ANOTHER MAHBU RECRUIT

Howdy Jim,

I am respectfully petitioning for membership in M.A.H.B.U. Following is my background:

I was born and raised in rural PA. Upon finishing college in the late 70’s I moved to Utah to do the typical ski bum thing...an unplanned nearly 30 year career ensued. I first visited the Moab area in 1978, camped somewhere along the Colorado and did the daily a few times. When my future wife followed me to Utah a little later I "showed her" Moab by taking her 4-wheeling in our 1969 Nova. Although the car somehow survived part of the White Rim Trail and the Schaeffer Trail, both the engine and transmission leaked, and my wife hates 4-wheeling to this day.

We eventually took up mountain biking; my best recollection is that we first did the Slickrock Trail in 1986. Following that we would often camp at Sand Flats and venture out to many other trails. We eventually became pretty bummed out at the explosion of people and the crowds found in Moab, and moved on to camp on BLM land up beyond the Monitor and Merrimac in a place we called Assman Flats.(There’s a story on that name I’ll save for another time.) There, we would camp with many friends in a self sufficient manner. We needed the extra space as we have some rather large tequila fueled sort-of noisy rituals.

I should interject here that I sort-of have an aversion to mountain bikes, the device itself, or maybe they don’t like my big butt. I’m not uncoordinated but I seem to have a problem staying in the saddle. I also came to realize that one can’t enjoy the beauty of the area as well when biking. Something that drives me batty is these people who do the White Rim "century" in one day...smug spandex stiffs who look down their noses at the likes of me, if they even notice me at all sitting there in my cotton blown away once again by monument basin.

At any rate once we had kids (two red headed boys) and had to take turns hanging with them and recreating with adults, I always insisted on a solo day whereby I could sort of go on a desert walkabout on my own. In addition, we have run many rivers many times in the southwest, all on private trips. Words can’t describe the junction of Slickhorn canyon with the San Juan, our favorite trip. Back to Assman...we tried for years to rehab the flats, as it was becoming alarmingly impacted. We trucked out literally tons of trash and ashes. We even left a laminated plea to fellow campers which likely got shot at and burned. Years ago we had moved to our own fire pit and wood along with chemical toilets. To no avail, Assman - while saved the first go round, now has become part of the corridor camping restrictions - something we sadly support. We have lately come around to venturing back into town when we visit now. I even camped at Sand Flats on a solo late winter visit. I can assure you that although mainly just tourists when we visit Moab (we do have some friends living there) and we might still be stupid tourists (a role I actually relish after 30 years in the tourist trade), but we are not arrogant stupid tourists. I could tell stories of that beast for hours.

I consider myself an enviro but have to confess I am a self compromised mess. Maybe M.A.H.B.U. membership can help……to wit: I generally can’t stand other mt bikers. I have an ATV (dual sport motorcycle) but I really can’t stand most other ATV’ers. I hunt, but sometimes hide from other hunters. There is a type of hunter here in Utah I call Kmart hunters……I don’t think I need to elaborate there. I am also a former member of SUWA. I had a falling out with them over a debate on responsible ATV users, which they basically refused to believe existed. I really couldn’t believe the tone of the letter I got from some young lady representing SUWA, it was borderline mean and definitely nasty.

We departed Utah a while back while I chased a career in ski area management, and had the lucky yet mixed bag experience to live in a couple of small resort towns. I eventually became disillusioned with the effort and the psycho resort owners and their GM’s, and tired of answering questions like "when’’s it going to snow" or "when’’s it going to stop." So we moved back to Salt Lake City where my wife, a research biologist, went back to work at the U, and is patiently partially subsidizing yours truly while I once again try to figure out what I’ll be when I grow up. Meanwhile I’m dabbling in writing and reading a lot.

So, knowing my inclinations as seen in an sort-of political/enviro E-rave I put out, some friends turned me on to your book...good stuff there man, Which leads me to this - I am for a better Utah but I’m just not sure what that means. I’’d like to join in the discussion with like minded people and help with the effort should we come upon a direction...You know tequila has been known to sort-of enhance ones revelation potent.

