| OCR Text |
Show Protected Wilderness Would Serve as a Positive Model for the Entire World 'tab has the opportunity to snow by U example what the rest Chronkk of the world should and should not do with its weakening Opinion wilderness. This , example perversions. If they arc only wish to satisfy short-tersuccessful, an arrow will go through the hearts of millions of people. , ,. One place that has been lost forever is Glen Canyon, which Wallace Stegncr called "the most serenely beautiful canyon of the. Colorado Plateau. We lost it for the casinos and phony lakes in Las Vegas and for the thousands of swimming pools in Phoenix. . Never will we see this canyon again except in old pho-tographs or in words. Never shall we forgive the people wno m c c&ty '60 wot making decisions on behalf of " nwcni4uj. 11 uupc uur uumcu uuu i y uui about us making decisions in the '90s. There is a legitimate argument against wilderness m . should not be that of selline out to minine companies when they come knocking on our door. This example should not be mat 01 camming every river in tne desert as a way of removing the natural landscape with the exotic clement of water. This example should not be that of grumbling and complaining about the protection of preservation that needs to be brought up, however. There are people who live in this desert and make their lands from the needy hands of developers! Instead, this example should be that of leaving a quiet living off of it. Many of nlarr where worn out neonle can forert about the rav- - tnese people nave lived on property ages of city life, if only for a day or two. This example owned would be a place where silence penetrates even the thick by their famiest of skulls. This place would not be so small that one could walk lies for a through it in a day. Rather, this place would be so huge s. and expansive that it would require two lifetimes to expe-- rience years; to them a coal mine docs define livelihood in a genuine way. The ranchers who live in southern Utah love the land more than the "crunchers" from back East. However, just because they claim to be Utahns docs not give them the right to tarnish something that took hundreds of thousands of years to create.' g These people must have faith in the idea that wilderness will attract people who will contribute financially to their community. They also must realize that a coal mine doesn't last forever, while wilderness could. If wc set aside wilderness, people will come from all corners of the world. They will come for something that does not exist where they live. Tourism provides jobs as . well; it will just take some time. the as of as human If we as Utahns, Americans, part race, don't save some of our precious desert, then we will not be able to look into the eyes of our children when they ask, "Why?" Wc can not lose any more of our natural landscape to the evils of "progress" Our world is deteriorating too fast for how long we as a people have been here. The time to fifth-generati- on hard-workin- our wilder- nes is now not in 20 years when there is nothing left to pre- - preserve it all. This place would also be dangerous. Not the danger of walking alone down a dark alley, but the primal danger of not finding water and becoming the meal of a hungry coyote or cougar. In this place, the visitor would have to be prepared for the worst or he would have hell to pay. This place would be full of brilliant colors found nowhere else on Earth. If this place existed, then the dark reds and oranges would still hold their sharpness against the deep blue sky a thousand years from now. serve. - ; Of course, I am referring to the desert of southern Utah, which could be' lost forever. For there are some people out there who would rather see black smoke billowing from a coal mine than the mysterious beau . ty of desert We need to defend all things of natural beauty no matter the financial burden it j brings tomorrow, because after tomorrow we will see the benefits brought through this act of preservation. It is true that a large portion of southern Utah is already under protection, but it is not even close to the amount which would be satisfactory. And why is the rest not pro . tected:' uccausc there are people out there "representing" you and me with only money on their minds, people who watched too many John Wayne movies as children. ' Ci 7 -- These ilif 4 v3 v . d "representatives" Mb. Chronicle Editorial, Quality Proposal Going Too Far? You Tell Us Is EPA Air More than 130 people from agrnikure, groups and b Sak Lake government are gathered Cky this week to comment on a new EPA proposal Topic of discussion: air quality. Some scientists are worried about the coTKentration of particulates in our air. Some of these particulates can become lodged permanently m the lungs and cause breathing death. Ia fact, the National Resources Defense Counci estimates that some 60,000 people a yew have had their lives cut short by air poSminn, Yet the Air Qpality Standards Coalition took out a ad in prob-kms-eve- luD-pas- e n Tuesday's Si LcJ Himt protesting the attempts of the EPA to improve air quality. The ad claims that "major air pollutants have...decreased by nearly 30 porcent across the country," despite hdustrial growth. Well, we at the Dify UuJt Onmk don't have a lot of numbers or statistics or figures or estimates. What wc do have, however, is our as the rest of abSky to breathe. outside waJk every day and see you, the sky clouded with gray haie for them to be outside. The best testimony to air quaity is not necessarily that piece of paper stamped "Environmental Study." (It e ad paid for certainly isn't a spedal-btereby a group) The best the to testimony quality of air in Utah is the opinions of the fc&s who breathe k. So we went to the streets; here's what you said. Ryan Hank, senior in chemical and fuels trainer dry. don't think full-pag- st - 1 air quality is that bad -- maybe (those aren't ram clouds). Wfc breathe then choke after inhaling because we don't seem to have the the air-a-nd the exhaust4aden stuff We hear the inversions this year that we usuaSy : news reports about children m Utah have. I lived in Chicago and k's a lot County being forced to stay inside worse there than it is here." -J- ames Coles, senior in for recess because the air was too bad geogra phy: "I think Sak Lake should have higher standards than' most cities because it's in a location where inversion is more likely to happen, so you get more pollutants that stay in the air. Also, wc have more young people than most cities, and those are the ones affected most by low air quality. They're outside more and their kings are soil developing, so they're more likely to develop king disease. When asked if he thinks current air quality in Utah is at an acceptable level Coles answered, "No." Melissa Nelson, senior in anthropology: "During the winter, bur quality is very poor. The reason, of course, is the inversion, which we cant escape. In the cky k is always very pooc There arc too many cars entering Sak Lake and a poor road system." Ncbon added that k b possible to find good air in Utah if you leave the aucs. k a knpoitant to note that wc took the responses of the first three people who would go on record So, while this is a only a small sampling, it seems obvious that folks are definitely not pleased. Shouldn't that matter at least as much as the numbers? 11 DaLy ttaA Obrnksr is aa Uasigsed editorials represent the majority opinion of the EdorialEowdL |
