Remembering Jerry Mander
In 1965, Pres. Johnson proposed flooding the Grand Canyon with two dams to power the Southwest and attract tourists. Both houses in Congress passed the bill.
Jerry Mander learned about it—and wrote an ad: "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists could get closer to the ceiling?" The full page ad ran in major newspapers around the country.
Congress rescinded Johnson's bill.
And so, thanks to Jerry, who died last week at 86, we still have the Grand Canyon.
Decades ahead of everyone else, Jerry Mander understood that technology ravages the Earth; it cannot save us. His groundbreaking books include Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (1978) and In the Absence of the Sacred (1982). His last book, 70 Ads to Save the World, came out last fall.
Here's his obit in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/globalization-trade-climate-progressivism/
Thank you for living, Jerry Mander.
Jerry's widow, Koohan Paik-Mander, wrote this obituary.
https://synergeticpress.com/blog/books/author-blogs/jerry-mander-obituary/