Cornucopia Peak, North/South Ridgeline (8600 feet) (VI.30.08) [ click photo for next . . . }
View over Pine Valley & the community of Halfway . . .
Cornucopia Peak, North/South Ridgeline (8600 feet) (VI.30.08) [ click photo for next . . . }
View over Pine Valley & the community of Halfway . . .
4TH OF JULY: IGNORANCE & FREEDOM DO NOT RHYME
Cornucopia Peak is a central mountain of the South Wallowas.
with splendid views in all directions, at ±2600 meters.
PHOTO was made on about thew 4th of July. This was a good
snow year, the winter of 2007/2008, my first season working
in the Wallowas. This year, 2010/2011, has also been good,
setting records in some areas. But a good snow winter
does not make for good climate on the long term. Rather
like the difference of standing in Halfway pictured
below, or up on this ridge where this photo was made.
Climate change or chaos is real in the Wallowas. And,
just as its effects increase with latitude, becoming
much worse towards the Poles, the effects increase
with altitude. So I see these differences on a daily
basis. An increase of on average one or two degrees .c
equals a difference with this dry air of rain instead
of snow in an altitude bandwidth of 100 to 200 m. That
is enormous. Why? Because that precipitation will then
run off and be lost in winter. And the snow above it
will melt out faster.
But, as I've said before, the Wallowas are not the Alps.
No one lives up here. Most people who DO live in the area
never venture this far from their vehicles. America
is a car culture; not a mountain culture. Full stop.
So the spirit of the high country, by and large, does not
touch, does not inform, the culture at large.
That is why good people so readily drink the poison
of American Attack Radio, as I call. Congress has just
voted against Climate Change. An utter disgrace in the
face of the most universal concensus in the history
of science. And yet, travelling non-stop around the
Wallowas as a whole, an area about half the size of
Switzerland or Holland, I would guess that a good 75%
of locals agree. For how long, I ask myself? I take
my stand in the snow, where I draw my line and say,
"Well, (paraphrasing Jefferson) Ignorance & Freedom,
Ignorance & Democracy do not rhyme."
Snowpack in the Northwest in down 50% since 1950.
Winter comes on average three weeks later; Spring,
about three weeks earlier. If you would like to experience
what the Alps might look like with Climate Chaos in 2040,
come to the Wallowas. And Glacier National Park in 2020,
also, come to the Wallowas.
| see also my page for Climate Change in the Wallowas |
On the road in the Northwest of America.
2X NECESSITY [tweets @cliffcrego no. 1175 & 1176]
(1) The privatization of Necessity? Once the flow of water
is in corporate hands, the damming of Freedom cannot
be much further down stream.
(2) The privatization of Necessity? Once the flow
of information is in corporate hands, the damming
of Freedom can’t be much further down stream.
SOMETIMES . . .
Sometimes, a poem
wanders about the world
in search of its
proper place
and hour;
To learn it by heart is
to walk with it;
To offer it to another is
perhaps to bring it home.
CARETAKER
He had stopped to clear
fallen rocks off the path.
It wasn’t his job.
Thick mist, he showed
me clearly the route
I wanted to take, pointing
his stick first at this stone
and then that. He tapped
the third stone hard, for
emphasis, and said to stop
there and camp.
No map, yet I knew I
could trust him.
He was clearing rocks
off the path.
It wasn’t his job.
(URNERLAND, The Alps,
from ON PATHS)
NEW: To view / purchase high quality prints & matted frames
at the Photoweek Northwest online store, SLIDESHOW
http://picturepoems.zenfolio.com/
All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 2012 picture-poems.com
(created: VI.1.2008)
