Democracy is working. At least that's the news for now from my friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has filed a lawsuit against last-minute Bush administration plans to lease huge swaths of majestic wilderness in Utah for oil and gas extraction.
Late last night, NRDC and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups filed an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management that could save 100,000 acres of pristine land that are endangered. The deal temporarily prevents the Bureau from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19).
Although the Bureau will go forward with the auction today, based on the agreement it will not issue the contested leases. The delay will give a federal court time to hear the case.
As I've written previously, words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of these places, but they do capture the absurdity of the Bush plan. Oil and gas drilling in Desolation Canyon? Industrial development along the meandering Green River? The thought makes one wince.
Utah's Red Rock country is one of America's few remaining wilderness treasures. It's our land, it's our legacy, but will it still be here for our children and grandchildren?
The Bureau's agreement has delayed the potential destruction. We will now get our day in court and I know that NRDC, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and their partners will continue to do all they can to protect Utah's unspoiled landscapes.
Ed Note: Go to NRDC's BioGems website to take online action to save America's Redrock wilderness.
[This essay was cross-posted at Huffington Post.]
If the next generation does not do better than my "Not So GREAT GREED GRAB Generation" of elders has done to protect Earth from reckless environmental degradation and resource dissipation, then I cannot even imagine what the future will look like for those who are alive 40 years from now. The "pale blue dot" may not be so beautiful a place to inhabit in 2050, I fear.
Our children will do better; but first they will need to understand that the patently unsustainable overproduction, overconsumption and overpopulation activities which their elders so adamantly and relentlessly advocate will have to be forsaken....soon. Accepting human limits and Earth's limitations, and behaving accordingly, could be a goal worth achieving.
Ditto to the previous comments.
We can and must change the purpose of the world we see. It seems it has been seen as an accumulation of resources that beg acquisition without conservation because some biblical or other deity proclaimed man as supreme dictator rather than steward. Peace to such foolishness.
Evolution clearly illustrates that only those species that leave their environment in better shape for their passing get to survive. Air and water is still being polluted at an increasing rate. We defecate in and drink in the same aquafers; our ground waters. Animals naturally enrich soil by adding to the soil humus nutrient base and encourage the holding of ground water. We put human wastes in sub teranian leech beds so it is out of sight(and in the water table). Stupid! In most of the "civilized" world it is illegal to deficate on the ground, even if you cover it.
We currently are loosing tons per acre of our top soil through consumtive farming practices. The midwest USA is the desert of the future. The Amazon follows. We increase CO2 levels while destroying colossal green plant oxygenator realms and increase our population of polluters.
There is much to change and soon.
I am passing this on to my son's family where there are two teenagers. This will be their heritage. Thanks.
What's the latest news on this? Monday is the deadline and I can't find any new info on whether the court will nullify the sales and have them tear up the checks...I sure hope so.
Robert Redford is an actor, director, environmental activist, and long-time trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is also the founder of Sundance in Utah.