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Public relations professionals and other goddamned liars
I’m still recovering my equilibrium from having received this in email a week ago:
Interior Department Removes Northern Rocky Mountain Wolves from Endangered Species List
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Office of Public Affairs
4401 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203
703 358 2128 Fax: 703 358 1930Contact:
Ed Bangs (406) 449-5225, x 204
Joan Jewett (503) 231-6211
Sharon Rose (303) 236-4580
Joshua Winchell (703) 358-2279The gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains is thriving and no longer requires the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett announced today. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the species from the federal list of threatened and endangered species.
“The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal and continues to expand its size and range. States, tribes, conservation groups, federal agencies and citizens of both regions can be proud of their roles in this remarkable conservation success story,” said Scarlett, noting that there are currently more than 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
It goes on from there [PDF]. You can find out what actually happened here. Please consider donating to the groups fighting the delisting. I have spent the last week looking at those phone numbers in the head of the release posted above and wondering whether “how do you liars sleep at night” is, properly speaking, a request for more information.
Today, still reeling from the duplicity, I got the release I’ve tacked below the fold. It was delivered in a personal email. After I recovered from the usual unnerving sense that I had utterly failed to represent myself properly here if this person thought in any way that CRN would be a sympathetic venue, I got angry.
Why? Take a look at this 1962 photo of Labyrinth Canyon, by Phil Pennington:
Here’s another shot from that year of nearby Dungeon Canyon, by Sarah Moench:
I got them from the Glen Canyon Institute site. There are plenty more like them in the gallery there.
Wanna go there now? Me too. Can’t. This is what it looks like now.
It won’t look like that for long, mind: study after study shows that the Colorado River, already oversubscribed by water consumers, is going to pretty much run dry in the next 12 years or so, and Lake Powell will shrink to reveal a transformed and damaged but still beautiful Glen Canyon.
So the press release below the fold is not only destructive but futile, a last gasp of the yahoos who can’t imagine going to the desert without the jet skis and the DVD player. Scratch that: they don’t even want to go to the desert. They want the desert to go away so that they can go where the desert was. And those who stand to scrape another season or two of profit out of the desecration put out “things are great come see our wonderful recreational opportunities!!!1!” press releases.
Liars. Evil, destructive, myopic liars.
For more on the Castle Rock Cut described in the release, see this.
Hi Chris,
Lake Powell, the second largest man-made lake in the U.S. and America’s favorite houseboating destination, enjoys 2 million visitors each year from around the world. The area, which is on the border of Arizona and Utah, is located within the scenic Grand Circle region (some refer to it as the “Grand Canyon - with water”).
The nine year drought has had a significant impact on the lake and the famed houseboating experience enjoyed by many for generations. With water at 33% of total capacity at its lowest point, many areas on the lake became impassable by boat.
However, Mother Nature is smiling on the Southwest this year. According to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation predictions, water levels from heavy winter snowfall and expected spring snowmelt will result in a 50-foot rise. This means that a popular shortcut - Castle Rock Cut will open once again for the first time in 5 years. This shaves 12 miles off travel time between the upper and lower ends of the lake, making it easier to access canyons and beaches, including the Rainbow Bridge National Monument (the largest natural bridge in the world), Padre Bay, and Warm Creek Bay.
We can provide you with the following visuals and sources:
* B Roll:
1. Dramatic air footage (from helicopter) of Castle Rock Cut showing its current impassable state and areas expected to be filled with water this spring
2. The houseboating experience at Lake Powell (4-star luxury boats in a breathtaking location)
* Still Photos:
1. Rainbow Bridge National Monument
2. Additional photos that illustrate the geological impact of the Castle Rock Cut opening
* Spokespeople:
1. A National Park Service (NPS) representative to discuss the impact the expanding lake will have on the visitor experience
2. A U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water expert who can comment on the state of the Southwestern drought and the impact of the Cut opening
3. An ARAMARK representative who can provide details re: what’s special about houseboating at Lake Powell
4. A long-time Lake Powell houseboater (50 years on the lake!) who can talk about her experiences before and during the drought
This season promises to be one of the best houseboating seasons at Lake Powell in years! I hope that you can share the opening of Castle Rock Cut with your blog’s travel enthusiasts. Also, we would love for you to come out and experience the crystal blue waters and fiery red canyons of Lake Powell first hand!
