment about soil erosion bothers me as it appears that you must be grossly uninformed concerning the effects of erosion.
Your points are obtuse and deliberately lack context. The claim that ORV noise is no big deal is absurd. It's an unnatural intrusion regardless of its duration (which can often be very persistent). Also, the impact of humans is in *addition* to nature's background effects. Arguments like yours remind me of Reagan blaming trees for 3/4ths of "pollution" when trees have existed in balance with nature for eons.
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself."
- Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire)
Thanks for posting this. Neat to hear the voice from all those great books.
Happy Birthday Edward Abbey! We miss you more than you could imagine.
Love you Abbey, and all you wrote, and all you did for the environment. Rest in Peace.
And 41 years later it's so true what he said.
Thank you for this!
He sure was soft spoken vs. the style of his writing.
Lol first thought of mine too!
I would love to read what he would write about Moab today.
even more so today!. industrial tourism = $$$$
RIP EA a great man
Abbey drove a Cadillac convertible and threw his beer cans over the side. He was great.
can I use this video for a school project on ecodefense?
Okay, go ahead
@GusmanUTAH Too bad the vast majority of ORV users do not operate their vehicles responsibly. I've seen plenty of scarred lanscapes and damaged plant communities due to typically irresponsible ORV use. And maybe the noise is just a temporary problem, but if you go hiking into a vast wild area for solitude and spiritual renewal, and you are in earshot of ORVs in operation, well, your day has been ruined. The noise is very intrusive over a broad area, temporary as it may be. I hate ORVs.
Yes it is important that people have a chance to see this man speak.
He is right, SE Utah is one of the great adventure places left on earth. He wants to keep it wild. He says that its beauty and wildness is its chief value.
Thank goodness we have OHVs that can take those who are physically handicapped into these areas to view and enjoy.
Responsible OHV operation does no more damage than a good rain storm or runoff from the snow.
Does SUWA plan to stop nature from raining and melting snow that causes these natural erosion processes?
Natural erosion does not impair the wildness. Roads do. Not because they allow erosion but because they allow machines in. A place accessible by machine is by definition not wild. It is impossible to allow access to wilderness by building roads because in the building the wilderness is no more.
Abbey most certainly would not have been happy with the idea of OHVs (or any type of vehicles) being driven around in the wild!
Well, luckily, it is everybody's land to enjoy and not just Abbeys. He has his opinion, and even though it's wrong, we live in a wonderful country where he can express his opinion just as others can express their opinion.
@@GusmanUTAH why was he wrong?
He should see Moab today.
the very visitor center in Arches is visually half dedicated to him and yet swarmed with minivan parking lot get the picture and leave hikers that have to be carefully monitored by rangers so they dont get heat stroke on the mile hike to the big weird rock they want to have in a selfie for their friends to see (very important)
@@bikesgoodgasbadTypical. he would have much rathered that they forget about him as a man, but take his words seriously… but of course, exactly the opposite has been done.
That's a mindless comparison. Rain falls relatively uniformly on the land and doesn't leave distinct tire-track scars, nor does it cause fumes and unnatural noise. You act as if rain is something artificial, rather than a force of the ages.
Most irreparable erosion caused by rain is due to people altering plant cover that existed for many centuries. Same goes for wind. The 1930s Dust Bowl was a man-made situation.
Find a better line of reasoning.
Do you happen to think the Sun is causing the global warming blamed on Man, perhaps with the angle of "responsible CO2 emissions" being harmless? You leave out the context of human impacts being *on top of* nature's "background noise."
Also, people who can't enjoy nature without fumes and noise tend to not be all that "responsible." The Rubicon trail in CA is a prime example. Too many of them drive the trail to get drunk, and don't care that toilet waste doesn't decompose well on granite.
RESPONSIBLE off road vehicle operation causes no more damage than 1/2 inch of rain falling in a 1 hour period. Nature does far more damage in a shorter amount of time than RESPONSIBLE off road vehicle operation.
I choose to use off road transportation due to the amount of time I have to see these places. If the money that was spent on bogus lawsuits and trying to close places was spent on enforcement of laws that non responsible people are breaking, the problem would be greatly reduced.
I guess that sadly you have not seen the forces of nature at work and how quickly it changes the landscape.
RESPONSIBLE off road vehicle operation does not damage plants. They create very little noise pollution which is only a temporary pollutant that dissipates within seconds.
Your comment about soil erosion bothers me as it appears that you must be grossly uninformed concerning the effects of erosion.
Your points are obtuse and deliberately lack context. The claim that ORV noise is no big deal is absurd. It's an unnatural intrusion regardless of its duration (which can often be very persistent).
Also, the impact of humans is in *addition* to nature's background effects. Arguments like yours remind me of Reagan blaming trees for 3/4ths of "pollution" when trees have existed in balance with nature for eons.
What about when they are electric and quiet?