Desert Solitaire Thesis

To understand where the motivation and passion to protect the environment was developed, one looks to the rapid deforestation of East Coast old-growth forests at the turn of the century. “As Gifford Pinchot expressed it, ‘The American Colossus was fiercely at work turning natural resources into money.’ ‘A

Although Leopold’s love of great expanses of wilderness is readily apparent, his book does not cry out in defense of particular tracts of land about to go under the axe or plow, but rather deals with the minutiae, the details, of often unnoticed plants and animals, all the little things that, in our ignorance, we have left out of our managed acreages but which must be present to add up to balanced ecosystems and a sense of quality and wholeness in the landscape.

As a child, I unraveled nature’s beauty and existence. Each new experience brought me feelings of excitement and joy, sparkling my imagination and igniting my curiosity. It all seemed so large back then. Oceans appeared endless as they reached towards the horizon. Treetops seemed to make friends with the puffy-looking clouds as they soared to the sky. Over the years however, as I have grown older and life has become more complex, I am beginning to think less and less about the natural world around me. I glimpse sunset stuck in rush-hour traffic trying to return school after debate practices and only listen to the pitter-patter of the rain when there’s a storm outside. Forests and oceans seemed less appealing as they became intertwined with the urban development. In a way, I was becoming more and more distanced from the so-called nature. So, with an overwhelming desire for adventure and to escape the masses, my family and I drove to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas last summer.

Stegner wants to conserve the untouched land because he fears a world with no silence. He argues for the preservation of Robbers’ Roost country, as an example, “It is a lovely and terrible wilderness, such as wilderness as Christ and the prophets went out into… Save a piece of country like that intact, and it does not matter in the slightest that only a few people every year will go into it. That is precisely its value (Stegner, Wilderness Letter).” Saving the untouched lands, he contends, is a reminder of how uncontrolled the Earth is and how timeless it remains. Others disagree with this viewpoint, one of those people being American forester, Gifford Pinchot. In his writing “The Fight for Conservation,” Pinchot argues that conservation

Though Buell’s language is dense, he organizes the vast territory of “American thought” into structured chapters, which is helpful for the homocentric reader. The first four chapters are the most didactic and the easiest to glean purpose from. In this section, Buell lays out the historical and theoretical contexts of environmental writing, after which the section is aptly named, and how we have approached it in the past as well as how we should approach it in the future. The reader truly enters into ecocentrism with Buell’s discussion of Pastoral ideology, an idealization of natural existence after which he admits his entire is book modeled (31). One of the strongest elements of the book comes through in this discussion of Pastoral ideology,

Wilderness in its true state is lush, sleek, and channels water. It is because of its true natural state that is has the ability to generate billions of dollars into America’s recreational economy. One provident example, is the San Gabriel Wilderness in California. Now of course protecting this land has natural benefits,

Roderick Frazier Nash’s book, Wilderness and the American Mind, compiled contemporary debates about wilderness by outlining the changing positions concerning wilderness throughout history. In chapter 11, “Aldo Leopold: Prophet,” Nash discuses Aldo Leopold’s house metaphor. Here, Leopold refers to six vacant lots and what it would mean to build houses on all six lots. He describes how the first few houses might make sense; however once you build upon all six lots you no longer remember the meaning of the homes. He argues that they somehow the sixth house would become “stupidity.” Conversely, I disagree with this theory. I feel each house, so to speak, is built differently and suits different needs and wants. Just as in the wilderness,

     Not many people know of the used-to-be 150-mile excursion that the Glen Canyon had to offer. Not many people know how to sail a raft down a river for a week. Not many people know how to interact with nature and the animals that come with it. We seem to come from a world that is dependent on time and consumed in money. Edward Abbey is what you would call an extreme environmentalist. He talks about how it was an environmental disaster to place a dam in which to create Lake Powell, a reservoir formed on the border of Utah and Arizona. He is one of the few that have actually seen the way Glen Canyon was before they changed it into a reservoir. Today, that lake is used by over a million people, and is one of

