Industrial Tourism - Essay Example

Industrial tourism Introduction A visit to many dictionaries will give one the definition of industrial tourism as some form of tourism that involves intentional visits to industrial sites. This, however, is not the definition that was on Edward Abbey’s mind when he discussed the issue in his 1968 autobiographical publication of the Desert Solitaire. In his book, Abbey uses the term to define the encroachment and development of artificial infrastructure in the wild and national parks. In general, he is trying to attack the development or “modernization” of naturally existing forms of life, mostly parks, in which he spent most of his career, arguing that they are best left as nature prefers it, with minimal human creations. One of the things that Abbey hates most about modernity is the construction of highways and access roads through or into wildernesses and national parks, whether it is to connect distant places or to make them more accessible. According to him, the roads and highways reduce the “old magic” of real, genuine amusement that comes from using less-motorized means to explore the wild such as walking on foot or using bicycles. He strongly accuses the notion that the purpose of the roads is to enhance accessibility so that more people can experience nature in lesser time. To him, accessibility is just a curtain to blind the people of modernity’s real intention, which to him is making money. His argument is that no place is inaccessible if one is willing to, and that accessibility does not make sense since people have been too extreme regions of the world unaided by heavy motorized mechanisms. “What does accessibility mean? ...even Mount McKinley, even Everest, have been summoned by men on foot …” (Abbey 47). The second reason why Abbey is against modernity is that whatever it claims to be doing for the people is not true, claiming that the industrialization of tourism is merely for monetary gain. From his perspective, the motels, automotive industries, oil corporations, gas retailers, road constructors, and all other parties involved in the modernization of nature are all in the industry to make money, and that they care for neither the people nor nature itself. In addition, he reveals that in addition to being big business, it is a well-organized cartel inspired by the politics of the land. As he puts it, “Industrial Tourism is a big business. It means money … and are represented in Congress with strength far greater than is justified…” (48). Abbey offers some corrective measures to change the attitudes of people from the ones already stained by modernization. For one, people should not take automobiles to national parks or in the wilderness. Just like they are not taking them to churches for their being “holy” so be it with parks as they are also holy. He suggests that people should be more natural: use their feet or enter the parks on animal backs. Second, he recommends that further construction of roads in the parks should stop, and the already existing roads to remain for use by those on bicycles. Lastly, he says that park rangers should do their work; to go out into the parks to guard and guide visitors, and not sit behind desks in booths selling tickets. Abbey adds that these measures will bring back the good old days of hiking, camping, and enjoying the wild in its natural form, not to mention that it is cheaper than using motorized assistance. He argues quite sensibly. If one forecasts the future, in the days when the population will have expanded, then it means the need for constructing more roads to connect more cities and towns that will have come up will grow. This means more roads will appear in the wild. In addition, if we do not respect the natural parks and the wilderness, it means our population will lead to our encroaching on the natural geographies to create more dwelling places. Therefore, his argument for the monitoring of the growing population is very true. Abbey however chips in a little acknowledgement for some artificial creations such as putting up water points in deserts and temporary shelters inside the dense wild. I agree with all his notions in that his recommendations and criticism are for the good of everyone, including the wilderness, and those performing the industrialization. Having been published during the 1960’s that was an era of warfare in the United States, Abbey uses his publication as a medium of lamenting war. For instance on page 54 where he illustrates how the billboard asking people to abandon their automobile should appear, he uses terminologies of war artillery that would not apply in a real scenario. He visualizes it as, “… jetboat…jetplane…submarine…get out of your motorized vehicle… ” He mentions these motorized weapons though it may not apply, assumingly to criticize war. He also emphasizes on the importance of natural water by describing the fighting between Mexico, Arizona, and California over its division (148). Edward Abbey had similar lamentations as other environmentalists on the issue of damming the Glen Canyon. Abbey’s visit to the canyon before its damming made him describe it as “an earth’s paradise”, saying it was one of the most magnificent natural occurrences. After the damming, he highly lamented the filling up of the canyon just like fellow environmentalist, David Brower. They both saw the damming as the death of a natural magic, arguing that the in addition to altering the flow and chemical properties of the water, the move had taken away the beauty of nature, replacing it with an ugly dam. David Brower put his reactions in his publication, Encounter with the Arch Druid. There exists another similar alteration of a naturally occurring canyon in the Hetch Hetchy damming scheme. It is similar to the Glen canyon in that both were once natural features whose existence relied plainly on nature, only for human interference to convert them from canyons to water reservoirs (dams). In addition, they are similar in that they both carry controversies; with some people arguing that, they exist better as dams, whereas others call for their restoration to their natural forms as canyons. Conclusion Modernization is the cause of the so-called “industrial tourism” that environmentalists like Edward Abbey lament strongly for their interference with the environment. When in some cases such as damming the canyons is a controversial move in that in stores water aimed to better human life, it interferes with nature’s intended flow and chemical composition of water, and leads to effects such as drying up of rivers downstream and changing the ecosystems of the canyons. Though some alterations to nature might be for our own good, it is important to consider how they affect nature, because in the end, we depend on it. If we destroy it, we are destroying ourselves as well. Works cited Abbey, Edward. “Desert Solitaire.” 2011. PDF file. Read More