travel

Temptation

Just a few days ago I met with a potential client who very much wanted me to design a rural green home on the edge of a wetland. He would have to compensate for the damage the home would do by funding the planting of native flora to help restore another wetland.

I declined even though it would have been interesting and lucrative. I am fully aware that he will just hire someone else and besmirch the wetland anyway. This happens to me on occasion. I refuse to design rural homes or cabins, especially off-grid ones, purely out of a sense of self-righteous indignation. They are sores on the face of the planet. I don't really blame those who are chasing their eco-fantasy, and I don't really blame those who will eventually do the designs for them, I just don't want to participate in the rape of the planet any more than necessary.

But today, I got the following email:

Might want to check the elevation first

So the guy to blame for AOL wants to create a "green resort" in Costa Rica, because if there's anything low-lying countries in hurricane paths need, it's more jet travel by rich gringos eager to experience a little pseudo-green travel.

A mountaineer calls mountaineers climate criminals

David Crosby and Graham Nash's haunting and hypnotic introduction, "To the Last Whale," before the song "Wind on the Water," is the kind of work that we need more of.

What we really need is someone to write a song "To the Last Glacier" quick, so that more people wake up to the truth that this guy has beamed onto: flying on jets because you love some great natural wonder is like f*cking because you love virginity.

Great article.

A few random observations before getting back to work

Well, here I am, back from a nine-day vacation in the South, sunburned, mosquito-bitten, jet lagged, and generally dazed. Rather than wading through the 300 or so emails demanding my attention, how about a few vacation observations? I split my time between big-city Atlanta and the sort of not-quite-rural, not-quite-city, not-quite-suburb nether regions that, it […]

Greenies read the NYT

Interesting (?): Three of the four top emailed NYT stories today (or at least, at this moment) have an environmental bent. “Waiter, There’s Deer in My Sushi” is about Japan’s quest to sushify various non-fish meats — deer! duck! horse! — as restrictions have gone into place to combat overfishing of tuna. “Enjoy Your Green […]

Take a National Review cruise to find out

Holy mother of something or other, you gotta read this story. Here’s how it begins: I am standing waist-deep in the Pacific Ocean, indulging in the polite chit-chat beloved by vacationing Americans. A sweet elderly lady from Los Angeles is sitting on the rocks nearby, telling me dreamily about her son. “Is he your only […]

A valedictory to Colin Fletcher

For most of us who care about ecology and the environment, there was some personal experience that brought us there. For me, it was wilderness hiking, beginning 30-plus years ago in the Grand Canyon and continuing across the American West. Two books helped instigate my journeys and those of thousands of fellow adventure-seekers and nature-lovers. The Welshman who wrote them, the intrepid and blessedly individualistic Colin Fletcher, died earlier this month, at 85.

I can't recall which I read first -- The Man Who Walked Through Time, in which Fletcher chronicled his 400-mile hike through the Grand Canyon, or his compulsively detailed guide to backpacking, The Complete Walker. That's probably because I read them both repeatedly and obsessively.

We had to destroy the village to make it a global village

The job of the PR industry: comforting the comfortable, afflicting the afflicted. Now on to protecting the feelings of the poor maligned air travel industry:

As part of the makeover, there's a short in-flight video, titled "Flying's a Wonderful Thing," that has been produced to ease consumer guilt over plane travel, and brochures have been printed. "Air transport made the global village a reality," one pamphlet says.

Visit exotic travel spots before we obliterate them!

How’s this for backwards messaging? A Forbes article posted late last week on MSNBC urges tourists to “See these travel spots – before it’s too late!“, referring to the world’s most endangered tourist destinations. These are exotic spots threatened by over-tourism, deforestation, and global warming, and as the article says, if they’re on your destination […]