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door <br />t <br />0Y oONALO MYRPNY <br />Too often in government, <br />benefits- s if there were n <br />E.F. Schumacher wrote; "In the current <br />are few words as final and conclusive as the word <br />uneconomic. If an activity has been branded as <br />economic, its right to existence is not merely <br />tinned but energetically denied:' In an' atte <br />recent years to overcome this bias, some hav <br />troduced the concepts of "cost-effecti . "5 <br />"cost-benefit analysis; which are s <br />us to show how valuable, what w <br />ments, are intangibles such as <br />health. But it is a cure worse than- <br />cast-effectiveness has come to mean red <br />is priceless to some arbitrary price. <br />Consider one aspect of environ <br />provides value to everyone in this co <br />es of green and expanses of ecosyste <br />states and communities and the fed <br />as parks. California parks alone recei <br />million visitors annually who'spend mo an $1.6 <br />billion and support fi2,000 jobs, but to talk of them <br />in these terms is to reduce them from priceless trea- <br />sures to commodities in the marketplace. To justify <br />outdoor recreation and conservation, the current <br />economic paradigm demands that we place them <br />within the framework of an economic system that <br />they transcend, We must resist this tendenry. It's time <br />for a different way of looking at parks---fora per- <br />spective that will focus on those values intrinsic to <br />human existence, values that are sufficient unto <br />themselves. Parks are not merely pretty places with <br />fences around them. Parks, as the embodiment of <br />outdoor recreation and conservation, represent <br />economy of a higher scale. _ <br />This cosmic economy (or, if y` <br />masher, "meta-economy") resto_ <br />30 • The Amiws Journal <br />50 <br />ark ~ to the a ~ ~ I sight '. <br />sibl ' of photoch co <br />us to light. All our senses are 'ible because' - <br />nections; all things create a circle of life through their - <br />connections. <br />The connections between human beings and o <br />world are vital for us because they facilitate the tran - - <br />fer of information. Evolutionary biologists are ~ <br />ploring the notion that we are created by _ <br />information we absorb. Quantum physicists <br />proposing that information shapes wlio we aze ' <br />level of the subatomic particle. This does no <br />merely that we are influenced by informati <br />fed via the media. It means information ' of <br />forms: the twinkle of a star, the feel of ' <br />past one's face, t}~:- tin of being in <br /> <br />