Jennifer Marohasy » Wilderness

What is Wilderness (Part 12)

jennifer — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:38:31 +0000

The chief executive of the National Parks Association of New South Wales, Andrew Cox, was reported in today’s The Sydney Morning Herald saying that he would “die in a ditch” protecting national parks from commercialisation by the tourism industry.

Back of Bourke, May 2005. Photograph taken by Jennifer Marohasy

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Other posts in this series:
part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html Percy Bysshe Shelley 1820, Theodore Roosevelt 1903, Donald McKinley 1963, William Tucker 1982, Phil Cheney 2003.
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html Martin Thomas, 2003.
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html Travis, May 2008.
part 4 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003104.html John Brinckerhoff Jackson, 1994.
part 5 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003112.html Wes George, 2008.
part 6 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003120.html Cohenite, 2008.
part 7 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003124.html Roy Spencer, 2008.
part 8 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003127.html Libby, 2008
part 9 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003129.html Spangled Drongo, 2008
part 10 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003131.html Walter Starck, 2008
part 11 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003133.html Neil Hewett, 2008

What is Wilderness? (Part 11)

neil — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:55:42 +0000

For me, wilderness both resonates of human potential and also describes the ultimate expression of humanity. No other state of relations can be more admirable. Far from the notion of humankind and wilderness being mutually exclusive, I believe we must rather aspire to change for the benefit of wilderness and in so doing, restore to ourselves, integrity.

What is Wilderness? (Part 10)

jennifer — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:45:21 +0000

“Genuine wilderness must embody a strong element of wildness and freedom.

It is not a nature park with paths and handrails and faux rustic signs warning of the obvious with myriad rules enforced by badged bureaucrats in uniform.

Real wilderness is also a state of mind which entails not only freedom but responsibility. It’s a place where one may do as they wish but no one else is liable for the consequences.

Parks have their place but they tend to present nature as a passively experienced spectacle for tourists. Wilderness is something more up close and personal. One doesn’t just see it, one lives it.”

Walter Starck, May 2008

Cape Grenville, Australia, Photograph by Walter Starck

I just had to post the picture twice.

part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html
part 4 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003104.html
part 5 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003112.html
part 6 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003120.html
part 7 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003124.html
part 8 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003127.html
part 9 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003129.html

What is Wilderness? (Part 9)

jennifer — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:23:47 +0000

It becomes so hypnotising, that I’ve just had to dive overboard into 15,000 feet of ultramarine indigo and let my boat sail on without me with no one on board.

Mind you, I had a long line trailing…….

I felt I was “the first that ever burst into that silent sea”.

[Spangled Drongo, May 2008 ]

Beyond Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photograph by Eric Ness

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part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html
part 4 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003104.html
part 5 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003112.html
part 6 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003120.html
part 7 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003124.html
part 8 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003127.html

What is Wilderness? (Part 8)

jennifer — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:29:46 +0000

“Wilderness is mainly in the mind’s eye – to be a stranger in a strange land for a fraction of a second and create an other world where what is familiar and drab and safe is fleetingly unrecognisable yet beckons like a siren’s song. A place like home yet a place like no other.”

Posted by: Libby at May 27, 2008 10:06 PM

Photograph of Elford Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Provided by Walter Starck

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part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html
part 4 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003104.html
part 5 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003112.html
part 6 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003120.html
part 7 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003124.html

What is Wilderness? (Part 7)

jennifer — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:22:37 +0000

“Why do we love to believe that mankind is a plague upon the Earth? We view anything and everything that happens in nature, no matter how barbaric, bloody, or destructive, as good. Indeed, the word ‘natural’ has no negative connotation at all.

If a volcano like Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines dumps millions of tons of sulfur into the stratosphere, cooling the Earth for two or three years, this is simply Mother Nature at work. If humans did it, we would call it an environmental catastrophe.”

Roy Spencer. May 29, 2008
http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MDExMTEwZWVjZmI5MGFmNzgzYmM1MWVmNTc0MDMyYTU=

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part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html
part 4 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003104.html
part 5 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003112.html
part 6 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003120.html

What is Wilderness? (Part 6)

jennifer — Thu, 29 May 2008 09:32:44 +0000

“At its heart ‘wilderness’ is a value judgement.

“As poor old Hawking had to concede nothing is destroyed, it just changes appearance.

“Wilderness is an appearance which is judged by some to have a superior aesthetic to the appearance of things which have had the human hand upon them. In this respect the ‘wilderness’ issue is a small but still substantial element of the global warming debate, which has its essence in an assumption of natural superiority.

Beyond Port Lincoln, South Australia, May 12, 2007. Photographed by Jennifer Marohasy. Guided by Phil Sawyer.

“But ‘wilderness’ is more than saying that nature is superior to humanity; it is also saying only a superior human can appreciate that nature is superior. That is, no matter what sophistic context you place on the meaning of ‘wilderness’ you can never get away from the fact that an aesthetic of ‘wilderness’, and indeed nature as a whole, can only be realised from the disconnected reality of a civilised vantage point which has kept ‘wilderness’ and nature at arm’s length.

“Humans who live according to the survival dictates of ‘wilderness’ have no time for generating an aesthetic about it beyond paganest invocations. For the primitive, ‘wilderness’ would be designated out of fear rather than decadence.”

Posted by: cohenite at May 28, 2008 01:51 PM

What is Wilderness? (Part 5)

jennifer — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:29:50 +0000

“Absolute wilderness is those boundless places in the eye of the mind of the beholder where no human footprints can be found and for which all those enter there and become lost have no hope of rescue. Only the most reckless trapper or sibylline shaman venture into the wilderness, as a pebble falls to the bottom of the deepest pool, in the hope of returning to civilization with a fortune in furs or a secret wisdom or allegory thereof. Long before crass and foppish adventurers claimed the wilderness it had already fallen to a more mythopoeia mob for which survival was merely one of many options.

“Wilderness exists today, as always, mainly in the mind’s eye. Once long ago it was always just out there beyond the last black stump. Actually, it still is.

“Today it is called Mars or the mid-ocean ridges.

“And, humankind, as always, has little stomach for it.”

Wes George

Beyond Darwin, Northern Australia, Photographed October 3, 2005

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part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html
part 4 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003104.html

What is Wilderness? (Part 4)

jennifer — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:09:24 +0000

“Wilderness thus became the domain of the nobility, an environment where they alone could develop and display a number of artistocratic qualities. Friction arose between the peasants – inhabitants of open, unobstructed outdoor spaces – and the noble occupants of the forest, and that friction persisted as long as the peasant felt excluded from a portion of the landscape that he believed was his by right of heritage.”
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, 1994

Tasmanian Forest, Photograph taken by Jennifer Marohasy in May 2005

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part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html

What is Wilderness? (Part 3)

jennifer — Mon, 12 May 2008 05:02:40 +0000

“An infamous media type said, ‘In essence we’re a conceited naked ape but in our mind we’re a divine legend and we see ourselves as some sort of God that we can walk around the earth deciding who will live and die and what will be destroyed and saved.’ Wilderness has no gods or one almighty. All is equal in life and death and just simply being. The rich tapestry of a wilderness includes the naked ape, but does not sustain those that want to dominate it. It then becomes something else.” Posted by: Travis at May 7, 2008 08:07 AM

Near Wentworth, Blue Mountains, photo taken April 27, 2008