by Zach Bigalke

Created on: January 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

Environmentalism flawed...
(originally posted 10 October 2006)

I am not apt to give proclamations. I usually rant uselessly and accomplish little more than entertainment. It has always been that way in life for me; it seems to be how I am coded, hard-wired, programmed...insert synonym here...
Yet that does not keep me from spewing forth invective upon topics with which I feel particularly antagonistic. And I have just had a spark of enlightenment that explains the gut disdain for the environmental movement as I have personally experienced throughout my life. I think the problem with the environmental movement is that it comes off too radical; it does not allow the general populace to understand just what it is that attracts the individual to the movement. While the environment in and of itself is a laudable cause, it carries more weight when a broader spectrum of the public understands just what it is that must be done and WHY... and there is the problem. The facts are there. Many prominent persons have presented them in their own unique way. But they have spewed facts forth in a general stream that hit only the people in its direct path. To turn the nozzle of enlightenment to full-blast mist (fire-hose style) and drench the world with a better understanding of the terra firma underneath our feet we must make people feel like the earth is an extension of them.

It is easy for anybody to grasp the concept that their house, automobile, and other possessions are an outward, detached representation of the possessor. If you come to my house and look in the utility room, you will find bicycles and camping gear crammed in around the washing machine. This, my selection of compact discs, cassettes (yes, I still own and LOVE my cassettes...IPOD BE DAMNED!), movies, books, all are a symbol of my personality, my inner being. But how does one possess the earth? Certainly, one can own a tract of land. But the entire environmental movement is predicated on the notion that the land should not be owned by anyone; that the government should preserve specific areas of land for posterity as a depiction of American identity. Not every American lives in a city; nor does every American in a city want to vacation in another city. My personal experience with the wilderness, the environment, came when my parents moved us to Jackson Hole.
And it is getting to places like the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone, Crater Lake and the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Glacier-Waterton, which help bring one

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