“Preserving Destruction”
I lived and worked at Yosemite National Park four years ago. Set on top of a mountain in the Sierra’s, it’s away from the busy life of the city. One of the most appealing things about living and working there is the unbelievable pristine beauty and the chance to get to get to know yourself in that mostly untouched preserve. At least before I started living there I thought of it as untouched. We have a way of infecting our environment with our trash and bad habits.
I think spending time in a more natural setting has a great impact on your state of mind. Your state of mind influences everything that defines us as people. It shapes the way you perceive things; it affects the way you treat other people, and affects the decisions we make.
Unfortunately, my first impression of Yosemite was shaped by the company that runs the food services inside the park. This company, I think, is one of the worst companies to work for in the United States. Known for their bad treatment of employees, they managed to make my visit to Yosemite into a living nightmare of being trapped on a mountain with no car and with little to eat and working for less than minimum wage. I myself worked in the village store stocking the shelves and filling the shelves with nick-knacks that tourists buy to give to their friends to collect dust. The store carried refrigerator magnets, clothing and super expensive health food and catered to tourists from around the world.. Although Yosemite manages to have the regular tourist’s trappings, even with the high prices and lame management, it’s still a paradise of overwhelming beauty for those who can pay the price. Yet who’s really paying the price? The park? The employees? Or maybe a little of both.
Early morning mist drifts around the mountain, concealing it from view , as if to hide itself from the on coming rush of SUV’s and tour buses. Deer walk freely among the population without even a sign of noticing us. Birds hop around and eat scraps from the ground. The bus comes to every building and drops people off and picks them up. Emitting think clouds of toxic fumes to the surrounding fragile ecosystem, the buses drive around the park almost all day. Seven am till seven pm they circle the park like vultures waiting for prey. The birds and the other animals being the prey. They come dependant on us for food and then starve during the winter. The bees and the flies patrol the overflowing trash cans and bother the people trying to eat. We swat at them as if they’re in our way. But who’s bugging whom? Which one of us is a trespasser invading the other’s space? Are they not here because of us?
We will build on every inch of soil until there is nothing left. We are stuck in a way of living that hurts the things around us, and things don’t change because our society doesn’t let it change. We get used to a way of living. Usually it’s more and more reliant on machines, other than ourselves. It would take a lot to sway us from our pampered lazy existence. We pollute everything around us, and do nothing to change it. Why should it take such drastic changes in the environment for us to be more aware of what‘s going on?
I related this question to the concept in the movie, “Planet of the Apes.” In this movie nature and the planet had a way of fixing itself. In the beginning people captured and tested monkeys and apes for research and scientific reasons and changed the apes role in the planet in the process which affected their intelligence and evolution. Although the humans were able to make the apes more intelligent, they did not give them respect as fellow living entities on earth but made them servants and slaves for the humans. The end result had the monkeys becoming the dominant species and turning on their human hosts. The movie depicts an example of manipulating nature and the resulting effects.
An astronaut goes on a reconnaissance mission to recover a lost monkey operated pod and in turn ends up going into a wormhole that take him to the future. There he finds that the monkeys have evolved, rebelled and took over as the dominant species.
The contrast in this movie might be drastic but the message of it can relate to us. As we continue to pollute and effect the ecosystem of the world and even at the National Park, we may be insuring that the future of the park will be directly effected. When these changes become too much, the planet may rebel and change with possible changes that eventually won’t support life for us, solving the problem for the earth. If we are not here to pollute the earth then the earths precious system of life goes on as it always has.
In the middle of Yosemite is the pioneer cemetery. Now home to some of the old occupants, and some of the original Indians that the park was named after. When they set up camp there, I don’t think their intentions were to make it into some sort of a small city. I think we have run out of untouched places and now have a need to preserve the few places we have left. I don’t think we preserve it in it’s entirety, but that’s the cost nature has no choice but to take.
As we progress in science and technology, the higher our demand for natural resources of fuel and energy. Whether we want it or not the time for change is upon us. There are so many signs that we are having negative effects on our planet that it will be hard to ignore it much longer. It’s not that there is know one doing anything either, because there are many environmental groups and companies that sole purpose is to find alternative energy. They are not about to start funding research to help produce any alternative energy vehicles completely non-reliant on gasoline and oil, unless they can make money from it. There will always be a lack of funding for these programs, unless we get everyone involved globally. Although I believe that the National Park system is a very good system and they do try a lot to make our presence go unnoticed. The bears still eat out of the trash cans at night and the little cabins that we stayed in won’t keep them out. The animals will still notice that we are there but hopefully the environment wont be drastically changed by it. In the end of the movie the character realizes that the foreign planet he is on is earth. That, just like the chaos theory, the most insignificant of changes can bring about the most cataclysmic events. Everything we do affects us and everything around us. The character realizes the profound impact they have caused by their actions. But at the same time all the humans that are left unite together to overcome the apes and gain their freedom. What i learned was that we are divided on these issues. That we might not be doing a lot about this situation, but other countries produce 10 times the amount of pollution and have a way more dramatic effect on things than us. Most of these countries do nothing to change things, and will be a lot harder to persuade to take action.
It’s not until the planets bare and changed permanently that we and the characters in this movie actually realize the profound effect we have had. It’s not completely acknowledged that we are at fault until there is concrete evidence right in front of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment