A False View of Nature

I hardly ever watch t.v anymore, unless it's the news or something on Discovery. I'm not sure why, but I decided to flip through the channels the other day. I stopped for a second, and there was a commercial on. A family was "camping" with their nice warm fire. They seemed to be having a great time. I started thinking that this has got to be a commercial for some kind of off road vehicle, because they were in the middle of the forrest.

If I were to pause the scene, you would think that maybe it was a car commercial, or a bug spray commercial, maybe even a prevent forrest fires commercial.

But no. No shot.

It was an iPad commercial.

My first thought: WHAT THE F?

...what does an iPad have to do with camping?

The commercial didn't want me to go out and buy an iPad. It made me want to do the opposite. What is Apple trying to tell us? What's left of "nature" is going to be better with an iPad? Bringing an iPad into the wilderness totally defeats the purpose of camping.

I think the part that aggravates me the most isn't that a person is bringing a $600 mini laptop thing with them. It's the fact that they aren't appreciating the beauty of the environment. They're so consumed in this manmade thing, that they forget what they're even doing. Who knows how much longer there will be places for people to even camp out anymore. People need to leave the appliances at home, and enjoy what little is left of real beauty.

Different statistics I've found on the internet:

1. 11% of the northern hemisphere, and 7% of the southern hemisphere defined as "wilderness"
2. 46% of the Earth can still be called wilderness, or be described as having little human interaction
3. 10% of the Earth is protected by either preserves, conservations, or national parks.
4. Hardwoods covered 85% of Europe thousands of years ago, now they only cover 3%.

I am so bothered by this.

Moral of the story: iPads in what's left of the great outdoors is a FAIL.