Reposting because, if we continue to ‘forget’ about our growing human impact on the planet, it becomes yearly–and daily– more important to remind ourselves. John Muir believed in EarthFirst, and set in motion the Parks system so that we might perform our natural role …as guardians of our own wilderness… is this so outrageously difficult to fulfill?
‘Archetype of our oneness with the earth’
We used to call it Arbor Day. On the hinge between Aries and Taurus, when the Sun enters this celebratory earth sign in the western zodiac calendar: that’s the day John Muir was born in 1838. A native Scot who emigrated to the United States and changed the face of a nation, Muir was the original arborist: lover of trees.
It wasn’t easy. In early 19th-century Britain or the US, wilderness wasn’t a concept naturally entertained by Victorian huntin’ shootin’ choppin’ mentality. [It still isn’t, one might argue, when considering the recent Obama administration’s upholding the Bush cancellation of sections of the Endangered Species Act: which has resulted in wholesale wolf-massacre in the US States of Montana, Idaho, New Mexico and Alaska].
Muir had similar adversaries. A naturalist and explorer of nature, his favorite wildernesses were in northern California, and it is…
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