Trash bottles and construction equipment on construction site, Marietta, Atlanta, Georgia

Hey Folks,

A word (or rant) about ‘pragmatists’.

How often do we hear people cloak their position in this language, smother their position and use the veil of ‘realism’ as a cover for rationale? The phrase “well, sure, that’s too bad, but we need to be pragmatic .. “ is so often merely an attempt to preserve the status quo. Rather than reach a little further, push a little harder, get a little creative, or honestly examine ourselves and the lives we lead, we fall back on language like “realistic” and “pragmatic” – neither of which solve a problem, and, ironically, express a position often seated on neither pragmatism or realism.

Conversations around environmental issues seem to invoke this veil all too often; “we’d love to leave the caribou alone, and let them roam on the coastal plain, but we need to be practical – realistically, we need oil.” An entire platform was built around this excuse for an unwillingness to change that supporters labelled “Wise Use” – it’s nonsense. This is merely a euphemism for “take what we can and pretend we care what others think; pretend we’re making a concerted effort to be environmentally friendly”. It’s marketing jargon, banal thinktank rhetoric from days gone by, the ultimate aim of which is merely to shape the discourse in such a way that it allows us to keep doing what we’re doing, “same ole, same ole”, to continue business as usual. It’s an attempt to “grandfather-in” harmful behavior.

What’s real is climate change. What’s real is the fact that 97% of the ancient forests of this country are gone. What’s real is urban sprawl and rapid species extirpation. What’s real is the fact that there are more tigers living in zoos and circuses in the US than there are in the wild. What’s real is habitat loss and extinction debt, so perhaps we might consider the matters of practicality and realism from another angle; how pragmatic is it to destroy the only home we know, to continue living lives revolving around unmitigated consumption of finite energy sources? How feasible is it to live in a world with no polar bears, no salmon, no tigers or songbirds, no wildness, and no thereby no wilderness?

Logging in Chattahoochee National Forest, North Georgia

The realistic questions that face us include how do we deal with these issues and how do we change some things, not how do we avoid them and maintain our facade of real concern, a pretense of action? Those are pragmatic questions too many people don’t want to ask. I wonder, for example, if John Muir called himself a pragmatist when he fought for the preservation of places like Yosemite NP and the giant Sequoias. I wonder if Stephen Mather called himself a realist when he laid the foundation for our National Parks. Was Rachel Carson a pragmatist? Aldo Leopold, Thoreau? Was Martin Luther King a realist? Ghandi? How about Jesus? Pragmatic? We could also consider artists? Was Mozart pragmatic? Jimi Hendrix? Picasso? I wonder what the Sistine Chapel ceiling might look like if Michaelangelo had chosen the pragmatic decor over the sublime?

It seems to me that humanity has been at our best when we avoid such traps of orthodoxy and climb mountains. In the realm again of environmental concern, pragmatism destroyed Hetch Hetchy and the Glen Canyon; realists clearcut forests and ranch tall grass prairies. “Pragmatic” gives us more oil rigs and mountaintop blasting coal mines, and those who oppose such things are always, apparently, not realistic. Realists push for things like Cold Wars and pre-emptive invasions, while dreamers oppose such things.

So let’s redefine how we choose to live – pragmatic or not. Want realism? Let’s look at the reality of habitat loss, global warming, deforestation, clearcutting, monocultures. Let’s consider the practical questions of what we do when the oil runs out, biodiversity recedes and global climate change impacts the environment in ways we can’t even yet begin to fathom. It’s interesting to consider how often the same folks who want to monopolize the parameters of this discourse with such constraints so often similarly foster and support transnational corporatization (i.e., monopolization) of economic markets and natural resources. Pragmatic my a**.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s another flower, the Fire Pink, from the Chattahoochee National Forest, North Georgia Mountains, Georgia. I took this one spring hike up in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, near the North Carolina border. Spring in the Appalachians is an amazing time, the biomass that is generated in the hardwood forests there in a couple of weeks is simply awesome. The woods go from bare and barren to an incredibly rich, diverse glut of biota in what seems like a couple of days. Walking through the deep green forest and seeing a red glow like this little flower is way cool. The red is so bright, I had to dull it down a little on the computer to make it not look overdone – it’s really an intense vibrant flower.

