Analysis Of Wallace Stegner's Essay 'Glen Canyon Submersus'
National Parks: Useful or Destructive? In his essay “Glen Canyon Submersus” Wallace Stegner writes “In gaining the lovely and the usable, we have given up the incomparable” (509). In this quote he is talking about the loss of Glen Canyon during the creation of Lake Powell, and more broadly, talking about how national parks often destroy wildernesses despite their apparent usefulness. Glen Canyon is only one of thousands of examples of an environment being destroyed by a government funded park system. There are several theorized reasons for why parks are often harmful to the environment as well as many possible solutions for this problem as well. But so far, the majority of national parks in the world are harmful to both the natural environment
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This increase in middle class citizens led to an increase in the number of people with disposable income, free time, and the desire to get away from the stress of their daily environments. This then caused there to be an increase in the number of people taking vacations and doing outdoor activities during their free time. Governments became aware of this increase in tourists, especially in national parks, and had to expand and built the parks so that they could accommodate the amount of visitors that had begun to visit the parks. Due to the increase in construction and maintenance costs for national parks, governments began thinking of ways to generate revenue to help fund the parks. A few countries such as China began trying to generate revenue by cutting some trees in the parks for timber and using other natural resources in the park (Wang 4). After doing that for a while many countries began to see the negative effects of overusing resources and realized that there had to be a more eco-conscience way to generate revenue for the parks. Tourism then became and still is the main means of funding national parks due to the fact that it could generate large amounts of money without actually having to interfere with the environment that
This increase in middle class citizens led to an increase in the number of people with disposable income, free time, and the desire to get away from the stress of their daily environments. This then caused there to be an increase in the number of people taking vacations and doing outdoor activities during their free time. Governments became aware of this increase in tourists, especially in national parks, and had to expand and built the parks so that they could accommodate the amount of visitors that had begun to visit the parks. Due to the increase in construction and maintenance costs for national parks, governments began thinking of ways to generate revenue to help fund the parks. A few countries such as China began trying to generate revenue by cutting some trees in the parks for timber and using other natural resources in the park (Wang 4). After doing that for a while many countries began to see the negative effects of overusing resources and realized that there had to be a more eco-conscience way to generate revenue for the parks. Tourism then became and still is the main means of funding national parks due to the fact that it could generate large amounts of money without actually having to interfere with the environment that