John Muir's Birthday
-
-
Tomorrow, April 21, is John Muir’s birthday. Many people have called him the father of modern day conservation. He led a really interesting and unique life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir
The last time I was in Scotland I made a point to go by the house where he grew up in Dunbar. It is on the coast and is a pretty little village. The day I was there it was sunny, but really quite breezy and cold. Nowadays Dunbar is about 30 or 45 minutes east of Edinburg, but back when John Muir was a boy I’m sure going to the big city of Edinburg was quite a journey.
This is a link to an old blog entry that shows a picture of the house he grew up in: http://hpgarland.blogspot.com/2006/09/john-muir.html
The Sierra Club once was a really great organization. In the 60’s and 70’s it was filled with people who cared about the environment, conservation, and wilderness. There were young people, retired people, college professors, and just plain old worker bees. In the context of the Sierra Club there was an egalitarian spirit, and we all felt basically equal.
Now the national organization seems mostly interested in fund raising and in selling Sierra Club mutual funds. The local group here in El Paso doesn’t seem to do much of anything. Very few people attend the meetings, and even though the monthly meetings are held on the UTEP campus very few students are involved. Since I moved back to El Paso from Europe I’ve attended three of their monthly general membership meetings. And no one has ever spoken to me or come up to me and introduced themselves. The leader needs to make a point each month to ask any visitors or new members to stand up and introduce themselves. This is important.
As far as I can tell the local Sierra Club group is doing almost nothing about anything. Like Otero Mesa, ASARCO firing back up, encouraging solar energy, energy conservation, people driving these enormous and heavy low fuel economy vehicles, or the reduction of socially irresponsible water usage in the desert (i.e., home lawns). I could make a long list of local issues that the local group should be getting fired up about. But they aren’t.
Groups have life cycles, just like people. And from my perspective the Sierra Club is clearly over the hill. Both nationally and locally.
Some group will eventually come along and fill this void. There are still plenty of folks around who are interested in renewable energy (like solar), want to use less fossil fuels, and who like to get away to natural places. Some of these people can afford to drive Toyota Priuses; many can’t. It doesn’t matter. What is important is the vision of looking towards the future, and wanting to leave the earth in better shape for our kids and grandchildren than we found it.
-
-
-
Tomorrow, April 21, is John Muir’s birthday. Many people have called him the father of modern day conservation. He led a really interesting and unique life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir
The last time I was in Scotland I made a point to go by the house where he grew up in Dunbar. It is on the coast and is a pretty little village. The day I was there it was sunny, but really quite breezy and cold. Nowadays Dunbar is about 30 or 45 minutes east of Edinburg, but back when John Muir was a boy I’m sure going to the big city of Edinburg was quite a journey.
This is a link to an old blog entry that shows a picture of the house he grew up in: http://hpgarland.blogspot.com/2006/09/john-muir.html
The Sierra Club once was a really great organization. In the 60’s and 70’s it was filled with people who cared about the environment, conservation, and wilderness. There were young people, retired people, college professors, and just plain old worker bees. In the context of the Sierra Club there was an egalitarian spirit, and we all felt basically equal.
Now the national organization seems mostly interested in fund raising and in selling Sierra Club mutual funds. The local group here in El Paso doesn’t seem to do much of anything. Very few people attend the meetings, and even though the monthly meetings are held on the UTEP campus very few students are involved. Since I moved back to El Paso from Europe I’ve attended three of their monthly general membership meetings. And no one has ever spoken to me or come up to me and introduced themselves. The leader needs to make a point each month to ask any visitors or new members to stand up and introduce themselves. This is important.
As far as I can tell the local Sierra Club group is doing almost nothing about anything. Like Otero Mesa, ASARCO firing back up, encouraging solar energy, energy conservation, people driving these enormous and heavy low fuel economy vehicles, or the reduction of socially irresponsible water usage in the desert (i.e., home lawns). I could make a long list of local issues that the local group should be getting fired up about. But they aren’t.
Groups have life cycles, just like people. And from my perspective the Sierra Club is clearly over the hill. Both nationally and locally.
Some group will eventually come along and fill this void. There are still plenty of folks around who are interested in renewable energy (like solar), want to use less fossil fuels, and who like to get away to natural places. Some of these people can afford to drive Toyota Priuses; many can’t. It doesn’t matter. What is important is the vision of looking towards the future, and wanting to leave the earth in better shape for our kids and grandchildren than we found it.
-
-
