1. shiftingbaselines
  2. Vonnegut, MPAs, and Shifting Baselines

Vonnegut, MPAs, and Shifting Baselines

By jjacquet on April 12, 2007.

i-83812ece33d37e86330e9335f12f800e-galapagos.jpg

Kurt Vonnegut visted the Galapagos Islands in the early 1980s and wrote looking back on the future of the islands (shifting baselines). I read Vonnegut's Galapagos while in the islands and my favorte line, then and now, is still:

[The Spaniards] did not claim the island for Spain, any more than they would have claimed hell for Spain.

Today, we all have a different impression of Galapagos. The Galapagos Marine Reserve is one of the largest in the world and the archipelego has been named a World Heritage Site. The BBC and National Geographic just released a three-part series that captures some of the islands' spectacular underwater beauty. Organized tourism began in the islands in 1969. When Kurt Vonnegut visited, there were fewer than 15,000 tourists coming to Galapagos annually. By 1995 tourism had grown to 56,000 visitors. This year it is estimated that more than 100,000 tourists will visit the archipelago.

But, we might be loving Galapagos to death. Just yesterday, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa issued a warning that the ecosystem of the Galapagos archipelago is in jeopardy and urged a study to determine its status and insure its protection. So the Galapagos Islands could be hell in one moment and heaven in the next, wrote Vonnegut...

Tags
Uncategorized

More like this

May Day, Mayday
In 2001, when I first came to the Galapagos, there were two flights each day. My baseline was, therefore, 14 flights per week. But island old-timers reminisce about the two-flights-per-week-good-old-days. When I flew in today, I was on one of five flights to the Galapagos Islands; there are now…
Galapagos Drama
Well, I'm back in the Galapagos Islands for a couple weeks. The last time I was here was May 2007 and a lot has happened in the last 10 months (i.e., humans, including myself, continue to stamp their footprints all over this delicate archipelago). First off, Galapagos tourism continues to grow…
Shifting Baselines Heads to the Galapagos Islands
The waters around Galapagos are home to more than 500 species of fish, 17% of which are endemic. In 1998, the Ecuadorian government extended the Galapagos Marine Reserve from its 15-mile radius to a 40-mile radius surrounding the archipelago. The reserve now encompasses 133,000 square kilometers…
Growing Population in Galapagos
Tourism is not the only thing growing in Galapagos. The number of inhabitants has grown tremendously over the last 35 years and very few people have lived in Galapagos long enough to discern it. People can only live on five islands (one of which only allows an Ecuadorian military base) of the…

I think people differ greatly on this issue. For example, if it were completely unidentifiable as my own, I would have no problem with a picture of my naked ass being posted on the Internet. Others would be absolutely horrified by the prospect.

I think people differ greatly on this issue. For example, if it were completely unidentifiable as my own, I would have no problem with a picture of my naked ass being posted on the Internet. Others would be absolutely horrified by the prospect.