I agree: Nobody should have to pay for nature. No one should be priced out of seeing the beauty of the world. To imagine a world where only the elite may benefit from the mental, physical, and spiritual effects of nature — that is not a world worth living in. I fear it is the direction we are headed, with America leading the charge. Something has to give.
That “something” is unclear, a mystery for which there is no solving — least of all in a quick and easy manner. National parks are grappling with this issue as we speak. How do we keep nature accessible to everyone while preventing those same people from destroying it? The last part is key. If we all respected our surroundings — and one another — the need for park rangers and volunteers and the like would be lessened. Still necessary, certainly, but for more important tasks than cleaning up litter.
This ties directly to Manu’s point: accountability would solve a great number of problems. Too bad very few are held accountable — by themselves, by the government, by friends and family. What can be done to amend this, if only in the realm of nature?
For one, there are organizations attempting to educate the publice — a dire task — on policies such as leave no trace. This states, at its most basic, to leave only footprints and take only photographs. You can learn more about this policy at LNT.org, an independent nonprofit of the same name. There is also Nature First, a group founded by and focused on nature photographers. Not only can you support these groups, and others, via monetary means, you should absolutely volunteer a bit of your time in any way you can. Even if that means “only” spreading the word about their mission on social media. These groups — the world itself, really — needs all of the help they can get.
Otherwise, we who care must get our hands dirty. Carry on your person a trash bag and clean up after the bipedal animals before you. Bring along gloves and hand sanitizer — this shit can get nasty. I’ve heard too many stories from friends in Zion National Park, in particular, where dirty diapers and used toilet paper was left behind. This was especially egregious throughout the pandemic but still happens now. What disgusting creatures are we. Perhaps a grabber tool is needed for these such items. Get a dinosaur one to distract you from your unfortunate reality.
I understand that picking up someone else’s trash is not ideal. There aren’t many people out there who are willing to do it, let along actually want to. Someone has to, though, lest we allow our parks to turn into landfills. We still don’t know whether another mass layoff will happen. The national park rangers are the deep state, after all.
No matter what we as individuals do, until our governments hold accountable those who destroy the earth — whether by littering or by pumping foul chemicals into our water and our air — nothing will change. The only way to get our governments to do what we want them to is by force, by speaking up and by voting and, at the end of the day, hoping one day we manage to elect decent people into office who actually listen and abide by the policies we voted for.
I only hope it isn’t too late.
— C