Robert L. Peters

14 September 2010

Oops!

Gooseneck Rocks, NW Ontario (along the road to White Dog First Nation)

I was scheduled to go rock climbing with friends at my favorite crag (the Gooseneck Rocks) this past weekend, but the combination of multiple days of rain along with flagging energy levels dissuaded me in the end. My good friend Simon Statkewich (president of the Alpine Club of Canada, Manitoba Section) did make it out however, and today he sent me the above photo of himself standing on “a wee bit of rockfall” that recently peeled off the base of one of the newer bolted climbs on the Roadside Face (about 7 meters to climber’s left of the start of the classic route Frog-in-the-Crack put up by Peter Aitchison et al in the 1970s).

A quick calculation shows that the granite “flake” Simon is standing on weighs between 40 and 60 tonnes (at 2.691 tonnes per cubic meter). Here’s sincerely hoping there’s no hapless boulderer caught beneath it… Hester? has anyone seen Rob Hester?!?

 


6 September 2010

Back… with Bettie Blue.

Banff, Alberta

I’ve just returned from my annual holiday sortie to the Rockies, a first with my “new” 1988 VW Westfalia Camper Bettie Blue (which I bought a year ago from her original owner—who I met by chance at Lake Louise). For her part, Bettie Blue performed beautifully (aside from one blown coolant hose that I was able to fix en route) traversing the 3300 km return trip across the prairies in style and comfort.

The weather, unfortunately, crapped out a mere two days after I arrived in the mountains this year (always a risk in late August)—a whiteout on my first summit sortie, snowfall well below the treeline, freezing overnight temperatures in the valleys, and an extended forecast for cold precipitation conspired to push me back eastward earlier than planned—though this did allow me to make it back to Manitoba in time to assist Ev during the past days with The Wave Artists Studio Tour.

Photo: Bettie Blue posed in front of Cascade Mountain on Tunnel Mountain Drive above The Banff Centre (just before the weather turned nasty).


13 August 2010

The Soapboxer: Nature is soulful again

(from Issue 19 of Geez magazine, by Nicholas Klassen)

I figure we human beings have always been hard on nature. I mean, cutting down trees and killing animals appear to be pretty fundamental to the human experience.

What’s striking about us Western Moderns, however, is the intentionality and aggressiveness of our antagonism towards nature. And it’s not just the fact that we’ve increased in number. No, more than that, the dominant Western worldview is deliberately anchored in a narrative that framed nature as a dangerous place that we needed to subdue and hold “dominion” over. At the same time, wilderness was stripped of its spiritual potency so it could become exploitable real estate to be mined for the purposes of accumulating wealth.

Consider: ancient people didn’t see themselves as distinct from nature, and they didn’t see nature as inanimate. Everything wild was “inspirited” or “ensouled.” Not just animals, but everything – mountains, rivers, forests. As a result, nature warranted a certain reverence, even a divine status.

As we began to farm and later industrialize, however, we created something new to worship: Progress. The corresponding demands for unfettered economic and technological growth meant that the wilderness needed to be “de-spiritualized” and human interests needed to be set up in opposition to nature’s interests. Simply put, we had to justify our assault on the Earth.

The architects of modernity were extremely bullish on this project – though it’s not really fair to single them out, given that they were merely putting a name to contemporary humanity’s urge to exploit. Regardless, Enlightenment thinkers rallied around the assessment of scientists like Galileo and Newton that nature operated as an interlocking series of pushing and pulling mechanisms, devoid of any mystical qualities. With that as the backdrop, philosophers like Thomas Hobbes famously described the State of Nature as a “war of all against all” where lives are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Coercive authority was the salve for that. Francis Bacon – throwing in a dose of sexism for good measure – framed nature as a woman who needed to be enslaved. For Bacon, glorious technical advancements “do not merely exert a gentle guidance over Nature’s courses, they have the power to conquer and subdue her, to shake her to her foundations.” René Descartes considered animals non-sentient mechanical beings and proclaimed the need to “make ourselves masters and possessors of nature.”

By the same token, Christianity’s victory over paganism instilled a new worldview that nature in and of itself wasn’t sacred, but was rather the creation of a transcendent god – that is, a god apart from the world. Add to that a dualistic distinction between the spirit and the physical, and a divine commission in Genesis to exercise “dominion” over creation and “fill and subdue the Earth,” and, well, you can see how nature didn’t stand a chance.

With the weight of philosophy and religion behind it, the narrative of humanity’s transcendency of and mastery over nature was assured. And oh, how it has thrived. Today, many contemporary Christians have embraced it to the point where they are actively hostile to the idea that we should work to preserve the environment. Like the now-deceased but still influential reverend Jerry Falwell who insisted in a CNN interview that the “myth” of global warming was “created to destroy America’s free enterprise system and our economic stability.” His response to this supposed snow job? “I urge everyone to go out and buy an SUV today.”

Other Christians consider environmentalism a form of idolatry, because they fear the rights of an “inanimate” planet and its non-human creatures are held in higher esteem than God. Others still figure the plight of the Earth doesn’t matter because it’s not our permanent home. If, after all, the Rapture is coming, who cares if glaciers are looking spotty? There is, of course, a healthy contingent of Christians who reject this narrative and are building a new one. It’s a narrative that sees nature as full of divine spirit – a place that is just fine as it is and doesn’t need to be “improved” by humans. Sure, we’ve been tasked as caretakers by an immanent god, but that doesn’t mean we are to preside over nature. Rather, we are called to recognize that we are embedded in it.

