and Donna Specht

'Go,' said John Muir after two cruises to Alaska, to readers of the San Francisco Chronicle, 'Go and see! Alaska is marvelous.'

Muir's century-old accounts can be used as a guide for modern ship-borne tourists. He was no ordinary tourist, and if some fellow travelers thought his wild enthusiasm for Alaska crazy, others grasped his sense of gratified amazement. For it was here that Muir found confirmation of his theories regarding glaciation and plant progression in the Sierra Nevada.

Ten years ago on Oct. 31, 1994, a small group of Californians gathered in the Oval Office as President Bill Clinton signed into law the California Desert Protection Act, the largest land bill passed in that decade. Like most such events, this represented the culmination of years of effort by hundreds of people. On this anniversary, it is worthwhile to look briefly on how it all came together.

The issue of genetically engineered (GE) agriculture has finally caught up with California. California is not a major producer of the primary U.S. GE crops-corn, cotton, soybeans and canola, but GE rice, alfalfa, grapes, and trees are in the commercial pipeline. If grown in California, all would impact major California crops and natural resources.

On Nov. 2, 2004, voters in Marin County chose to ban the production of genetically modified crops and animals. Similar initiatives in Butte, San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt counties, however, were defeated.

It was late August, and I was in Athens for the Olympic games. The air was humid and thick with smog as Carl Lewis passed me on his way to the Acropolis, Olympic torch in hand. There is an acropolis, or high point, in every Greek city, and as Carl lit the Olympic flame to open the games, my mind drifted to another high point, the highest point in the land, the home of the Gods: Mount Olympus.