Walking Jim Stoltz: Keeping the Wild in the Wilderness.

Keeping the Wild in the Wilderness

World Metric
Here's a metric of the world's population that certainly puts the global family into perspective.
If we could shrink the Earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people ... with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like this:
There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South) and 8 Africans.
51 would be female; 49 would be male.
70 would be nonwhite; 30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian; 30 would be Christian
50 percent of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth
Only one would have a college education
No one would own a computer

When one considers our world from such an incredibly compressed perspective, the need for both tolerance and understanding becomes glaringly apparent.
Each Sunday 500,000 trees are made into newspapers. 88% of these newspapers are not recycled.
The average person in an office discards more than 175 pounds of paper a year.
Recycled paper requires up to 74% less energy than virgin paper production.
Since 1940 Americans alone have used up as large a share of the earth's mineral resources as all previous generations put together.
In the last 200 years the United States has lost: 50% of its wetlands, 90% of its northwestern old growth forests, 99% of its tallgrass prairie, and up to 490 species of native plants and animals with another 9,000 now at serious risk.
Nine square miles of rural land in the U.S. is turned over to development every day!

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!

If you have found this site, you’re probably interested in wilderness music, wild country, or hiking and spending time out in the backcountry. Over the years I’ve seen the battle to preserve America’s last wild places become more polarized, more politicized, and more critical. I’ve seen battles won, battles lost, and battles that were once won fought over again. Those who want to despoil our natural environment never rest. If they can’t get at it one way, they try another.

The thing that frustrates me more than anything is that I know in my heart that if all the folks who use the backcountry would stand up for it, write letters, make phone calls, and vote for pro-environmental candidates we could make so much progress for the planet. We wouldn’t have to fight the same battles over and over.

It’s time to stop turning our backs on the Earth which sustains us. As Abbey says "Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul." Please take a few minutes to write a letter, send an e-mail, or make a call to those who are making decisions effecting not just us humans, but all of the life we share this Earth with.

The folks in Congress do not know wilderness. They do not know the value of an unblemished skyline, or the sight of a grizzly bear galloping across a mountainside. They can’t grasp the importance of a spotted owl or for that matter a lowly prairie dog. They’ve never felt the power of the old growth forests or the silence of the Utah canyons. You need to tell them about these things. You must share your feelings about life and nature and how precious they are. Those who are making the decisions need to know.

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