Schreiner’s Media Landscape

I couldn’t believe it when I read it in the newspaper of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois where I lived before I moved to Utah. State government is closing a number of state parks, including Kickapoo State Park outside nearby Danville, to pay for their own fiscal incompetence. Residents of the area are fighting it but it’s probably a lost cause and indicative of the tragic and short-sighted attitude our so-called leaders have toward natural places and their contempt for the people who put them in power.

I used to go there often to hike, picnic and row my raft. It’s where I took my camera to practice videotaping wildlife, Nature, and work out in preparation for my grueling trip to Tibet and hike around Mount Kailash in 2005: the result being my documentary “Kora: Tibet and the Trail of Truth.” It was one of the few, remaining natural places in an area long decimated abd denuded by corporate and large-scale agriculture.

Actually, Kickapoo was far from being wild. It was reclaimed coal-mining ground that had been scarred and scraped beyond industrial use. So it was left to return to the Earth and the result was a strangely beautiful park made up of hills, forest, streams, ponds and other stuff Illinois never had much of and has even less of now. Kickapoo is ironically, unnatural.

But open or not, it’s a gleaming example of what humans can do to correct the environmental mistakes we’ve made. Sadly, it’s now also an example of how we just never learn.

Testimony to the power of media is that for the last three days in southwest Montana- one of the most naturally gorgeous and spectacular places in America- I’d couldn’t stop singing “Going to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon.” Why Frank Zappa’s nonsense lyrics should have that kind of hold on me after more than thirty years is a crime. But my brain was able to separate the media from the magic without too much effort thanks to pure power of Nature.

Our friends Bill and Pat are building a log cabin south of Sheridan, Montana just a couple hours west of Yellowstone. We were there to help sand, chainsaw, screw and glue the logs into place. The weather was a little windy and cool but it made working during the day more tolerable and sleeping in our tent nicer. Sandhill cranes, whitetail deer, buffalo (more-than-slightly domesticated) and wildlife roamed throughout the valley which is mostly BLM land and private ranches. Everyone was happy under the big, cloud-dappled sky.

During this time, I was also editing a web ad on my laptop running off the X5’s car battery and setting up shooting assignments with a new client located in the UK. I got the ad finished just in time to burn it to DVD and drive it five miles into town to catch the FedEx pickup at noon Friday (pickup times are normally around 5 p.m. but rural areas must get picked up earlier depending on how far they are from a big airport). My cell phone didn’t work so well but we were able to book my trip to Chicago and set up a Salt Lake shoot before the weekend descended. You just have to be flexible and patient, I told myself: something I’ve never been good at but living in the country apparently teaches you.

After running power tools all day, carrying 1,000 lb. logs around and surviving a smashed toe, only one thing will satisfy you: a massive Montana steak. No matter how big this state is, you can’t swing an expired marmot without hitting a steakhouse. A New York strip the size and weight of a dictionary topped off our perfect trip. Well, not REALLY perfect but when you’re flexible and patient either every thing is perfect or nothing is. Either way, you deal with it better.

Now, we’re back home in Salt Lake. Time to get back to work, catch up on the bills, pull the log glue out of my leg hairs (ouch!), and re-adjust to urban life. But the flexibility and patience I learned after just two days in Montana have sunk in. Whether it’s Utah, the Rockies or the desert, The West is home.

The question over whether the growing oil crisis is real or manufactured or the product of geopolitical partitioning is moot to the consumer. We are going to pay more and more unless we as the bottom feeders invest in technologies that don’t pollute, are durable, and don’t go up endlessly in cost of operation. That’s why SIMPLE CONSERVATION in the form of driving less and renewable electricity in the form of solar and wind energy and battery-powered vehicles look like the best options.

Ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable resources are not only more polluting, powering engines that require high maintenance, but are commodities controlled by a conspiratorial market (OPEC) that can manipulate and gouge the consumer any time the boss needs a new summer home. Again, if you don’t care about the Earth, IT’S STILL YOUR PROBLEM. You’ll end up doing it for the wrong reason- but you’ll do it.

Our U.S. ag secretary says the Bush Regime is spending $600 million on renewable energy research and implementation. But note that all the forms of renewable energy mentioned are biofuels, one of them the dubiously-effective corn ethanol. But you should also know that biodiesels and other organically-based fuels, besides increasing the cost of food and taking land out of food production for a growing human population, require LOTS OF WATER. Do you want to pay more for water, or maybe water your lawn less, and risk shortages and deeper, more serious droughts, so you can drive a biodiesel-powered vehicle?

More evidence of how much power the agri-business lobby has, how politics is more powerful than truth in America, and how little public opinion, hard evidence and quality scientific research really influences our elected official, corporate media and the free market.

It’s only 1,300 residents. But tiny Rock Port has proved that to solve America’s deepening energy crisis, cities, towns, businesses and homes all over the country must take measures into their own hands. They’ve become what appears to be the first town in America that is totally energy independent: not relying on a greedy, coal-powered utility, nuclear behemoth, rich Saudi oil sheik or even government subsidies. They did it with imagination, resolve, a whole lot of wind, and NOT NEARLY AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY FEARED. They are living proof that distributive energy supplies are America’s future and will provide clean, secure and non-destructive power for centuries to come. Every other solution is just plain not as good.

