Thomas Cole, The Hunter's Return (1845)

• https://hooktube.com/watch?v=y5iMAMU53Ns
• https://uploads6.wikiart.org/images/thomas-cole/the-hunter-s-return-1845.jpg

Thomas Cole (1801–1848), English-born American romanticist artist, and environmentalist artist. Best known for his Empire series of paintings, depicts in The Hunter's Return the beginnings of environmental exploitation and destruction of the largely unspoiled nature in the still quite young American republic. For context, here are some choice excerpts from his Essay on American Scenery published in American Monthly Magazine, January 1836 http://www.csun.edu/~ta3584/Cole.htm :

Poetry and Painting sublime and purify thought, by grasping the past, the present, and the future — they give the mind a foretaste of its immortality, and thus prepare it for performing an exalted part amid the realities of life. And rural nature is full of the same quickening spirit — it is, in fact, the exhaustless mine from which the poet and the painter have brought such wondrous treasures — an unfailing fountain of intellectual enjoyment, where all may drink, and be awakened to a deeper feeling of the works of genius, and a keener perception of the beauty of our existence. For those whose days are all consumed in the low pursuits of avarice, or the gaudy frivolities of fashion, unobservant of nature's loveliness, are unconscious of the harmony of creation — Heaven's roof to them Is but a painted ceiling hung with lamps; No more — that lights them to their purposes — They wander 'loose about;' they nothing see, Themselves except, and creatures like themselves, Short lived, short sighted.

It was my intention to attempt a description of several districts remarkable for their picturesqueness and truly American character; but I fear to trespass longer on your time and patience. Yet I cannot but express my sorrow that the beauty of such landscapes are quickly passing away — the ravages of the axe are daily increasing — the most noble scenes are made desolate, and oftentimes with a wantonness and barbarism scarcely credible in a civilized nation. The wayside is becoming shadeless, and another generation will behold spots, now rife with beauty, desecrated by what is called improvement; which, as yet, generally destroys Nature's beauty without substituting that of Art. This is a regret rather than a complaint; such is the road society has to travel; it may lead to refinement in the end, but the traveller who sees the place of rest close at hand, dislikes the road that has so many unnecessary windings.

I do recommend reading the essay in its entirely, though. It's applicable even more so today.

>>1
Whats the point? Environmentalism is much older than 60's hippies? They had enviromentalists back in the Roman Empire days and they still ruined european forests:
https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/environmental-choices-the-romans-made

Change is the only constant. Adapt or die.

>>2

Whats the point? Environmentalism is much older than 60's hippies?

No. It was an interesting upload from Smarthistory, and I thought I'd share. Great article, by the way.

They had enviromentalists back in the Roman Empire days and they still ruined european forests

True, although I place more blame on the Christianization of Europe (see Massacre of Verden and the destruction of the Irminsul). No surprise there, a desert religion slowly turning a formerly lush continent into a desert. https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S027737910900331X-gr6.jpg
>>3
Or drop out of their game entirely, and become the change you wish to see.

>>2
The most hilarious irony of the fact that US companies egged on by the US government at the expense of the very US citizens who are patronizing the products of said US companies is that the very nation responsible for this perverse, self-destructive feedback loop, the US, was founded by some of the biggest proponents of environmentalism. John Adams, James Madison, George Mason, James Wilson, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson--all part of the American Enlightenment, and yet, nowadays, it seems like America is synonymous with Oil. The Lefties would have you believe that such greed is strictly the product of Right and that they're The Good Guys, and the Righties would have you believe that the Left is full of selfish fatcats with cartoon dollar signs in their eyes capitulating at the slightest pressure to entities like Big Oil. The fact is they're both right: the desecration of nature is a bipartisan vice, and the relationship between the two parties is a symbiotic one where neither side acknowledges their own faults while pointing fingers at each other saying, "Things would be much better of They would stop being so evil," like it's something they'd offer.

I hate everyone. Those retarded rednecks with their smokestacks so deeply set in their childish contrarianism that they don't even realize that they're the one's who are most directly affected by their own negligence, don't realize the irony in the fact that they're going out of the city every weekend precisely to escape the polluted air, the very thing that they're stubbornly contributing to. Those effeminate, woo-woo newage, Green Party-voting soyboys who only care about nature insofar as it lets them point the finger at everyone else on social media, who feel smug and self-righteous for recycling despite the fact that when considering the water, energy, and labor require to repurpose plastic it's literally better just to throw that plastic in the landfill--even though they could have just as easily not bought that plastic container in the first place.

>>5
At least you're not living in Libertarian An-Cap Utopia, where you have to pay for clean air or Glorious People's Democratic Republic Best Korea where you only have air to eat.
Democracy is a medium where environmentalism has the most influence.

>>6
That have the ability to influence things but choose not to out of sheer spite.

>>6
The guy wrote two paragraphs outlining how worthlessly stupid and evil people are. Your response? "Well at least all of the stupid and evil people get to influence government policy". Wow. Just, wow.

>>8
Nigger.

Wowie zowie.

dubs