Hello:
The Opinion article below was in last Saturday's Herald, which is the main
newspaper in Nova Scotia in Canada. It may be of interest to some. There
was an editorial limitation to not exceed 800 words. The article is
re-worked from a longer public meeting presentation given by me several
months ago and then circulated on the internet. The article is also
responding to an Interim Report by the Off-Highway Vehicle Task Force
recently released in Nova Scotia.

Best and for the Earth,

 David
******


Saturday, February 28, 2004    The Halifax Herald Limited

Opinion

OHV use: alienation from natural world

By David Orton

THE INTERIM report on off-highway vehicle (OHV) use - "Out of Control" -
was recently released. It was produced by the misnamed "voluntary planning"
task force. This is a government-funded organization which, since its
inception in the 1960s, has presented as much of a business viewpoint on
various issues - for example, industrial forestry - as that of the public
at large.

I attended three meetings on the OHV issue and gave a presentation. It was
clear that the working assumption of the task force was that banning OHV
activity was not on the table, but increased regulation was. It was also
clear that any discussion of the problems associated with industrial
forestry, which monopolizes Crown or public lands through long-term leases
(and, through harvesting practices, destroys the forests on those lands)
was not part of the agenda. The pulp mills, with their forest road and
trail networks, and clearcuts, obviously greatly facilitate OHV use. The
interim report advocates some progressive measures. But overall, it is a
tinkering document, which will facilitate and legitimate OHV use.

Any discussion about the use of OHVs - ATVs, snowmobiles, Argos, Jet Skis,
dirt bikes, dune buggies, etc. - should not be about individual lifestyle
or economic self-interest, but about "ecological citizenship." The OHV
discussion shows how we as a society have become alienated from the natural
world, and increasingly from each other. "Pleasure" or so-called
recreational OHV users seem to see the forests, non-forested areas, our
waterways and wilderness as some kind of outdoor gymnasium for humans.
These OHV users seem to think that one requires a motorized vehicle to make
oneself a participant, when what we should use are skis, snowshoes, walking
shoes, a rowing boat or a kayak.

Today, citizenship has to go beyond respectful relationships between human
beings, important as these are. It must also include our ecological
relationship with other animal and plant life, and the habitats which give
those life forms sustenance. We have to learn to share our personal
identities with other humans and animals, and with nature as a whole, so
that we come to see the natural world as part of ourselves. This is a
spiritual and inclusive ecological world view, which many OHV users have
trouble grasping.

The late Aldo Leopold, a forester and perhaps the first deep ecologist in
the United States, expressed well what ecological citizenship means. He
called for extending ethical considerations beyond the human community to
the biotic community, what he called the "Land": soil, waters, plants and
non-human animals. Leopold said, and this should be a guideline for us
today: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability
and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Do OHVs preserve the beauty and integrity of our woods, waters, and the few
remaining wild places in Nova Scotia? Do such vehicles minimize our
ecological footprint, so that we can live in a non-intrusive manner on this
wondrous Earth? I do not think so. Perhaps there is a limited and carefully
circumscribed role for OHVs in a work-related capacity, but there should be
no role for them as recreational vehicles. From my perspective (I live on
an old hill farm which has reverted to woods), humans should enter the
forests and waters and non-forested areas as humbly and quietly as possible.

The present North American consumer lifestyle, as a model for the world's
population, would require several planets. Thus, all of us, if we are not
to be self-indulgent and short-sighted, must learn to live much more simply
on this one Earth we share. The fossil fuel-driven so-called recreational
economy will eventually have to end, along with the rest of this
destructive consumer lifestyle which we, as a society, seem to mindlessly
embrace. Should this not be part of an OHV discussion?

We need to see ourselves as ecological role models for the rest of the
world by reducing, not increasing, our personal consumption patterns. OHVs
are part of this. As Arne Naess, the Norwegian deep ecologist, puts it: "We
must live at a level that we seriously can wish others to attain, not at a
level that requires the bulk of humanity NOT to reach."

Off-highway vehicle use is a reflection of industrialized society's
alienation from the natural and social worlds. Rural residents see the air
and noise pollution, and the destruction of many fragile habitats by OHV
users. We need to oppose the so-called recreational use of OHVs, not expand
it through more trails and better regulations, as the voluntary planning
interim report advocates. We must be socially and ecologically accountable,
if human society and other species are to have a long-term future.

David Orton, of Saltsprings, Pictou County, is co-ordinator of the Green
Web, an independent environmental research group and network with a left
biocentric perspective. E-mail: [log in to unmask]; home page:
http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/.




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