Le Simplegadi

“Is then no nook of English ground secure / From rash assault?” Con questo verso si apre il sonetto di William Wordsworth “On the Projected Kendal and Windemere Railroad”, pubblicato nel 1844, anno in cui fu insignito del titolo di poeta laureato. La protesta di Wordsworth contro la ferrovia non fu efficace ma fu d’ispirazione per una successiva compagna degli anni ‘70 del 1800 contro la costruzione della diga di Thirlmere Lake nei pressi della città di Manchester per incrementare la fornitura idrica. Neppure questo tentativo ebbe successo ma divenne un elemento di coesione per la tutela dell’ambiente in Inghilterra. Stesso discorso può essere fatto per il tentativo fallito – ispirato dal formidabile naturalista John Muir – di bloccare la costruzione della diga di Hetch Hetchy Valley nel 1913 progettata per la fornitura idrica nella California meridionale. In entrambi i casi, l’incontro tra letteratura e natura è stato cruciale per la lotta ambientalista, ma in ciascun esempio il risultato fu deludente. La scrittura e la cultura letteraria ambientali non si accordavano con il razionalismo politico ed economico. Come mai, dunque, lo sforzo di bloccare le forze congiunte dalla Consolidated Edison, del US Army Corps of Engineers e della Federal Power Commission – e il loro progetto di fornire alla città di New York energia idroelettrica a danno della Storm King Mountain nel 1965 – alla fine ebbe successo? La risposta a questa domanda ci dice molto sull’efficacia della scrittura e dell’organizzazione ambientale, e solleva interrogativi sui limiti e le possibilità della letteratura.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-54

Bibliografia

Dunwell, Frances F. 1992. The Hudson River Highlands. New York: Columbia University Press.

Fields, Harry R. 1936. Constitutional Law: Jurisdiction over Nationally Owned Areas within the States: Jurisdiction over National Parks within the States: Jurisdiction over Yosemite National Park. California Law Review, 24: 5 (July): 573-593.

Freeman, John R. 2005 [1912]. The Hetch Hetchy Water Supply for San Francisco 1912. New York: Oxford University Press [1912. San Francisco: Rincon Publishing Co.].

Guenther, Jillian. 2013. Sense of Place in the Hudson Valley: Storm King Mountain and the Emergence of Modern Environmentalism. Senior Thesis, Vassar College. Unpublished.

Hartman, Geoffrey H. 1970. Romanticism and Anti-Self-Consciousness. Geoffrey H. Hartman. Beyond Formalism: Literary Essays 1958-1970. New Haven: Yale University Press, 298-310.

Hays, Paul R. 1971. Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. FPC. Yale University: Environmental Law Reporter: 1 ELR 20292-20300. http://elr.info/sites/default/files/litigation/1.20292.htm (consulted on 8/4/2017).

Muir, John. 1908. Sierra Club Bulletin, VI, 4 (January): 212-220. Muir, John. 1920. The Yosemite. New York: The CenturyCo.

Righter, Robert W. 2006. The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ritvo, Harriet. 2007. Manchester v. Thirlmere and the Construction of the Victorian Environment. Victorian Studies, 49, 3 (Spring): 457-481.

Ritvo, Harriet. 2003. Fighting for Thirlmere: The Roots of Environmentalism”. Science, 300 (6 June): 1510-1511.

Roosevelt, Theodore. 1915. John Muir: An Appreciation. Outlook, 109 (January 16): 27-28.

Shanahan, Danielle F. et al. 2016. Health Benefits from Nature Depend on Dose. Scientific Re- ports 6, Article number: 28551, http://www.nature.com/articles/srep28551 (consulted on 8/4/2017).

Stewart, Potter. 1972. Sierra Club v. Morton, Secretary of the Interior, et al., 405 U.S. 727, 92 S. Ct. 1361: 728-760.

Talbot, Allan R. 1972. Power Along the Hudson: The Storm King Case and the Birth of Environmentalism. New York (NY): E. P. Dutton & Company.

Teale, Edwin Way, ed. The Wilderness World of John Muir. New York: Mariner Books, 2001. Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1977. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Wordsworth, William. 1988. The Complete Poetical Works. London: Macmillan & Co. Bartleby (1999), http://www.bartleby.com/1455/ (consulted on 14/06/2017).

Figure Credits

Fig. 1: “Raven’s Crag” by Elijah Walton. In English Lake Scenery by Elijah Walton. London: W. M. Thompson, 1876. N. P. From Ritvo, “Thirlmere”.

Fig. 2: “Thirlmere Bridge Looking North, Cumberland” by Thomas Allom. From Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, Illustrated by Thomas Rose. London: Fisher and Son, 1833: 117. From Ritvo, “Thirlmere”.

Fig. 3: “Thirlmere: Before the Enlargement of the Lake” from Cumberland by John Edward Marr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910: 46. From Ritvo, “Thirlmere”.

Fig. 4: “Thirlmere at the Present Day” from Cumberland by John Edward Marr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910: 47. From Ritvo, “Thirlmere”.

Fig. 5: Hetch Hetchy Valley, Albert Bierstadt (1874-1880). Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (CT).

Fig. 6: President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir at Glacier Point, Yosemite, May 1903. National Park Service.

Fig. 7: O’Shaughnessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy, 2006. Inklein at Wikipedia.

Fig. 8: Hetch Hetchy Valley by Isaiah West Taber. Sierra Club Bulletin, VI, 4 (January) 1908: 211.

Fig. 9: Storm King Mountain. Photo credit: Robert Rodriguez Jr. From Guenther, n. p.

Fig. 10: Storm King of the Hudson by Sanford Robinson Gifford (1865). Private Collection. Public domain.

Fig. 11: Rendering of proposed hydro-electric power plant on Storm King Mountain. Annual Report 1962: Consolidated Edison (16-17). Image later published in the New York Times, spring 1963. In Talbot, 82.

Fig. 12: Map of the Lower Hudson River Valley, http://www.explore-hudson-valley.com (consulted on 14/06/2017).

Fig. 13: View from Storm King Summit. Photo credit: Nick Zungoli.