trente-quatre: Monumental

Holga
Fuji Astia
Escalante, Utah
July 2011

"This is a beautiful planet and not at all fragile. Earth can withstand significant volcanic eruptions, tectonic cataclysms, and ice ages. But this canny, intelligent, prolific, and extremely self-centered human creature has proven himself capable of more destruction of life than Mother Nature herself.... We've got to be stopped."

- Michael L. Fischer

Don't know who Mr. Fischer is, but he wrote this in response to an article titled "Only Man's Presence Can Save Nature" that was published in Harper's Magazine in 1990. And he's right. It seems a lot of people want to believe that we can continue living our five-planet lifestyles and that technology will solve this mess we're in - a new way to sequester carbon, artificial water creation, biodomes for food production - whatever requires the absolute least amount of effort from the species that is quickly becoming the cancer of the earth. And sure, maybe these things would work. But is that the world we really want to find ourselves living in? Call me crazy, but I prefer the monumental walls of Escalante to the monumental consumption that threatens them and the rest of this beautiful planet we get to call our home.