Via Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council, this short documentary by George Wuerthner on the threat to our public lands of dirtbikes, off-trail 4X4s, jetskis, quads, dune buggies, and other expensive playthings of the lazy elite. The documentary serves as promotion for Wuerthner’s book of the same name
(NB: Late in the documentary is a short but unnecessary reference to the “obesity crisis” in the US, a false note and beside the point. Able-bodied skinny people need to haul their lazy asses out of the driver’s seat too.)
I don’t know about lazy “elite”, I’ve met plenty of less well off folks who had these toys. You either rebuild them, or simply have other priorities for you money than paying rent on time or a college fund for your kids.
Or you are young, and without children and can live dirt poor while using your money for important things like beer and playthings.
Sorry, but this video is totally one sided. I’m not a fan of these contraptions for the most part, but the tone of this video is just upsetting. The author wants all of these machines confined to private land and stadiums, ignoring the majority of owners who use them responsibly in designated areas, many of them more for exploration than for thrills. It’s alarmist, in the specific sense, and thus looses sight of the real scope of the real problem.
Too bad…
It’s not nearly one-sided enough for me.
And the “real scope of the real problem” is that people seem unwilling to admit that the whole “majority of people using them responsibly in designated areas” thing is something between a myth and a lie.
I have a 4X4. I take it off the pavement fairly often. I stick to roads. When I’m out walking the desert, I do sometimes see people using the occasional quad in a responsible manner. Ran into a group of people in the Wee Thump in November, for instance, who rode along at a reasonable pace, slowed down so my friend and I wouldn’t east their dust, and — here’s the thing — stayed on the dirt road. They were using the road to gat a ways off the pavement and look around, in much the same way I’d use the Jeep.
I’ve been encountering off-roaders in the desert for a very long time. I’ve also been talking to Law Enforcement types about ORVs. The reasonable, responsible folks are not the majority.
Google “ORVs” and “Wonder Valley.” Google “ORV” and “kern County” and “Pacific Crest Trail.” Google “Algodones Dunes” and “law enforcement.” ORVers, in the main, are a spoiled group of whiners who think that just because a few people are starting to call them on their abusive behavior, they’re being oppressed.
Kinda like the fundamentalist Christians, in fact.
Ok, I’m not saying that these machines can’t be destructive. I’m only saying that this video, with its apocalyptic music, and one-sided viewpoint, doesn’t give much of a sense of what that actual problem is. In fact, when it condemns things like speed and loud noise, it comes off sounding like the same old anti-fun agenda liberals are famous for. I agree that there are many, many places these OHVs shouldn’t be allowed, and that there needs to be more mandatory educations of operators. But OHVs are also fun, and invigorating, and naturalists aren’t the only people in the world. I’m not much of a fan of OHVs, and I don’t like it when they spoil my birding, or when I come into an area where someone has used one to carve up what was a perfectly good hillside. But I don’t like this video, because its viewpoint is an absolutist one that states that the machines themselves are bad, and using them for recreation is wrong. Sorry, it’s just how I feel.
I still like your writing though, thanks.
Thanks for the kind words, bruxell. Glad you’re here to make your case.
And I hear you about the anti-fun agenda: I’ve railed against it as much as anyone I know.
But when your fun destroys someone else’s fun (say, the fun of my being out eight miles off the pavement by my own power on a 112-degree day and listening to the quiet) or worse, someone else’s ability to survive (as is the case with k-rats, who’ve been shown to suffer hearing loss on *very limited* exposure to ORV engine noise, which then interferes with their ability to not be eaten) then it’s about more than just fun.
All fun is not good fun. If it’s true that it’s not the machines but rather the assholes that ride some of them, who’s going to get the assholes off the machines? The putative majority of responsible users? Off-road motorized travel is simply not an appropriate use for most public lands. That’s the point of the “one-sided” video. What’s the other side?
Let the assholes do what they want, but then they have to allow anybody to come into their houses/workplaces anytime, play music and leave trash on their floors. Fair’s fair.