When we were in Phoenix I heard someone talk about how much "wasteland" there was in North America. When you drove from Canada to Phoenix you passed all this land that had no people, no industry, no cattle, no agriculture - not good for "anything".
After all, if it's not good for people, what good is it?
It is this attitude, so unconsciously pervasive, such a deep seated part of our culture, which is destroying our planet.
To me, Phoenix is the wasteland. Housing developments and malls and parking lots and freeways, what are they good for? Just more bloated, polluted, over consuming anthills.
Strip mines are the wasteland. Cattle stripped countrysides are the wastelands. Pesticide laced, fertilizer drenched monocultures are the wastelands.
But mountains and deserts, the last places man has not found a "use" (or more accurately "abuse" for) - these are not wastelands. They are places of incredible beauty, immense value, where nature can have a tiny space to breath. Places man has not (yet) turned to wasteland.
We tell our kids "you have to share". Who will tell homo sapiens that they must share?
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