Ch.17
The lights are on
Ann and Lee
felt great about their trip to Dolly Sods. It was on the way back I informed
them of the environmental blunders perpetuated on that area. It was said that
the first settlers to the high plateau set about a slash and burn program for
establishing more cattle on the rich soils which were a result of natural ferns
, a combination of weather features unique to the area , and an almost eternity
without man’s influence. This combination yielded some of the largest trees on
the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States. Trees with diameters of
up to 13 feet in diameter and of the eastern redwood variety were commonplace
according to early pioneers and loggers accounts. A rail line was established
to help bring this new found source of raw materials to the eastern seaboard
where the lumber was in plentiful demand for use in sailing ships and construction of new housing
for a burgeoning new society of the new world.
The high plain area became home to more
cattle as the forests were pushed back to the edges of the high plateau.
Repeated forest fires eventually caught the organic material that was left from
the decomposition of the forest and the ferns specific to those elevations, that in places ran over ten feet deep. This
same type of fern growth is similar to the highlands of Canada and it is here
in West Virginia it is seen again at the lowest geographical point closest to
the equator in the lower 48 states and
is only due to the specific location of Dolly Sods initially. The weather with the
rainfall as well as the snowfall are unique to this area and allowed the ferns
to grow uncontrolled till man came along.
Having depleted
the forests with repeated fires the humus and topsoil were soon reduced to
nothing and resembled a desert at one point as observers of the time said, with
barely anything growing on the plateau on top of the now rocky features. Environmentalists
suggest hundreds of species of animals and plants unique to this high forest
area was also lost due to man’s intrusion into this part of the world. Eventually, and before coal companies were
allowed to complete the destruction totally of the area, wheels were set in
motion to first reforest the area through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
of United States after the depression as part of the effort to get the country
working again. They had turned this area from an environmental nightmare into a
new national park and with it added more lands in later years and stepped up
their conservation efforts. Cattle were removed from the high plateau area and
with time, and a lot of it, the forest
will heal itself, as nature often does without man’s hand.
Now once
again one can see the fern s repopulating the plateau area and trees of the
same variety of eastern redwood are once again growing on what was once
decimated hill top land subject to extreme erosion. The result of returning this
land to nature has had many effects including reducing pollution in the air as
well as runoff from the area flooding the streams and rivers of the watershed’s
below the plateau. Bear are said to once again roam the area as well as other
animals seeking relief from man’s onslaught destruction of nature.
That was the story as best I could remember of
this area, and it seems as if one would have an understanding of how to avoid
what happened 100 years ago instead of seeing how fast we could destroy, then
man and nature both would have been a hell of lot better off.
This same
philosophy of slash and burn are destroying not only the habitats of many an
endangered species but are now letting us play amateur scientist with our
weather as we have cut so many trees in the last 100 years we are seeing spikes
in our temperature and a resulting loss of polar ice caps necessary for not
only generating ocean currents but also to lock up a significant portion of
water in our ice caps. We are seeing a rise in ocean levels and will need to
move to higher ground.
At the same time as we destroy the
habitats of endangered species as everyone in every third world countries jumps
on board the money train. We see more technology moving into these areas making
them even more efficient at what they are doing. Our quest for energy is also
taking us to new areas of the globe as we are now entering northern Canada and
extracting energy from the tar sands to fuel our vehicles.
There is no
limit as to how far we will go to make e a buck. And basically that is all we are
doing, Is filling someone else’s pockets full of money. Without investment much
of the exploration into fuel sources wouldn't happen. Trees wouldn't be
exploited to build fancy houses, and we would be living the same as we did for
the thousands of years or more that man had been in existence, or before. We existed on a whole hell of a lot less than
we do now. There was always plenty of work and wars were not as deadly as they
are now.
We had an
agrarian society that depended on limited means of transportation to serve
locally those individuals who lived within that region. Now we produce food in China
for sale in the United States. And unfortunately we have no control over what
chemicals are needed to produce this food. Subjecting ourselves to more global
warming and a poisoning of our foodstuff with chemicals and pesticides now
banned in our country but legal in China where they still produce those
chemicals due to their lack of environmental control. We need to stop this
vicious cycle of exploiting profit. And how do we do it?
Don’t buy into
the hype first off. Because we can stay up all night burning the midnight oil
so to speak do we need to ? No is the
only answer to that. Do we have to have fancy cars that depend on fossil fuels
, and again no is the answer to that. We can grow our own food, at least enough
to eat virtually anywhere on this planet without anything more than sunlight, water,
and soil. We need to eat and have a place to lie down and something to do when awake.
