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Show No Matter How Bad The West Gets, The People Will Keep Coming exchange for square miles of land trusts). Enlisting the filthy rich (e.g,, most wealthy There is no end in sight to the present demographic trend in the West. Unless general pesple are not Dick Cheney, they don’t like the idea of scorching their grandchildren’s s population growth in the United States is eliminated, people will keep coming to the plateaus and the mountains. It’s easy to understand why. If you lived in LA in the 50s, it’s awful now but a better place to live than Pittsburgh. If you lived in Salt Lake in the 70s, you may dread today’s commute, but it’s better than Houston. Millions will be bothered by change and move elsewhere in the West, while more millions will stay and planet). 3. Force People To Confront "Limits" In Their Thinking. As a free market economist would tell a drug czar, "you can’t win by ignoring the demand side." Everyone should ask where "it" stops. I support with money the effort to drain the Page Sewage Pond, but I’m not sure I see much point if we’re going to ignore the population factor. Restoring Glen keep coming. And unless you come from the Yukon, the Colorado Plateau will seem like Canyon might not be much different from building a new freeway in a sprawling suburb. open spaces thirty years from now, no matter what we do to it in the next thirty years. You’re expanding capacity but in the face of increasing demand. 4. Defend Elitism, While Trying Not To Be Elitist. The conditions that produce greatness--great art, great science, you name it--are elitist in many respects. There’s nothing much more elitist than seeking the best possible genetic partner for your offspring or bragging about your child making the honor role. Preserving a perfect creation, hundreds of millions of years in the making, is no more elitist and far more admirable than building crappy architecture for an unchecked population. - New Communication Technology Will Accelerate Western Migration For decades we have been promised such changes as instant communication, the paperless office, the global library, and the telecommuting lifestyle. Many people have grown so accustomed to these promises being unfulfilled, they no longer believe them. But the promises are about to ring true. There is no end in sight to the demographic trend in the West. Unless general population growth in the US. is eliminated, people will keep coming to the plateaus and mountains. It’s a cold world. You'll never see Aspen in the 60s, be alone at Grandview Point on a Spring afternoon, or have your town of locals back. This is going to be a very good century to have some money and the freedom to enjoy the West at off-peak times. The day of living on the cheap in Park City is dead, and it’s not far behind in Moab. Ecologically interested people should spend their time protecting space for the ages, something that has a future, rather than longing for an extinct past of "real towns” in the age of the virtual communi No one’s innocent here. Certainly not me. California is my past and present, but not my future. There are five barely touched acres in Castle Valley with my name on them. They won't be barely touched for long. I know exactly where I’m building the deck, the garage where Ill work on my bike, and the stealth wine cellar where I'll hide all the bottles The fe tlogy sector may be in a severe recession with overcapacity of investment looming everywhere. But that is a short term matter. We’re heading at escape velocity into a wireless-satellite-fiber optic world. Knowledge capital is paramount, and information is becoming the panery product of our economy. Instant communication is here. The implication? The handful of financial advisers who’ve moved to Vail and software consultants who’ve moved to Deer Valley are the upper-income tip of an upper-middle and soon to be merely middle-income iceberg. A freedom from place, a sort of geo-liberation, is here in the earliest'stages. Great for the California college teacher who wants to live in Moab. Not so great for Moab. The changes of the past 25 years will be dwarfed by the changes of the next 25 years. "If You Don’t Like Where You Are, Move" The story of our species is a story of movement. From the pre-agrarian nomad to the St. George retiree, the desire for a better place organizes our lives. Even if we're not the ones moving. Every mass movement of people requires two things--(1) knowledge, or belief, that a better place is out there, and (2) the ability to move. As for knowledge, take advertising. Remember that scene in The Grapes Of Wrath, in which people whose lives are being destroyed in the dust bowl depression look longingly at a photo of the perfect California orange grove? Now, you have Californians lusting for Ford Explorers photographed at Fisher Towers. And you have a planet of billions raised on Dallas and Baywatch reruns. All are core visual images, in the grandest advertising campaign ever, sending us nonstop messages about the better place. The ability to move has never been greater. This is the most migratory period in history. And morally we're all the same. We want a place with a better life, and we go after it. Limits on population growth are insufficient to contain growth in the West. There is no biological reason why growth cannot continue indefinitely. The demand to live in the West will accelerate. So, in the West how should we treat the issue? 1, Focus On A Long-Term Horizon, There are seed banks that preserve the genetic blueprints of obscure plants and zoologists who keep animal species alive even though ‘reintroduction does not appear feasible anytime soon. They‘re acting now, but their time line is indefinite. The United States’ "Containment and Rollback" policy in the Cold War was supported with much the same attitude--draw the line now, move it back when feasible. The main question in Western preservationism should be what can we save now, so that less will be lost when we get a handle on these demographic problems a century without Will Valley a because those of those annoying little State stickers on them. I make the Colorado Plateau a worse place for moving in? Will I make Napa better place for clearing out?’ One thing is sure, it won’t make a lot of difference there are plenty of others moving to Utah, plenty of new Californians to replace us who leave, plenty of newborns in their native countries to replace those who emigrate to California, and so on. The problems of the West will not be solved, indeed, the bleeding will not be stopped, withouta sustained regional and transnational dialogue on population. Such a dialogue started once before in the 1960s. It lasted a decade, faded, and led to little in the way of policy. We would be wise to think of population whenever anyone starts talking to us about any problem afflicting the West. |. moci.net Your local Internet Service Provider 1030 S. Bowling Alley Lane (Entrance is on Bittle Lane) 259.3141 Enjoy Your Internet Experience No Set-up Fees--Simple Switchover ENJOY THE INTERNET THE WAY IT WAS INTENDED TO BE! AND VISIT MOCIHUT... Computer sales, Supplies, Software, Training and Support. or so down the road. 2. The Central Strategy: Lock It Up, Hold It, and Keep People Away. Forever, if necessary. Any legal way possible. Government initiatives (e.g, wilderness). Private sector initiatives (e.g., The Nature Conservancy). Compromise initiatives (e.g., long-term grazing leases to inhibit building). Development tradeoffs (e.g., approve acres of development in From Moab Call: 435. 259. 8099 www Backcountry tours -for the rest of us... Custom car camping trips River shuttles Full & Half Day : John Theobald teaches at UC Davis and lives in Calistoga, California, "a niche of pseudoisolation on the edge of the demographic disaster.” He can be reached via email at: theobald@worldnet.att.net Affordable prices and right in the heart of downtown GREEN RIVER! For reservations: 435.564.3406 |