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Show -FTYR/ JUNE-JULY 2007 THE CANYON COUNTRY Wee TAKE IT on pL EA ie Ele, ek PO BOX 327 MOAB, UTAH 84532 JIM STILES, PUBLISHER 435.260.1273 i WIIW. L cozephyr@frontiernet.net moabzephyr@yahoo.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ken Sleight Martin Murie Ned Mudd Doug Peacock Scott Silver Lance Christie Loch Wade. THE ARTIST John Depuy Herb Ringer (1913-1998) ZEPHYR PILOT & AERIAL RECONAIGSANCE Paul Swanstrom ZEPHYR TRANSPORTATION FLEET SPECIALISTS Gene Schafer Tom Wesson WEBMASTER Gary Henderson spankme2times@excite.com SUBSCRIPTIONS & TRANSCRIPTIONS Linda Vaughan CIRCULATION JA Bryan Lance Lawrence Jose Churampi Mark Anderson THE ZEPHYR, copyright 2007 The Zephyr is published six times a year at Moab, Utah. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of its vendors, advertisers, or even at times, of its publisher. All photographs and cartoons are by the publisher, unless otherwise noted. INSIDIOUS SHADES of “GREEN” It happened so suddenly. Out of nowhere, it almost seems, everyone is talking about global warming. Presidential candidates, corporate moguls, media pundits—the news is saturated with the latest climate change buzzwords. My current favorite is ‘carbon footprint’...1 wondered what I'd stepped in....what we’ve all stepped in. It’s a lot messier and more insidious than you might think. When you listen closely, you’ll discover that most of the current solutions to our global crisis are technical and entrepreneurial in nature. We don’t need to really change our lifestyle—we just need to fix the wrapping. Hybrid cars. and ethanol fuel lead the list, but there’s more—solar powpower, bio-diesel, carbon credits (MY GOD!!!) and, it goes without saying, organic condoms---I —— read this, from the CanWest News Service: For those who like to make love to the soundtrack of the global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Greenpeace has released a list of strategies for “getting it on for the good of the ' planet,” suggesting “you can be a bomb in bed without nuking the planet.” TreeHugger, an online magazine edited by Ontario’s Michael Graham Richard, has just published a guide on “how . to green your sex life.” The famed adult store Good Vibrations announced last week they would no longer sell sex toys containing phthalates, controversial chemical plasticizers believed by some to be hazardous to humans and the environment alike. And throughout Canada and the U.S., people who want to pleasure the planet can now buy everything from bamboo bed sheets to organic lubricant and “eco-undies.” “Green living is getting sexy,” says Jacob Gordon, author of TreeHugger.com’s recent green guide for the bedroom. Or consider these observations from NEWSWEEK, a story titled, “How to Make a Buck Green:” from So where's the money in climate change? Investors sense a tumultuous market in the making, if they can only hit it right. “Sometimes I feel like a fly on the wall, watching a new era unfold,” says Rona Fried, editor and publisher of “Progressive Investor,” a six year old newsletter that follows the field...Wall Street's own change in climate is nothing less than astonishing. Save-the-planet investing has suddenly. Well, heated up. NEWSWEEK proclaimed, “California’s Hummer-loving governor is turning the Golden State into the greenest in the land, a place where environmentalism and hedonism can coexist.” It really said that. Humor is the only _ test of gravity, and gravity of humor, for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit. Aristotle I believe that our civilization is addicted to the consumption of the earth itself...our industrial civilization makes us a promise: the pursuit of happiness and comfort is paramount, and the con- sumption of an endless stream of new products is encouraged as the best way to succeed in that pursuit. But the promise is always false because the hunger for authenticity remains. the world. BY JIM STILES er, wind HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS before he was Saeked by Bill Gore wrote: For me, this meant so much more than a call to reduce greenhouse emissions. Or for technical solutions to save com uv it in the Zephyr, a few ao Clinton as his running ma Indeed. Just a week earlier, the same periodical featured the “Green Giant” on its cover, California’s Governor Ar- nold Schwarzenegger. NEWSWEEK proclaimed, “California‘s Hummer-loving governor is turning the Golden State into the greenest in the land, a place where environmentalism and hedonism can coexist.” It really said that. The Gov had been a guest on MTV's wildly popular “Pimp my Ride” television program and had come to promote a 1965 Chevy Impala with an 800 horsepower engine, but which had been revamped to burn bio-diesel fuel. Arnold said, “You can have an engine that’s Al realized, even then, that it would take much more than new technology to restore our planet and our humanity. It was about the way we live our lives. He was asking us to re-examine the things that truly matter. He challenged us to take a hard look at the “endless stream” of diversions that we have allowed to define our success and even, supposedly, our happiness. I took heart in his words and his quest for “authenticity.” Now jump ahead a decade and a half. From an Associated Press story: BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday praised Wal-Mart for a newfound focus on environmental sustainability, saying the retailer showed there is no conflict between the environment and the economy. “I believe that this kind of commitment is so important that the rest of the world is likely to be listening and learning,” Gore told an auditorium of more than 800 Wal-Mart employees, suppliers and outside experts who are advising the company. Chief Executive Lee Scott last October said Wal-Mart would become a leader in sustainability, with three goals: reducing waste to zero, moving toward using only renewable energy and offering more products made in a way that preserves the environment. Gore said some people questioned whether Wal-Mart was serious about the environment, then added: “Have you ever known Wal-Mart not to follow through on a big commitment of this kind? I have not.” (AP) Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday praised Wal-Mart for a newfound focus on environmental sustainability... LN Is this the same Al Gore? The man who recoiled at the myth that “an endless stream of new products” might enrich our lives? Does he think these new products might be more palatable, if only we used “greener” technology? I doubt Al Gore believes any of this. In his heart of hearts, I’d bet Gore is the same man he was in 1992. But the world has changed around him. We have changed. Al Gore's search for “authenticity” somehow sounds quaint in 2007. He knows this better than anyone, and it’s why, I think, he will choose to stay out of politics. He'll keep doing what he does, but his enthusiasm will be dimmed, though skillfully masked, by the realities of 21st Century American Culture. He'll keep trying though, not because he thinks we can win, but because he could not live with himself if he didn’t. And more than anyone, it’s us, the progressive environmental community, that created this honesty vacuum. When did we stop being ‘conservationists?’ IfI can plagiarize myself for a moment (from Brave New West), keep this in mind... Most liberal Democrats aren’t a lot different from conservative Republicans in one regard. Neither group wants to see us live with less---Republicans think we should continue to live extravagantly and are convinced our energy fast and furious and still reduce greenhouse gases by 30 to 40 percent. This,” Schwarzenegger proclaimed, “is the future.” He explained that it was important, “to show people that biofuel is not like some wimpy feminine car, like resources will last forever. Democrats want to be able to live as extravagantly, but think we can live extravagantly in a more energy-efficient manner. When critics asked Democratic presidential candidate Kerry how he hoped to pay ahybrid.” for his massive health care bill, his answer was simple. He _ NEWSWEEK suggests that Arnold’s view “is a world away from Al Gore’s alarming climate lecture, ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’” But is it? I was first drawn to Al Gore almost 15 years ago, with the publication of his book, Earth in the Balance. remember one passage that impressed me so profoundly, I re-printed 2 said, “We'll grow the economy to pay for it.” That means more big homes and expensive cars and massive shopping malls and extravagant lifestyles and a materialistic society ‘that sees more value in “things” than anything else. And I see no one out there on the political landscape willing to ask his countrymen to live with less. |
