A Bunch of Subversives in Central Maine (Bangor, Orono: home, college)

[ladyalicemore]

Slightly offtopic, but when I think of environmentalists in Maine, I think of the courageous and brilliant Rachel Carson, who loved the Boothbays area. She lived in or near Southport.

She wasn't subversive, she saved a lot of species from extinction and a lot of people from cancer due to her publicity about the dangerous nature of insecticides used in the 1950s. She was one of those people who really made a difference with how they lived their life.

ETA: I probably thought about her because it is her birthday today. Lovely Google Doodle....I should add also that she was a summer resident of Maine.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by ladyalicemore

Slightly offtopic, but when I think of environmentalists in Maine, I think of the courageous and brilliant Rachel Carson, who loved the Boothbays area. She lived in or near Southport.

She wasn't subversive, she saved a lot of species from extinction and a lot of people from cancer due to her publicity about the dangerous nature of insecticides used in the 1950s. She was one of those people who really made a difference with how they lived their life.

ETA: I probably thought about her because it is her birthday today. Lovely Google Doodle....I should add also that she was a summer resident of Maine.

I met a state biologist a few years ago, that worked as animal control of the Rachel carson's wildlife refuges, along the coast, he would trap skunks and coons , to protect other species,
very interesting - he said without these sanctuaries many species would have died off

[Maineac]

There are still deniers out there that claim Rachel Carson was a liar and the whole DDT thing was a scam, akin to global warming, the Hawaiian birth certificate, etc. You know the marching cadence. Anything that might affect an industrial piggy bank has to be false. Funny how eagles and ospreys seem to have recovered over the last few decades when there weren't ANY in the early '60's.

[RMoore007]

heheheh....I could probably find my big sister in there somewhere. She lives in the old homestead in Dover and is active in all current events that involve central Maine. She came back to Maine from living in CA for over 35 years. She is involved with the local church and chamber.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Children, children, children, Do not imagine that what you have learned from MSNBC is even faintly related to reality. Listen to your elders once in a while. You may learn something.

"Historian Samuel P. Hayes researched Gifford Pinchot's era for the origins of the conservation movement. The result, "Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency", disclosed the view that our usual idea of conservation as a wave of popular sentiment for wilderness preservation and wildlife protection is misleading. Hays claims that conservation actually developed in the 1890s as a scientific movement led by a small group of professional men (including Pinchot) whose objective was the orderly, efficient use of resources under the guidance of experts, a principle they called "wise use". By this definition, I see the forest industry as the world's foremost conservationist."

"Later, however, during the 1908 battle between Pinchot and Sierra Club founder John Muir, the term conservation was gradually expropriated by advocates who felt that current conservation projects should abandon the wise use theory for thew perpetual preservation theory. As time went on, the vociferous preservationists became identified with the word conservation, and this is the sense in which a wide public understands the term today."

Thus the 'no human use' movement began in the 1800s and is still eroding the wise use of our natural resources. The quotes come from the book, "Ecology Wars", Page 69, by Ron Arnold, a former Sierra Club official. Just because some blogger is excited about discovering the 'no human use' movement does not mean it is new.

[Maineac]

Yes, Faux News has nothing but the "truth", "fair and balanced." Remember when someone says "look, I'm going to tell you the truth", they're probably lying.

"No human use" is your term. Baxter State Park falls under the "preservationist" standard. Humans abound, as with all of the National Parks (preservationist) versus National Forests (conservationists). There is a clear difference between "preservationists" and "conservationists." Unfortunately, in a time when it was recently announced that U.S. public Corporate CEO remuneration now exceeds an average of $10 million a year, greed and the dollar dictates. When this Country was growing, lumber and other products were necessary to accommodate the growth. The primary impetus today is to remunerate the stockholders and make a profit, with absolutely no eye toward conservation much less preservation. Back then, a rising tide lifted all boats. Today, the rising tide lifts very few boats, with everyone else drowning.

Had some of the National Parks not been created, industry would have turned them into wastelands for profit, the Western U.S. would likely have no potable water and a very few families would be even more obscenely wealthy than they already are. There'd be no Grand Canyon, no Yellowstone, no Yosemite. Just a scar similar to the 500' to 2000' wide one proposed to slice across the State of Maine, taking several watersheds and scenic rivers with it, starting with the Machias, then the 'Guagus, and on down the line to Coburn Gore.

By all means, trust the Forest industry not to clearcut and pave. The pulp and paper industry is slipping away with the demand for newsprint and glossy papers, leaving tissue type product that most mills aren't set up to produce. How about you read Samuel P. Hayes' ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS SINCE 1945? He explains it pretty well, without the "talking points" snippets that profiteers that would destroy groundwater with mining, deforest whole regions solely for the profit of a few, and the politics that goes along with it.

Just because some blogger has glommed onto some inaccuracies and advances them as fact does not mean it is true.

[TerryDactyls]

Originally Posted by TerryDactyls

But it is so much easier to spew out nonsense than to actually research the topic. I'm writing from Texas (only three more months before I move to Maine) where spouting off is a political mandate. Our current primary races are filled with bold statements that hold no truths whatsoever. As a matter of fact, the first comment made at last week's Republican Lieutenant Governor Debate by candidate Dan Patrick was (and I'm paraphrasing): "Tonight, everything you hear from me will be true." And then he proceeded to reiterate the same nonsense that had been proven wrong previously. I just love the politics of today.

This idiot won the Republican nomination by a landslide. The Democrats of Texas are smiling today (and I've heard they are not yet extinct).

[Maineac]

I don't see this as a political issue. I just see it as common sense. I'll betcha many of those Grandmothers are Republican, as is a lot of Piscataquis County and that area of Penobscot. Poliquin and LePage signs everywhere up there, right next to the E/W signs with a big red slash through them. I have yet to be convinced that Maine could benefit sufficiently to offset cutting the State in half for the profit of a few. But Vigue and Brown want to make it political so their "talking points" are repeated until they become "truth" and any negatives are shouted down by their followers.

[Maineac]

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/11/2...bate/comments/

Boy. Read the comments. There is some severe misunderstanding and misinformation on this proposed project. There will be no tourism and no access for us peons. It will be big toll, privately owned. The "Poll" says "Should the State of Maine build the E/W Highway"? Of course, many Mainers believe an E/W highway would be beneficial for the region. It has been discussed for decades, but that discussion took the road from Calais to NH, NOT from Canada to Canada. But a "Maine" highway is not what this scar will ultimately be. The principals have already admitted that it will likely be foreign owned in the future. And, of course, "Peter Vigue has been working behind the scenes." Well, we're back out here, his foot soldiers are back to proposing a $300,000 study for his benefit. Some people would make a ton of money, some would lose their homes and property. Pass the popcorn, the misinformation train is leaving the station.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

"I have yet to be convinced that Maine could benefit sufficiently to offset cutting the State in half for the profit of a few."

That's what they said about I-95 that split so many towns in half and turned half into ghost towns.