The Iowa cornfield that was the location for the famous movie "Field of Dreams" (1989) has been sold. The new owners say they will preserve the 193-acre site's "baseball legacy" as a "special place," yet the fact remains that they plan to turn it into a commercial complex called "All-Star Ballpark Heaven." So, while they may preserve it, they will also develop it, changing its nature.
The news strikes me as sad. It's not a baseball story, even if it is being announced just as the World Series ends. It's just another tale in the panorama of man's continuing effort to leave no square inch of the globe untouched by his "improvements." The current owners, who've had the property since before the movie, began the process (with the willing help of the movie moguls); the new owners merely continue it.
We're always told that there is "plenty of land" in the United States. Yet overall, the process is inexorable, unless a plague or unexpected climatic cataclysm puts an end to human population growth. Already, much of the land that remains unexploited is in inhospitable areas - arid desert or steep mountains (we'll get to them eventually too). It's all very well to set aside national parks and wilderness areas (though in many we permit all sorts of un-wilderness-like activity, from mining to snowmobiling).
More pertinent, I think, is what land remains available for cultivation; as population growth continues unabated, food shortages and even more serious water shortages threaten increasingly large swathes of territory. Malthus could not have imagined the kind of population growth we now experience. He is often considered to have been "wrong" in his predictions, but perhaps he was far more prescient than anyone realized. How can a constantly decreasing supply of arable land continue to feed a constantly increasing supply of humans? Is a second "green revolution" in the offing? Experts say not.
Personally, I'm waiting for the news that a sports complex, a shopping center, or even a parking lot has been sold for "dedevelopment," and will be returned to its natural state.
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