Saturday, December 1, 2012

I'm not much of a romantic, I guess

This Guardian article I ran across today needs a new headline:

Advances in technology leads to slightly larger handful of rich elites able to climb Mt. Everest every year. This is bad because... ROMANCE RUINED.

OK, fine, that's his opinion; boo hoo for him that he doesn't like that the unwashed masses are DARING to tread where only rich white men were allowed to go before. Whatever. That he thinks that the motivations of modern-day Everest climbers is somehow LESS WORTHY than the motivations of climbers from 50 years ago is pompous and irritating, but beside the point.

But, really? The first paragraph: "This is a photograph of all that has gone wrong in humanity's relationship with nature... it is a picture of how profoundly we are failing to have any kind of decent respect for our world: how our romance with nature has become sick and twisted."

Gimmee a break.

This is a photo of a sick and twisted relationship with nature.
Also, this and this and this and this.


Having a few extra rich people who are able to stomp around a sterile mountain top? Not even on the f*)cking radar.

Dear nature tourism is a good thing. Those same tourists that are cluttering up your view of Everest are the same ones who are literally pulling species back from the brink of extinction.

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