by Ken Ilgunas
Lots of good reading here—adventures, introspection,
history, geography, climate, and above all, humanity. So many stupid humans
stuck in their belief that JOBS are worth any destruction of nature, the
planet, and even human lives. And what is sad about this, is that the Keystone
XL will not create all that many jobs and the few that it does create will be
of poor quality.
The author knows, he saw the kind of jobs oil pipelines create. And he talked with the people working them. But he ends the book on a note of careful optimism—for one thing, there are a lot of people and more every day that oppose the construction of new pipelines. And for another, what humanity has been able to do implies there are unknown and unanticipated things they can still do…if only they have time to try.
As far as the travel adventure goes, it’s depressing as heck. He writes much of the whole private property vs. trespassing issue and points out that only in America are people so obsessed with ownership of land. Even Canada has a more sharing approach to the land than we do. It’s sad.
I myself own a small chunk of land and I don’t get all upset if someone walks over it—it’s only if they mess it up or make noise or build a damned pipeline across it that I would get angry.
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