Please join me this evening for popcorn and a screening of the documentary The Wilderness Idea. This 1989 film is an “exploration of the first national controversy about America’s wilderness: Should Hetch Hetchy, a valley within Yosemite National Park, be dammed and flooded to form a reservoir for San Francisco? On one side, utilitarians argued that the benefits of water and power for the city outweighed the good of an untouched valley. On the other side, preservationists pleaded the intrinsic spiritual worth of wilderness. After a long and bitter debate, the dam was approved by Congress; the schism in American attitudes that emerged in the dispute still endures. The Wilderness Idea explores this seminal chapter in American environmental politics by tracing the paths of the leaders of the two faction; John Muir, the brilliant and eccentric founder and first president of the Sierra club, and Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, who defined conservation as the wise management of natural resources. Combining archival materials with stunning cinematography shot on location in Yosemite, this timeless film tells the dramatic story of two founders of the American conservation movement and the historic battle that drove them apart” (description from the film’s promotional material).
Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library
Gustavus Adolphus College
Audiovisual viewing room, lower level of the library
8:00 – 9:00 pm
Thursday, September 20, 2012
RSVP to averslui appreciated so I can plan for popcorn!