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey begins in the area surrounding Moab, Utah. He discusses his intense love and adoration for the land. This theme of laying out the land for the reader continues from Chapters 1-5. It is apparent the Abbey adores nature in its purest form. Abbey rarely has visitors of the human kind, he is more often visited by snakes, deer, birds, and other wildlife than the parks superintendent, the chief park ranger, and a few tourists here and there. Abbey finds himself a little lonely from time to time in the beginning of the book but by Chapter 3: The Serpents of Paradise he finds a friend. He first encounters a not so friendly creature, a faded midget, a poisonous rattlesnake lying underneath his doorstep. Abbey often finds himself talking to the animals in this book, so he decides to issue the snake a warning and remove it. When it comes back to the trailer a second time, Abbey keeps his promise and kills the snake. Eventually, he finds another snake, which he recognizes is an enemy to the rattlesnake, and he sets out to domesticate it. Abbey decides to take it on excursions with him, wrapping the snake around his waist underneath his shirt. Eventually, the snake was released and never returned. In Chapter 4, Abbey focuses more on the plants in the region, citing his favorite wildflower, the cliffrose, and going over his weekly schedules. His busiest days are the weekends when campers come, after he cleans, makes his rounds, takes a couple days off, restocks supplies, and then starts all over again. Chapter 5, is when things start to get heavy. It is at this point Abbey starts revealing how truly frustrated he is with the US government and the tourists. Abbey is fiercely protective of the park and soon discovers that roads will be paved in the park to increase tourism. He is horrified at the aspect of a new road because he sees automobiles as an enemy to the National Park industry. To Abbey, cars limit tourists from actually see the land, stating that a short distance on bike or foot is much more appreciated than a very long distance in a car. He also suggests a new plan for national parks in order to preserve their authenticity. Abbey thinks that tourists should travel to the campsites

The modern Environment Movement began with the passing of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The act established a National Wilderness System and created 9 millions acres. The main influence and writer of the act Howard Zahniser, who felt that we needed wilderness as it takes us away from technology that gives us perspective of mastering the environment rather than being a part of it (Nash, 2001). With the passing of the act Americans questioned both preservation and conservation. A new culture emerged in America that rejected societal norms and praised independence and freedom. This culture developed in the youth of America and sparked change in preservation growth and the overall outlook of wilderness.

In “Last Child in the Woods” the author Richard Louv argues how americans are being separated from nature and why we should stay more involved in nature. He uses several rhetorical strategies to prove his point using imagery and rhetorical questions to convey his message.

As such, the lack of determination to preserve natural resources has enormously affected the environment, precisely animals and other life sources; for instance, minerals, forest, and fertile land that frequently occurs more often than not for economic gains. This is a situation that has been forgotten and ignored by public and elected officials due to profit and their reelection campaign funds. Because of corporate greediness, this issue has effected the environment and of course they are more focus on short term profit instead of the damaged that are being done and the long term impact on the environment. The wilderness is under assault and is being diminished due to lack of governmental oversight. Another example in “The Call of the Wild” poem by Gary Snyder, the author emphasizes how humankind

My family lives within a 10,826-acre wildlife management area, the second largest in Vermont. We use our own woodland to make pure Vermont maple syrup and for firewood to heat our home. When you work the land every day and depend on it to help you survive you form a connection that not everyone is able to understand. The connection is reinforced when one spends time walking, horseback riding, skiing, or snowshoeing the land. It is a ways of experiencing the natural world in its purest form by existing in your truest form as a human being, without machines. There is a flow to the wild world that we become out of sync with when we bring in machines that cater to our hubris needs. The protection of state land facilitates a Thoreauvian way of experiencing

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is the work for which Abbey is best known and by which he is most frequently defined. It contains his views on a variety of subjects, from the problems of the United States Park Service to an angry indictment of the evils of technology masquerading under the guise of progress. No voice is more eloquent in the praise of America's remaining wilderness nor more vitriolic in attacking those who would exploit and destroy it for profit.

Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking Like a Mountain” (1949), was intended to convince the public, through beautiful and eloquent language, that wildlife conservation is an important implementation and that people should not be trying to make the world a human-centric ecosystem.