Not that the greenies have a monopoly on hubris—many humans seem to have the idea that what they have created, or what they value, must be preserved as is for all time. But environmentalists showcase the concept so very well, not only in their actions but in the fact that their most formidable opponent is often nature itself.
The recent Chilean volcanic eruption offers an excellent case in point, as presented in North Face Founder Saves, Fights Nature as Chile Volcano Erupts. Here are the first few paragraphs [links removed from quoted text]:
North Face Inc. founder Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine have spent $50 million to save Chile's rain forest. Now nature is rebelling: A volcano that has erupted for the first time in 9,000 years is ravaging the reserve they have built.
The Chaiten volcano sits on the southern edge of Pumalin Park, a 300,000-hectare (740,000-acre) site created by the Tompkinses to preserve a swath of Patagonia. Ash and rivers swollen by volcanic mud have damaged land, trees and trails on a third of the park and threaten to obliterate 17 years of work, Kristine Tompkins said.
"It's a mess, a serious mess," she said in a May 13 phone interview from Pumalin's administration center at Puerto Varas, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the volcano. "If it gets worse, it could hammer in a big way the infrastructure we've built, and wipe out forests that'll take thousands of years to return."
Ah, chaos, you are the great leveler of mankind! Of course, the Chilean government has jumped in to the situation as well [links not preserved]:
Douglas Tompkins, who says he is a proponent of so-called Deep Ecology, a philosophy that blames technology from laptop computers to nuclear power plants for damaging the environment, has upset local officials and business people by refusing to allow logging, hydroelectric dams and a proposed roadway through his reserve.
President Michelle Bachelet's government announced May 8 it would ban all land purchases in the area hit by the volcano, after local officials said they were concerned that Tompkins would try to take advantage of the eruption to buy out farmers whose livelihood could be wiped out.
The possibility that Tompkins would seek to enlarge his holdings was "an important factor in the decision" to seek a ban, Claudio Alvarado, the opposition Congressional deputy for the area, said in an interview. The aim is to "avoid speculation and people taking advantage of the situation," he said.
Let me get this straight: this “deep ecology” dude preserved some Chilean forest by building “self-guided trails, rustically luxurious cabins and elegant visitors' center”—with a straight face, one must presume. And an ancient volcano’s resurgence may wipe it all out ...
It’s almost enough to convince me there is some kind of god of nature.
Leave No Trace, Indeed
This is almost enough to be deliciously ironic. I wrote a poem about and continue to be amazed by the Earth's ability to wipe clean the slate and erase the footprint of man. If a house is left for even a few years in a moderately wooded area, the land starts to reclaim it pretty fast. Eventually, the Earth leaves no trace of our existence and is changing all the time, regardless of how much we try to freeze a snapshot of it in time.
He should have read his Shelley...
"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!", indeed.
Spider Robinson says God is an iron. It often appears that way... :)
Adapt or die
It's sad to see people trying to freeze everything in some mode they particularly like or believe in. The entire history of the world shows graphically that change is the norm. Destruction is the norm. Struggle is the norm.
The only thing that never changes is that all things change. The strong, resourceful and adaptable survive and may, for a time, even prosper. :)