Abbey’s essay Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks featured in his book Desert Solitaire (1968), discusses his work as a ranger for the U.S. Park Services in the 1950s. With this essay, Abbey builds strong advocacy for environmental issues related to the functioning of national parks through an extensive critique of some of these parks’ public policies. In one of his most relevant arguments, the author emphasizes how the use of automobiles in national parks has progressed during his working years and the damage it brought to the environment. Abbey explains that as the people, including park service workers, began to employ cars more and more in their travels through the park territories, the need for new roads increased, as well. Asphalt or paved roads were established instead of natural earth, and the inflow of tourists grew, causing the destruction of national parks in various ways.
The second concept from Abbey’s work worth noting is the unnecessary development plans proposed for the national parks. Abbey (1968) calls them “vandalism of money and resources in nothing useful but just a progressive erosion of the parks” (p. 419). He discusses how industrial tourism, which brings with it the building of motels and hotels, gas stations, and other constructions, is destroying the natural environment of the national parks. From there, the third important point follows: Abbey proposes measures to preserve the national parks as nature monuments and argues against further development of industrial tourism. One of the most significant examples of his strategy is treating national parks as holy land, similar to cathedrals, churches, and other sanctums of American culture, as the parks are equally important to them.
Question 1: Why Abbey deems it necessary to control the demographics in order to preserve the parks?
Abbey states that the constantly increasing population of the U.S. is the greatest obstacle to the safe preservation of the parks. For example, the amount of automobiles in the country is directly tied to the people’s demand for them, and the growing population needs more and more cars for its needs.
Question 2: How would the elimination of paved/asphalted roads and, subsequently, automobiles help accommodate the people visiting them?
The space necessary for road building and cars’ parking could be successfully used to provide housing for tourists and to set up new hiking trails and bicycle and horse stations for faster travel.
Reference
Abbey, Edward. (1968). Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. Ballantine books, New York.