A Road Trip Across the Western States – Philosophically Speaking

The curmudgeon and his lovely spouse took the last couple of weeks off to drive to the East Bay area of San Francisco in order to visit our daughter. The trip was a hasty plan “B” to going to Tennessee to look for land. The land search having become irrelevant after finding a move in ready bungalow in New Brighton to call home. We did have a number of sites we wished to see and a limited number of hours we wanted to drive each day. So, with broad expectations we departed.

It had been at over a decade since our last road trip across Route 66 and the years were telling. Also the terrain of the Great Plains and the Great Salt Lake basin were occasion for much thoughtful meditation – just so long as we did not fall asleep at the wheel. We spent several days on U.S. Highways and the remainder on the Interstate system trying to make some time. We spent a total of 11 days of driving an average of 6 hours a day.

What was different about this trip was our attentiveness to the enormity of the western states and to the enormity of our impact on the environment. There was no where that the impact of our industry was not evident. Pipelines and power lines were everywhere. Yet even in Wyoming – a state dedicated to fossil fuel production – the occasional juxtaposition of windmills and even a solar farm with oil wells and coal mines was hopeful.

So what did I come away with other than the touristy stuff (which I will post to Facebook later this week)?

• The realization that we have the ability to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically starting today – but lack the political will to overcome moneyed interests to do so.
• We have almost a whole generation of young adults that have not gone a road trip of over 1000 miles one way and have no reference point to gage our shared environmental impact.
• To this day we have no respect of the land or the spirituality of the land that is so much a part of Native American peoples. We continue to exploit them. A simple trip from Mt. Rushmore to Crazy Horse will symbolize the effect and might lead you to continue on to visit Wounded Knee.
• Finally, on our return trip, the climate inversion between Portland, experiencing an all time record high temperature and heat wave, and the Twin Cities experiencing highs in the 50’s and 60’s reinforced my belief that we have truly screwed up the planet and we had better pay attention.

My own guilt at driving our car and polluting was offset by my perceived impact of jet air travel. Yet I still added to the problem. I long for a functioning passenger rail system – but we dismantled and privatized the rail system long ago in favor of endlessly long coal and oil trains.

Bottom line: We must both be and demand the changes we need if we are to survive as a species.