Let me know.

Tom Patton

Salt Lake City, UT

MORE COMMENTS ON BNW AND GLOBAL WARMING

Jim,

I finished reading your book a few months ago. Great stuff. You are truly one of those pointing out that the Emperor has nothing on. Thank God for the Zephyr as a forum of this sort. Reading your book gave me some thoughts I wanted to share, since some of our experiences and views have a common thread.

The Goat Heads

The chapter where you talk about the goat heads was amusing and painful, and hits close to home to anyone who lived in small town Utah. When I first moved to Vernal in 1976, the field next to my grandmother’s house where we lived-- what she used to call "the back forty" - was just a typical, unused dirt field with the usual harmless weeds. My siblings and I could run around barefoot without fear, enjoying the feeling of warm summer dirt on our feet. A few years later, as the story goes, my grandmother hired a farmer from out of town to plow the field. Well, that summer we were introduced to the hellish weed with the little yellow flowers that grows so fast you can almost see it move after a good summer rain. As the story went, that farmers’ plow had goat heads on it and deposited them into our virgin soil. My mother, who had a garden in the field, and us kids discovered how painful those goddamn things are! From then on, one had to be vigilant when walking around barefoot outside. The worst was when someone would track them into the house on their shoes, and they would get displaced onto the carpet only to be stepped on by an unsuspecting victim, who was barefoot while making a late night trip for a bowl of cereal while watching Johnny Carson.

The Simple Life

Reading your plea for a simpler, less consumptive lifestyle, I couldn’t help but think of a recent Garrison Keillor column in the Salt Lake Tribune. Keillor talks about stopping in Amish country to buy rhubarb, and writes "You look at the Amish and you see the past, but you might also be looking at the future. Our great-grandchildren, faced with facts their ancestors were able to ignore, might have to do without the internal combustion engine and figure out how to live the subsistence life." Though from the technologically optimistic worldview currently held by most, this may seem like the ramblings of a ludditic fear-mongerer; however, Keillors point is valid. With mainstream American civilizations’ current addiction to all things convenient, ephemeral, and unsustainable, it is blatantly obvious that the status quo is not only untenable from a purely scientific perspective, but also from a moral one.

Being raised partly by my grandmother, I grew up with stories of living in a tent in Fort Duchesne, having only two changes of clothes, making due with what you could, and other Depression era bits of wisdom that today are looked upon with derision and contempt, even by many in Rural Utah who have become addicted to the Super Wal-Mart reality. However, there may come a time when reality-based "conservative values" will be more than a 700 Club talking point, and more akin to survival skills.

What is past is prologue

It fascinates me on an objective level, watching this vast miasma of technologically enabled growth, exponentially increasing, rapidly reducing the Earth’s natural capacity to support life. It’s as if the closer we get to the edge, the faster we’re running to jump off the cliff, yet we’re blithely indifferent to the dangers mounting around us. Fascinating as hell! Friends and relatives can’t understand why I always want to stay up to date and informed about the current state of the ecological meltdown. I think it comes from being an ardent student of history. You see, I am enraptured (pun intended) by our predicament, in a "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" sort of way.

Anyone who has read Gibbons’ masterpiece can’t ignore the parallels between that era and our own. Yet unlike the empires of the past, our current one is based on technologically enabled greed, and its ability to allow mankind an increasingly absolute control and manipulation of the natural world. The Romans of the western empire had to adapt to a brutal, pre-feudal agrarian existence after their "Fall." Could a technologically dependent American civilization adapt?

We’re front row to the most important historical era in human memory. We are in a race, a race to sustain our untenable and conservation averse lifestyle before the door closes, slamming shut, like one of those typical chase/escape scenes in an action thriller where the hero/villain rushes to a closing gate, either to be crushed or escape by the skin of his teeth.

Now, one more thought, as I get more and more longwinded. your recent issue of The Zephyr about Climate Change/Global Warming came out right before the "federal case" created by Fox and the Washington Times regarding the software flaw of Dr. James Hansen, et al. As you know, Dr. Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and has been a lightning rod of attention from the Climate Change apologists, especially after the software flaw was found and corrected.