I look forward to your feedback! Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have.
Best Regards,
Katherine An for Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas
619-533-7981
Posted by: Chris Clarke
Note: A database glitch in 2008 ate a bunch of archived comments. Don't be offended if yours isn't here, or confused if the conversation seems disjointed. Thanks!
I here invite the representatives of Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas to Illinois, to borrow a cup of water and a clue.
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ITEM: Table of fifth graders in after-school program, drawing pictures of the Earth from space photos.
Fifth grader: “They told us that the Arctic ice is melting, and the polar bears are dying. Is that true?”
Me: Yes.
Fifth grader: “So what is going to happen?”
Me: ( ) “We don’t know.”
A second grader, not much of a reader and seemingly unplugged, was listening. She quietly and immediately said, with a desolated face, “I don’t think that I want to be here anymore.”
——————————————-
ITEM: Fifth grader reports that he found Inconvenient Truth on dvd, after he had read the Gore book for kids at our site.
Fifth grader: “I wasn’t going to tell my younger cousin about it until he got to be my age. But I slipped, and told him.”
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So, young kids in my sample—even distanced from information by poor, non-reader households and crappy schools—know that the ride has stopped. Their knowledge is so visceral that their stomachs hurt. And they are trying to protect the still younger among them from that pain and uncertainty.
I suppose that some might dismiss the above as anecdotal. Me, I’m not trusting anyone over ten.
By: By jmartin on 2008 02 27
damn.
OK, Julia, you’ve got me needing another walk.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 27
And can I just say the person responsible for this:
(some refer to it as the “Grand Canyon - with water”)
will, if there is any justice at all, be reincarnated as a rock being pissed on in hell by Floyd Dominy, forever.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 27
Ten to one the Lake Powell guys are cross-invested in escape-to-Mars schemes. Some refer to it as the Earth—with water.
This is when I typically start ranting that if we torture for grins these days, why not in service of education? Cut off water for 36 hours, and see a dawning realization of who is in service of what.
I wonder if anything short will work. Friends in Atlanta have been completely unfazed by the drought. And, of course, view me as the world’s greatest crank for inquiring.
No matter how dire the West, I still count on Georgia to fire the first shot.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23344530
By seeking to redraw the State border (sorry: rectify prior surveying errors), at least Georgia understands the idiocy of water compact litigation. Law serves as proxy for war only if dollars can recompense. This will be akin to people recognizing the futility of estrangement of affection suits.
Re Dominy, surely tis time to rewrite the Inferno, using only the cast of Nixon and Reagan administrations. (Insofar as any Bushniks weren’t with the Gipper, save them for the opera.)
Yep: I need a walk as well. Crunch, crunch.
By: By jmartin on 2008 02 27
I might be beside the point (as usual) but I still think we owe them (the children) to remain *hopeful*… while of course staying vigilant watchdogs of people in power (no matter where they stand on the political spectrum), remaining proactive at challenging status and keep aiming at changing the world.
It’s one thing to bequeath a damaged planet to our kids, it is another not to be able to give them some hope.
My two cents.
By: By Viziabe Dante on 2008 02 27
V. Dante, that’s just like you to keep injecting the notes of realistic optimism into the conversation.
By: By Chris Clarke on 2008 02 27
I can’t be perfect and I can’t control my surrounding environment, but I can control my reactions to error and to unfortunate situations. I largely control my emotional destiny (rational emotions…so 2004). I can refuse to take damaging conditions too seriously and can also refuse to choose to blame and curse myself for my depression.” (adapted from Albert Ellis, Psychologist)
Now this would be realistic optimism…but it isn’t quite me. I am just trying not to fool myself too much, sometime it is very hard.
ps one should read “challenging status *QUO* above in my post.
