I would like to tell you about an experience I had in Florence, Italy, 32 years ago.
I was there filming a New Age Congress. Florence was an appropriate location for the event being at the center of the European Renaissance that occurred between the 14th and 16th centuries.
It was a transition from the medieval to the modern, also the hope of the New Age thinkers of that time.
Out of dozens of amazing experiences, one still stands out in my memory.
I was filming Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome and the man who coined the expression "spaceship Earth."
When Bucky was a young man, he almost committed suicide but decided at the last moment that doing that would be a waste, so he made a promise to himself to dedicate his life to humanity.
The rest is history, mostly forgotten now but still recorded in many of his books. The thoughts in these books are worth revisiting.
Bucky was in his 80s in 1978, short, bald, with thick glasses, serious and somehow innocent in his views. I pointedly asked him about overpopulation, and he replied, "Population isn't the problem. Human behavior is the problem."
And he went on to explain. He caught me off guard. I disagreed with him, but I was there to document his story, not to argue.
I noticed the eyepiece on my camera was fogging. Tears were running down my face. In one brief moment, Fuller successfully challenged my deepest belief, that too many people are the biggest problem.
The film we were making was called "The Human Race," in this case the race for human survival. Paul McCartney was one of the sponsors, as was Diane Cilento, Sean Connery's first wife.
I have never reconciled these views about population and behavior, but surely it is easy to see we are an infinitely growing species on a finite planet, and any day's headlines in the news will tell us about our behavior, generous and kind one day, mean and lethal the next.
Wilderness designations limit bad behavior. It's as simple as that. While on foot, or on horseback, we are limited in the amount of damage we can do to these fragile environments. But when we bring our mechanical toys with us, the land invariably takes a beating.
It's hard to blame some young buck for getting his kicks on the back of a two-wheeled, high-powered bike that doubles as an earth mover. And noise is part of the fun. Policing this behavior is impossible on these vast, mostly empty tracks. Leave the land open to all-terrain vehicles, and it will be trashed, and the wildlife will suffer, as well. Of this there can be no doubt.
I still struggle with Buckminster Fuller's remarks. But after 30 years of hiking in Colorado wild country and in other remote lands around the world, my optimism has not improved. There isn't a lot of pristine wild country left. I think we have to try to protect every inch of it.
Please support the Hidden Gems wilderness proposal. It needs to become a reality.
Roger Brown
Gypsum
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20100203/LETTER/100209913/1022&ParentProfile=1065