Here is a link to an excellent rebuttal that Dr. James Hansen wrote in response to the jesters at Fox and the Washington Times.

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/realdeal.16aug20074.pdf

Some choice cuts from his rebuttal:

"The flaw affected temperatures only in the United States (by about 0.15°°C) and only in 2000 and later."

"What we have here is a case of dogged contrarians who present results in ways intended to deceive the public into believing that the changes have greater significance than reality."

"In 1998 and 2006 the world as a whole has become warmer, 1998 being aided by a very strong El Nino, but 2006 by only a very weak El Nino. In 1921 and 1934 the United States happened to be a relatively hot spot compared to the world as a whole. The next time that the U.S. temperature happens to be unusually high relative to the globe, it may be quite a barn burner."

As much as it’s blindingly obvious to anyone with a shred of deductive reasoning that our climate is changing, I feel the key to the whole Climate Change debate is to shift the debate away from future possibilities and use current, concrete data about the dangers of continued fossil fuel usage.

We know for a fact that ground level Ozone pollution (caused by automobile exhaust) can harm lung function and irritate the respiratory system, and increase Asthma in children. We know for a fact that emissions from coal-fired power plants represent one of the two largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions. However, it’s the mercury that is released and ends up in lakes and streams that is the immediate threat. Elevated levels of Mercury have been found in fish in lakes and streams hundreds of miles away from Coal burning power plants. Utah State agencies have advised the public of elevated mercury in largemouth bass from Gunlock Reservoir in Washington County and brown trout from Mill Creek in Grand County near Moab. How can the public accept this?

These problems and many more that are the result of fossil fuel burning have current and concrete affects that are empirically proven to be detrimental to human health. When we shift the discussion to what is obvious and provable, there are no theories, no arguments, and no debates that can sway our "well informed" public.

Ron Weales

Vernal, UT

COMMENT BY TTW RE: FINGERHUT

Editor’s Note: After former SUWA and Grand canyon Trust board member Bert Fingerhut pleaded guilty to conpsiracy to commit security fraud, I asked for public comment from SUWA board members. I only heard only from Terry Tempest Williams who offered these comments for publication:

Dear Jim:

This news has saddened the entire conservation community. These actions came as a cold shock.

Bert Fingerhut has been one of the great defenders of America’s redrock wilderness. His passion and leadership on behalf of Utah’s wildlands stands on its own. Bert is a friend. I feel great sadnessfor all involved, especially his family.

Yours,

Terry Tempest Williams

Castle Valley, UT

CONSERVING FOR THE FUTURE???

Dear Jim,

I recently had a chance to visit Monticello, Utah. While having a coffee at The Peace Tree Juice Café, I picked up the Zephyr. Upon reading your thoughts on water conservation I thought you would like to hear about a similar situation we have here in Michigan. As you may know, Michigan is surrounded by water, the Great Lakes. So water is not our problem. What we were all told is that we were running out of landfill space. We were all told that we would have to start going through our garbage and separate our plastics from our cans and our newspapers from our organics. Yard waste would have to be put in separate cans. And of course because space was precious, prices went up. We all put an effort into complying.

Well, a few years back, a contract was signed with Toronto, Canada to accept their refuse because there was no room in all of Canada to dump theirs. Today on average, 350 tri-axles ship into Michigan a portion of Toronto’’s trash. Now a tri-axle can haul up to 80,000 pounds. A normal Trailer Tractor can haul around 45,000 pounds. To be conservative in our estimates let’s multiply 350 times 50,000lbs. I figure that equals around 17,000,000lbs of trash coming into our landfills everyday.

For the right price I guess you can find a spot for that much trash. I won’t get into what is allowed to come into this country from Toronto as that is not the reason for this analogy. I do live in Tucson, Az. most of the year. It is blatant the way we are to conserve water so that new developments can be built. It all seems like a catch 22 to me. I’d like to save water, but if I do, all the water I save allows more water to developers to build more houses that use more water etc……

A New Subscriber,

Vincent Carlo

Tucson, AZ