By: By Viziabe Dante on 2008 02 27
Viziabe: I absolutely take your point.
I do firmly believe, however, that we need to define the parameters of the “hope” that we owe to our children. For some, “hope” is code for smokey magics, a miracle: a sedulous silence with fingers crossed. (Sounds much like my parents and birth control.)
“Hope” can be as flaccid as a shrug, and “don’t worry, they.” “They” will develop a replacement for oil; “they” will discover efficient methods to desalinate water. Or maybe “they” will discover that they have been wrong all along.
“Hope” can be an unconscious or intentional delaying tactic. In the worst hands, “hope” can be used by adults to slip one more damaging round of short-term profits past the uninformed young.
So, tell me what you think about this definition:
1. We believe that you are valuable and have a future, and for those very reasons are owed the facts and risks of our present situation.
2. We believe that you are owed information now, because you can alter the future at every age. You can evaluate whether your own actions are sustainable, and make your own decisions—like whether to eat meat. You can decide what skills and knowledge might be useful, and start gaining them now. You can form your own plans: where to live, and whether to have your own kids. You can influence your family members; organize your peers; and pressure businesses and public officials. (Had there but been an internet before Nixon won a second term.)
3. We believe that the natural world is the greatest of joys, and that you will feel fulfilled by your efforts to live in balance with its needs and constraints. We will demonstrate our belief by sharing our joy with you.
4. Despite the certainty of serious hardships that we cannot predict, we believe that this is a liberating time. Everything that you do is and will be important; every act will count. Knowledge and skills will be valuable, even if you don’t acquire them at a college. The world is real, so you can stop worrying about fake problems: who is richer; why aren’t I famous; whither the holiday Lexus; what do I weigh.
5. We believe—we know—that we are all in this together. Every person is in the very same boat. All for one, one for all.
By: By jmartin on 2008 02 28
I have to hand it to you people, insisting on “hope” and even trying to define it in an inspirational fashion. Rock on.
Me, I can’t get past the tears of misanthropic rage:
damn the damn dam and the damn housedamnboating experience. Those people—most, I fear and believe, people—fucking suck.
I try to hope that their children will be different. In my pessimistic heart of hearts I doubt it.
By: By Sven DiMilo on 2008 02 28
jmartin,
That works for people of all ages. If you don’t mind, I’m going to lift it for my blog.
...moving back towards the specific item that triggered your post, Chris, I’ve often been comforted by the notion of weeds growing up in the cracks in the roads of our major cities, of dams (heh. I typed “damns” first) eroding away, of factory farms slowly reverting to wildlands. It isn’t so much that I want the celebrate the decline of “civilization” but that I’d like to think that the world - including the part that contains human beings - could see a different sort of civilization one day, one that’s not so insistent on trying to control and simplify everything, but is comfortable with complexity and wildness.
A gal can hope… with deliberation, rather than wishful thinking.
By: By Rachel Shaw on 2008 02 28
I’m trying not to make a flippant comment about guys who fill strangely labial cave systems iwth lots of fluids, but that’s not funny; that is fucked up.
the thing about urbanised flora and fauna is that it’s not a case of “Gaea” Vs. “pan narratus” in starch dichotomy - what’s happening is that the urban enviroment is adding new selective pressures into an enviroment, and creating whole new ecosystems all their own which are both of man and beyond us. all of which is, in its own sense, kinda beautiful.
It’s just fucking ridiculous that such dynamism comes at the cost of things which were already quite fucking beautiful anyway. Pan Diablo should be our fucking latin name.
-ing Bastards with the -ing wolves and the -ing business interests who are cocksuckers* is all I got about the first thing, with the wolve and the anti-wolvular business interests.
