catapult magazine

i know i’ve been talking a lot on this thread but i’d like to say one more thing about the idea of ‘no trace camping’ when we look at it in big perspective.
CAMPING AS WE KNOW IT IS BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT even if you leave no trace at your campsite. Here are some examples:
you usually need a car to get to your camping area. In order to enjoy the wilderness you are contributing to climate change. Staying at home and reading a book is better for the earth.
-outdoor enthusiasts buy extraordinary amounts of gear (tents, stoves, backpacks, boats, tarps, specialty clothing and shoes, etc) the production of which is often harmful to the environment (usually in a place like China which is now taking the brunt of our ‘post-industrial’ hypocrisy-our rivers and air are cleaner now because their rivers and air are dirtier). Plus, the stuff gets outdated and fills up landfills with plastic, nylon, fibreglass…

I myself very much enjoy hiking, canoeing, and camping and I find that these activities are good for my soul. But like most aspects of my energy-intensive existence, my pleasure comes at a cost to the earth. (and thanks to the low wages of those who make my clothes and gear in China)

Finally, I’d like to share with you a translated portion of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s "The Sacred Shit Manifesto":

Shit turns into earth which is put on the roof
it becomes lawn, forest, garden
shit becomes gold.
The circle is closed,
there is no more waste
Shit is our soul

So when you relieve yourself in the forest, think of it as a gift.

don’t worry about me. i only swim in the river.

That is a shame about the Montreal pools. I suppose no one else out there is thinking about the porous epidermal membranes of amphibeous creatures that are often used in derogatory references to francophones, and the derrogatory humout that could ensue here. Alas I too must be a buffoon at heart.

As my worship pastor often says "take me to the river!!"

Ah yes. Speaking of worship, what is "the river?"
But i digress.

Nosugar inspired me to check out some more web info on the subject. I found some articles about cities dumping sewage in massive quantities into rivers. I’m sure this is the tip of the iceburg. The links are below. And I don’t mean to say that this justifies the act of pooping in a river outright, but i do think it adds something to the discussion. I found it interesting, eye opening if you will. Montreal’s pool problem is just a drop in the pool of water contamination problems.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1377306,00.html

http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16816678&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466404&rfi=6

http://www.ohiopirg.org/OH.asp?id2=20723

http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/fanacost.asp
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/02/08/east_river_got.php

we were discussing this general issue a few weeks ago while camping, but in the context of soap and washing hair. the contention that made sense to me was that it’s better to deposit materials to biodegrade on or in the ground, rather than in the water, because of the nature of the process. my sense is that biodegrading is dependent on microorganisms to break the material down and that happens more readily in soil than in water. can anyone with more biology knowledge give more insight?

one aspect would be that in the summer water tends to be cooler than soil. thus, like in your refrigerator, the cooler temperature acts to keep bacteria working more slowly. Thus human waste breaks down more quickly on land. the same would probably not be true in the winter however. does anybody know anything about the types of micro-organisms that eat shit and if they are different on land and in water?

Well,
I don’t have the expertise to comment on the query for more info,
But the micro-organism / temperature point makes a lot of sense to me.

Just for the sake of keeping the debate going,
I wonder if the cooler temperature of the water, which might decrease the decompostion time, would halt it altogether. So, altough it may take longer, it still happens in water.

Kudos though to Kirstin for the strongest argument against pooping in a river that I’ve heard yet.

by the way, i’m glad richardgreencfr brought up the fact most cities dump their sewer into bodies of water, in most cases with minimal treatment. so what’s up with our double standard. when we’re at home we flush it directly into rivers and oceans. when we’re camping we take the greatest of pains not to leave any trace. aren’t the actions of billions of city dwellers (cities which tend to be built in the most fertile, ecologically diverse regions of the planet) infinitely more important than the actions of a few million campers dispersed over large areas of infertile wilderness for a few days at a time?

Wow.
Alot of great points…

never really thought about the comparison between how our citys deal with poo vs. pooing in the river while camping. To me, the good thing about pooing on land, whether you dig a hole "ilovealbertabeef" style (cause his wife tells him to) or if you just haul off in a car wash for example, is that it takes a few days or weeks for the material to find its way into the water system and during that whole time it is biodegrading.

It’s a creational norm, one could say… ordained by Christ as part of the salvation of all things. I am quite amazed at how God wired creation to filter itself. If we could somehow manage to resist our barbaric tendancies, humanity could even see glimpses of creational perfection. Jewish Rabbis would call this "olam haba", which translates "life in the world to come".

However, it is but a pipe dream- sketchy at best – to think that we could pull that off,
with the likes of todd@troutlake and eddie defiling our tributaries.

.

LIFE is bad for the environment…

.

Life as we know it.

whats that supposed to mean dan? are you judging the way we live?