Buffering the Grand Canyon

   The Grand Canyon is one of our nation's many monuments. In society today, we treasure art, towers, bridges, cities, and bulidngs, but seldom treasure the beautiful architecture of nature. The first to recognize the importance of preserving cush a grand and awe inspiring land mark wasTheodore Roosevelt, president, conservationalist, and lover of nature. He realised that the Canyon "was America’s Westminster Abbey, Louvre and Taj Mahal rolled into one." Back in Roosevelt's time, the threat of mining and robbing the landmark of its beauty was very real. That threat still looms today. "Mining companies, foreign and domestic, have been filing claims to extract uranium from the surrounding national forest." Most, like Roosevelt, believe that tampering with such a great wonder of nature is criminal. Man cannot add beauty to nature, it should be left in its natural state. "You cannot improve upon it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.” Roosevelt took a stand for the magnitude and beauty of this monument. He dedicated his life to protecting the Canyon, and now that he's gone, someone must continue his life's work. Someone must once again take a stand against the butchering of this grand monument. Someone, Anyone! Take a stand for the Grand Canyon.
    The author of "Butchering the Grand Canyon", Douglas Brinkley, clearly is a lover of nature (or perhaps just the Grand Canyon), and he let's the reader know it! His opinion becomes very clear in the first line of the article, "IN 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt didn’t need a guidebook to tell him that the Grand Canyon was the most precious heirloom the United States possessed." He uses a mix of pathos and logos to try and persuade the reader that the mining of the grand canyon is wrong, and easily preventable. He highlights the negative affects the mining will have, and who should stand up to the plate and face them head on. "The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and others are well aware of the sorry legacy left behind by uranium miners, with abandoned mines, contaminated wells and radiation hazards that endure years later." The author goes to say that Obama should follow in Roosevelt's footsteps and take government action against the mining companies and their allies in congress, "  This is all the more reason President Obama should follow Roosevelt’s example and use the Antiquities Act to preserve the national forest and other public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon as a national monument." In the end, the author just hopes that he could get the point across to readers that nature is worth preserving, it is beautiful part of life, and we should do our best to maintain it for future generations.     

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