Beyond that we need nothing. As one person so eloquently put it to me years ago
all we need to do is to eat, sleep, and screw, all other things are options. I
also think death and taxes were the other basic necessities and that is to die
and pay taxes. We want other things like
the new car, or the gas to put into it, we don’t have to have them. To travel
and see other places is part of our problem of never being satisfied. Mount Everest
could go millions of years more without man’s hand to conquer it and survive a
hell of a lot better off than now. We want exotic foods we can’t produce here,
but we would if they were no longer available. Bananas for example would be
grown here locally if suddenly we no longer had them available. Man would
replace those items he wants in one way or another if forced to. Bananas grown
in tropical regions are replacing habitat of some endangered species and then
when you couple the loss of habitat with the energy required to get the bananas
to market , are they such a good deal ? The little amount of nutrition they
provide is small in comparison to widespread damage caused by bananas on the
whole planet. Bananas are just an example. But if taken away suddenly, you mean
someone wouldn't grow them in a warehouse someplace? The energy required to
grow them locally we be far less than what it takes to get them to market and
then there is always the destruction of endangered animal’s habitat we could
all do without. You may not eat bananas every day but at least you would eat.
We live in a
society that prides itself in long term energy abuse with vast amounts of
energy doing what the sun does best. And that is shine. For millions of years
we have had steady sunshine and never once have we failed to have the lights on
every morning and we have this till dark, when we have a period when it isn’t. But
not once in all that time has the lights never been on. Yet we can’t say the same
for our power companies who would like to turn the night into daytime to
generate better profits for the investors who depend on your utilization of our
limited resources. Numerous times we have lost power and frequently still do,
despite the latest advances into technology. And as the world heats up we turn
more often to electricity to cool our homes to make us more comfortable while
other animals on this planet become subject to our increased heating from our
use of hydrocarbons and our exploitation of our natural resources.
If we did
something so simple as go to bed and shut out the lights everywhere, we would
be much better off. But we don’t. We think we have to be able to go twenty four
hours per day, seven days per week in
order to do what . Same thing we could have done when it wasn't dark outside.
You can drink beer in the dark, we want to have lights on we don’t need the
lights on. We don’t need street lights. But we want street lights to make us
feel safer . It is an illusion we have that it will change our life. But it
doesn't, in fact we may be better off without street lights as criminals are subject
to the same thing we are, lack of visibility at night. They stub their toes,
they step on the dog guarding the house, they are scared of the dark also. If
they didn't have street lights to tell where they were at, or what tree they
would run into in the dark. Then maybe there would be less crime. Sometimes we
get more than we ask for with technology.
We existed as a human
race for thousands of years with nothing more than solar power as the main
influence on our lives. Solar grew the trees that lit the fires that cooked the
food, provided light and fed the animals we need to sustain our lives. We
existed and the world or earth as we know it was much better off. Now we have
technology to harness solar and we still hardly ever use it to our advantage. Instead
we choose to light up our night with carbon sources that heat up the planet and
enslave those people who feel it is necessary evil we must have to exist
anymore. And those that provide it like where it positions them, at the top of
the food chain . So they have the ability to control our lives with an
artificial incentive known as money. When something is free everyone can use it
, when it costs , only those who can afford it have it, and all the rest are
oppressed.
We need to
change this cycle of use and abuse, and make humans an understanding creature
of nature instead of being the widespread raptor of destruction we have come to
know that is driven by profit. This is what led to the destruction of the
ecology of the high plateau and what is going on around this world even today.
Ann and Lee understand as well as I do what we need to do, but it is hard to
educate the masses. Instead we look to our business gods to lead us down the
next path of destruction. Man needs to learn to think for himself again. And
respect nothing.
To respect nothing
is anti-social in its extreme definition but is what is most attainable to some
degree as it costs nothing. Doesn't enslave you to anyone else, and allows you
the freedom to enjoy life to the fullest if you allow yourself to think in
those terms. The poorest people in Americas society alone are probably the ones
who are In some regards the least neediest and easiest for our environment to
absorb. They pay no bills they live off the human race, are happy with the
simplest things, and when they buy, they buy locally. They also serve as reminder to the rest of us
how much better off we are or are we?
The sad part is they are not the model of
society, where looks is everything. If you look healthy, have good clean skin,
a bright smile, and some wealth you can parlay yourself into the next Bill
gates or Le Bron James offering to society your own form of what wealthy looks
like. To be able to serve as model by which everyone else buys into the hype. We
make legends of the wrong people in society. Because you have nothing to offer
society does not make you less of a person. It just makes the world a little
better off because valuable resources were not wasted on you. You didn't go on
a cruise, you never bought the mink.
We need to
know and learn less is more and we can’t take it with you so why try. There are
only 3 basic things we have to do in life, live eat and sleep. I try to eat as
little as I can and enjoy what I eat more. Live all I can within my means, and
not harm anyone or anything, and sleep till I wake up, trying to eliminate
those demons in my mind that occasionally haunt my sleep. Everything else in
life is totally up to what you want, and
what you will accept. It is an option, but not what you really need to survive.
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