This new narrative builds on an ancient one. It’s a reclamation of something our supposedly “primitive” forebears understood. It’s a re-reading of oft-cited Genesis verses with a new lens – this time with an emphasis on our divine appointment to tread lightly and humbly in a life-giving biosphere. It’s a re-alignment with the likes of Francis of Assisi, who understood the holiness of communing with God through the physical, material world – the sun, the trees, the birds. And it might just be the key to our survival as a species.

Nicholas Klassen is a principal at Biro Creative, a former senior editor at Adbusters magazine, and a contributing editor to Geez (which has a fresh new website with lots more great writing and thought-provoking online content here).

 

[Full disclosure: I have been an avid supporter of Geez magazine since before its launch, and I’m still listed on the masthead as an ‘advisor.’ The above photo is of sun-kissed apples in my garden.]

 


9 August 2010

[soiled reputation]

Spreading, worldwide…

A few months ago, Greepeace called for the design of a more appropriate logo for BP than a shiny green sunflower. Winner of the “Best Rebranded Logo—Popular Choice” is Laurent Hunziker of Paris, France. This “picture is worth a thousand words” image is now spreading virally…

 


7 July 2010

Playing with clouds…

SKYplay_cone

SKYplay_dragon

SKYplay_daisies

.

We’ve all done it, at one time or another… playing with clouds. Likely only a few have documented this fun for the enjoyment of others—and fewer yet with the determined playfulness of the late Horst J. Bernhardt,* an industrial designer who spent most of his 40-year career with Lightolier. View his image series entitled SKYplay here.

*Horst passed into another dimension in May of this year… R.I.P.

(I’ve posted about clouds and how much I like them before, here).

 


16 June 2010

It’s that kind of a day…

that_kind_of_a_day

(image source unknown)


7 June 2010

Cloudtree…

Cloud-tree

 

(image from my good friend Gerald Brandt, who unfortunately has little additional information to share about the source of this remarkable juxtaposition…)


2 May 2010

Muskoka…

MUSKOKA_cover

Georgian Bay, Ontario

Stretching from the vast wilderness of Algonquin Park in the east to the windswept shores of the Georgian Bay Islands in the west, the famed District of Muskoka includes the treasured towns of Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, and Huntsville, and the townships of Georgian Bay, Lake of Bays, and Muskoka Lakes.

The handsome new coffee-table book Muskoka captures the rugged beauty, pristine lakes, and charming settlements of this favoured cottage destination over four dramatic seasons. Translated from the Algonquin native language, ‘Muskoka’ means ‘land of the red earth’—unforgettable sunsets, stunning autumn tree foliage, and the region’s signature crop of cranberries—all relate back to the red earth theme and become the canvas for this keepsake photographic collection of one of Canada’s most cherished regions.

Author/photographer Mike Grandmaison (a close personal friend, a long-time client, and a former partner of mine some 20 years ago, when we both taught together as part of Praxis Photographic Workshops) is an award-winning Canadian photographer specializing in nature and landscapes. Working in the biological sciences for several decades instilled in Mike a deep appreciation for nature and the great outdoors. His work has been widely published in leading magazines and books and has been used by some of North America’s top corporations and organizations. Mike travels from coast to coast to coast in search of evocative images that capture the spirit of this great land we call Canada.

Look for Muskoka at top-quality local book vendors (ISBN-13: 978-1-55470-260-2).

Congratulations, Mike!


23 April 2010

14 @ 8000m+ (sans oxygen)

big_world_mappicos_rolojgarcia

annapurna-south-large

Annapurna, Nepal

I’m a moderately-skilled, low-altitude mountaineer (mostly rock-climbing and summit scrambling)—which puts me in a position of more than a little awe of those who push the boundaries of alpinism. So, naturally, I was quite enthused when I heard from a designer friend in Porto today (Toze, aka Antonio Coelho, himself one of Portugal’s premier mountaineers) that his long-time climbing partner, João Garcia, has just become the 10th climber to summit all 14 of the world’s mountains over 8000 meters (26,246′) without supplementary oxygen. For João, this culminates a quest he began 17 years ago with the ascent of Cho Oyu (João was also the first Portuguese to summit Everest, in 1999).

The summit of Annapurna marked another first on 17 April 2010, the day of João Garcia’s ascent: the 36-year-old Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit 13 of the 8000ers, putting her at the front of the race among women climbers to match Reinhold Messner’s momentous 1993 achievement.

Parabéns!


18 March 2010

Welcome back… Branta canadensis

Canada_Goose_detail_Robert_L_Peters

Canada_Goose_Robert_L_Peters

Winnipeg, Canada

Warming weather and melting ice (several weeks earlier than usual) has been accompanied by the first flights of Canada Geese returning from southern wintering grounds… I was delighted to see and hear flights of hundreds of the big birds squawking overhead as I drove in to the city this morning—positive confirmation that we have all survived another winter (and two days before the equinox to boot). Welcome back…

Illustration: from a series of wildlife drawings I did back in the mid-1970s… remember Rapidographs?)


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