31–38 of 38 posts
As we walked, Eberhart recounted his travels thus far. He had begun 46 days earlier at the southern terminus of the Continental Divide trail. From there, he headed east, through the blackened badlands of New Mexico, through the gateway city of El Paso, and on to an endless spread of dry dun plains. The traffic consisted almost entirely of semi-trailer trucks surging past every 10 seconds at speeds of a 100 miles per…
"He also held a dogged belief in personal freedom, including the freedom to pollute the atmosphere with fossil fuels." Didn't see that coming.
It's the freedom to, not necessarily the goodness of doing it. He's just on the conservative/libertarian side of things.
At the age of 21 I took four months and an assignment from an outdoor magazine and traveled Minnesota and southern Canadas state and National parks. I backpacked for long periods of time, mostly alone, and photographed for months on end. I was somewhat depressed, but also hopeful... in a way that lead me to believe over the next horizon here would be some place or someone that would make me happy. I met a lot of stra…
Thanks for posting this. I (all of us?) try to shoehorn our wanderings into a narrative similar to the hero's journey. Your shared experience was anticlimactic, and yet rewarding to read.
I like this perspective. Eberhart takes it to an extreme but it seems worth reflecting on: "Shaving down one’s pack weight, he said, was a process of sloughing off one’s fears. Each object a person carries represents a particular fear: of injury, of discomfort, of boredom, of attack."
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
At the age of 21 I took four months and an assignment from an outdoor magazine and traveled Minnesota and southern Canadas state and National parks. I backpacked for long periods of time, mostly alone, and photographed for months on end. I was somewhat depressed, but also hopeful... in a way that lead me to believe over the next horizon here would be some place or someone that would make me happy. I met a lot of stra…
As we walked, Eberhart recounted his travels thus far. He had begun 46 days earlier at the southern terminus of the Continental Divide trail. From there, he headed east, through the blackened badlands of New Mexico, through the gateway city of El Paso, and on to an endless spread of dry dun plains. The traffic consisted almost entirely of semi-trailer trucks surging past every 10 seconds at speeds of a 100 miles per…
I-10
I tend to think the author was just indulging in "journalistic license," Fox News style.
"He also held a dogged belief in personal freedom, including the freedom to pollute the atmosphere with fossil fuels." Hmm. Perhaps other walking people could use a good look at. Check out, John Francis who started walking (and stopped talking!) after watching an oil spill happen near San Francisco. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Francis_(environmentalist... https://www.ted.com/talks/john_francis_walks_the_earth…
Ya really, why stop at the atmosphere? Why not freedom to contaminate the water supply? Or salt the earth? What kind of logic is that?
Everything we do on this planet has some sort of environmental cost, especially the way we all live. I don't own a car myself, but I don't like being on some sort of high horse, since I know the food supply chain relies heavily on fossil fuels. One of the reasons I ride bikes is to lessen my environmental cost, but it doesn't remove it entirely - it's a small percentage. What I DO have a right is going, "Yeah, you know, I'll NOT do things that are environmentally destructive, if I can (and I hope you can, too)". Some of that could be protesting, or helping lobbying for anti-pollution laws, etc. It's not a very good atmosphere (sic!) for that right now in Washington, unfortunately...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the freedom to, not necessarily the goodness of doing it. He's just on the conservative/libertarian side of things.
Libertarians usually follow the NAP - Non-Aggression Principle - which forbids polluting the atmosphere, since you harm others doing it.