I think there was a push to make the Fire Pink the State Flower of Indiana, but I’m unsure if it ever went ahead. Fire Pinks should be the State Flower of some state, I can tell you that – they’re just way to cool not to be!

I was giong to wait until springtime to post flowers, but my friend Ron Niebrugge is having such a whale of a time down in California shooting the bloom of the century in the desert, I didn’t want to be left out. Check out his blog right now for some downright NASTY wildflower photos!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

I’ll maybe try to get one more post in here before I hit the road, so I’ll do 2 for today. This is a photo from the past. I’ve been catching up on some editing and web updates he last few weeks here, and haven’t really got out to shoot too much. As a result of that, I’ll try to post a couple of shots from years gone by that I like – and maybe even post a few of the countless thousands I didn’t like. This photo was from an overnight trip a couple of years ago to the Chattooga River in north east Georgia. The Chattooga River defines the border between Georgia and South Carolina, and lies between the Sumter , Nantahala and Chattahoochee National Forests.

Congress designated the Chattooga River a “Wild and Scenic River” in 1974, and I’d attest to that designation. It’s both wild and scenic! The designation protects a corridor along the river for nearly 60 miles, though it’s somewhat silly - part of the river is designated as ‘wild’, part is ‘scenic’, and part of it is ‘recreational; how wonderful is bureaucracy? The law should actually be called the “Wild OR Scenic Rivers Act’. It’s great that finally (the law came to be in the late 60′s I think) rivers were given some protections from the rampant destruction that we call ‘development’, but it’s a relatively minor protection- only 160 rivers in all the US have been designated so far – less than one quarter of one percent. The actual wording of the “Wild and Scenic Rivers’ Act is similarly lame – how anyone can actually say ‘preserved in their free-flowing condition and are not damned or otherwise improved’ is beyond me. The act states:

“a policy that would preserve other selected rivers or sections thereof in their free-flowing condition to protect the water quality of such rivers”

- this actually recognizes the fact that impeding the flow of rivers is detrimental to water quality! And yet, how many dams exist in the US? 10 000? 20 000? 50 000? Uh uh .. more than 60 000 large and small dams have cut off the flow of rivers all across the country. Sixty Thousands dams – that’s an awful lot. So, let’s pay homage to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and thank those with the sense to protect at least something – less than one quarter of one percent is surely better than nothing.

The total area of the Chattooga River corridor is only about 16 000 acres, and it runs through the Ellicott Rock Wilderness. The watershed for much of the river includes Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Known mostly today for its incredible whitewater kayaking and rafting runs, the river is one of the few undammed rivers in the southeastern USA. A day on the river is unlike many of the other rivers in the region because the only roads in the area cross it, rather than parallel the river. There is excellent hiking and backpacking in the hills and mountains here, though people should be careful when close to the water – it can be dangerous, even at low water, and caution should be taken. Similarly with kayakers on the water, the river, particularly the lower Five Falls area consists of some rowdy and gnarly rapids, names like Entrance, Corkscrew, Crack in the Rock, Jawbone (shown here) and Sock-em Dog. These rapids are have a bunch of nasty hydraulics and underwater traps called ‘undercuts’, and they’re quite dangerous – more than a couple of people have died in this section. Serious Class IV and V boaters only. The gradient drop of the Five Falls run is approximately 300′ per mile, which means the water’s fast and powerful.

The Chattooga River is home to some fine trout fishing, and I’ve spent more than one night cooking fresh fish over a fire on it’s sandy banks. There are a number of great walks in the area, but none finer than simply following the shore up, or downstream. Campsites abound, but because the area gets a lot of visitation, it’s important to tread lightly.

I do love the southeastern Appalachian forests, and hiking and exploring the Chattooga River area is some of my favorite hiking in that region. In the spring the blooms of mountain laurel and rhododendron can be pretty intense, and are well worth checking out. So here’s to you, Chattooga River!

Cheers

Carl