War causes more environmental destruction than any one thing. It’s not a story you hear about much in the corporate media because drought is not as visual as bombs exploding and guns firing and, like torture and child prostitution, it’s one of those dirty secrets that take the glamor out of beating your enemy into oblivion. But what’s happening in Iraq now is not only a more serious crisis but the logical and eventual result of wars with no long-term strategies: not just both Bushes’ but Saddam Hussein’s conflicts with Iran, and his own people over several decades.

Fortunately, war-ravaged Afghanistan has determined that their post-war economic and environmental future (if there is one) rests on one major crop: heroin. Nice to see them standing on their own again. We can only hope that Iraq follows their Afghan brethren and produces an obviously marketable commodity- other than oil- that is in also in high demand among more affluent, western societies and will similarly bolster their economy.

Now that’s nation building!

Farmers markets are mushrooming (had to find some metaphor- it’s an old journalism habit like a facial twitch) all over the country. In Utah, the biggest one is the Downtown Farmers Market at Pioneer Park, 300 West and 300 South. Because we’d just moved here in 2006 and we’ve been out of town most of the summer, we hadn’t had a chance to visit it until this Saturday. We were both shocked and pleased. It’s got to be one of the best and biggest in the country.

First of all, if you’re familar with Salt Lake City, you know there’s lots of parking everywhere. The market’s hours are 8 a.m.-1 p.m. (Saturdays only) so I got down there a little after 9 a.m. I parked less than two blocks from the park. But it was already jammed with people. Even so, there was lots of room to walk, everything was well-organized with no long lines. Plus, you’ll see the latest in tattoos, tee-shirt art and microdogs (do those things really like being carried around like a loaf of organic olive bread?).

Second, the produce is starting to come in and the quality was top-notch. Peaches, apricots (we already had plenty from our neighbors’ trees), melons, berries, corn, zucchini- all organic. You name it- it was there. Fresh lamb, goat products, organic breads, grains, mixes, spices. Contrary to popular misconception and disinformation, the prices were competitive with the grocery stores. We actually paid less for a locally-produced dip, Rico, than we’ve paid at Albertson’s for the same thing.

Third, as Bill McKibben and other eco-conscious writers note, foods purchased at farmers markets help them stay in business and keep rural farmland from being turned into suburban subdivisions, help your local economy, save energy, are better for you and give you and your neighbors a place to mix, catch up and be seen. You can give your money to Trader Joe’s (Monrovia, California), Whole Foods (Austin, Texas)- or to your friends and neighbors with the idea that by giving it to them, some day you’ll get it back.

That just all makes sense. And there’s POPCORN!

As if it’s really necessary to apologize to the makers of Scarface for this infamously stupid and pervasive quote, I’m sorry. But this is a special time of year around our neighborhood. The numerous old and beautiful apricot trees are delivering another perfect crop. It might be a little early but the cool, wet spring gave way to a hot, dry summer so these members of the plum family are ripening rapidly.

The apricot is not exactly an American staple. But there are lots of them in Utah. They’re historically a treatment for cancer and tumors (with questionable results), constipation and contain great amounts of carotenoids which do all sorts of good things from fighting heart disease to helping you look younger.

We don’t have our own apricot tree. We have several neighbors who do though. While walking last year, we simply asked them if we could have some (most of them were lying on their lawns rotting anyway). The neighbors gladly obliged. We only got a few last year because it was late in the season. But this year, we were ready. We brought a step ladder around to pick the best ones before they fell, brought them back and quickly began dehydrating and storing them.

Frankly, they’re delicious but inconsistent. One tree bore sweet but mushy fruit. Another’s are firm but almost tasteless. Regardless, it’s comforting to be able to take advantage of Nature’s bounty right near our house without having to drive anywhere or spend anything. We get to see our neighbors and indulge in their generosity. Perhaps that’s one of the natural attractions of the harvest. Sharing and celebrating the fruits of the Earth. And hopefully remembering how good the simplest and purest things in life truly are.

Hard to believe that the Bush Regime is also partly responsible for the increasing number of salmonella cases and other food-borne illnesses. After all, one person can’t be responsible for EVERYTHING that’s wrong. But it’s amazing how this administration has over-achieved in their attempts to do the wrong things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and…

Bowing to pressure and lots of money from the food industry lobby, the Bush Team eliminated many safeguards that would’ve made it easier to trace the sources of the many recent outbreaks and maybe saved some lives and kept a few folks out of the hospital. But there’s one big thing we’ve learned over the past seven years: IF IT’S SCREWED UP, BUSH IS SOMEHOW INVOLVED.

There’s not much doubt that ethanol is a disastrous economic, energy and political policy. No wonder Bush embraced it like a sick baby raccoon. Sad though that McCain was against ethanol for years though for competitive reasons linked to the oil industry, not environmental, independence or the other reasonable reasons. Then he abruptly changed his position in 2006 to con Iowa voters into choosing him during the caucuses. It worked. Now Iowa may be the only state he wins.

McCain’s stuck as an ethanol supporter (though Obama is too). Another missed opportunity. But I wasn’t going to vote for him anyway.