Agricorps need to be purged with fire basically.
* I keep using “cocksucker” as a general insult atm. It’s annoying for me as well. Don’t start.
By: By R. Mildred on 2008 02 28
Pan diablo should be our fucking latin name.
I am enough of a biopedant to have fixed the conventions for you there, but thank you—I am so totally stealing this.
By: By Sven DiMIlo on 2008 02 29
I’m with Sven. When I read shit like the press release about the wolves or the cheery info from the marina people my first reaction is a visceral anger.
By: By Nan on 2008 02 29
Rana: You’ve likely already seen the March 1st interview of Lovelock in the Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/mar/01/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange
Lovelock addresses both the question of dread, and weeds-in-the-cracks. (The latter always thrill me as well: emptying cities like Detroit; the depopulated Great Plains; the pair of foxes strolling this winter up shovelled sidewalks in my burb—all the interstitial reclamation.)
————————————-
Humanity is in a period exactly like 1938-9, [Lovelock] explains, when “we all knew something terrible was going to happen, but didn’t know what to do about it”. But once the second world war was under way, “everyone got excited, they loved the things they could do, it was one long holiday ... so when I think of the impending crisis now, I think in those terms. A sense of purpose - that’s what people want.”
—————————————————
“There have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one that’s just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually we’ll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. That’s the source of my optimism.”
——————————————————
Lovelock also advocates joy in the moment. Does that excuse my new resolve to drink only good wine?
Thanks also Rana, for introducing me to your v. interesting blog. More great heads to explore!
By: By jmartin on 2008 03 01
And had to add that R. Mildred’s insult of choice reminded me of the Miles Davis autobiography.
http://www.amazon.com/Miles-Davis/dp/0671725823/ref=ed_oe_p
Although written by Quincy Troupe, the book certainly captured the Davis voice. Never knew that motherfucker could be so frequently and infinitely parsed. Even appeared in picture captions: “Symphony Sid: One motherfucker I never did like.”
By: By jmartin on 2008 03 01
Spyder:
1. Your frightening post demands a full-length article bristling with details, pronto. So, you can research and write this in your spare time, right?
2. At the very least, please provide transcript and photos from the NRA party. I’m imagining the Fall of the House of Usher, the ballgowns blood-stained as well.
3. As there is no more short-term, my view is that this alliance stinks. It lends credibility and assistance to the worst of the large-scale fill the moat and hail the apocalypse crowd. They embrace the same destructive rejection of group solutions as the Rapture-watchers, with the extra kick of real estate saavy. Why encourage them to believe that land titles will be inviolate when they spit on the rule of law? Why help build defense parameter of their ultimate gated communities, when we will all be on the move? And why oh why support those who own guns to kill other people?
4. Why are the people who most vividly recognize the dangers posed by our species so often the same people who I fear? Yeah, yeah, the same reason that the most sanctimonious holy-rollers are the first to sniff for sexual perversion.
By: By jmartin on 2008 03 03
What I see done to nature makes me mad.
What I see done to animals makes me weep.
I can’t help it. I guess I’m a big anthropomorphizer. Blame children’s books and a lifetime’s worth of pets for a preference for most animals over most people.
The thing that gives me hope is the idea that whatever has kept the earth’s equilibrium over the millennia will keep it even with the horrible stuff currently being done. Keep it the same? Pretty clearly not. So my hope is that the change will be change, not eradication of all that is good.
In my negative dwelling stage, I convince myself that hope is vain. Other times, I grip desperately to it.
By: By blondie on 2008 03 06
Jmartin
I like and agree with your definition but for a 5 years old it would need to be rephrase :-) . I would also add something to the effect that resistance is far from being futile.
—————
What I see done to nature makes me mad.
What I see done to animals makes me weep.
What I see done to peers makes me ache.
shall we stop calling it progress?
as it is the age of darkness
By: By Viziabe Dante on 2008 03 06
