Comment on I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?

• prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Perhaps I’m illiterate, but I saw nothing in their comment suggesting that the US is the only country with National Parks.

  I don’t think they even implied that they’re better than any other National Parks.

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  • neo2478@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I acknowledge your point. Maybe I came across too harshly due to some baggage about it. Especially an episode from the podcast 99% invisible about the US national parks.

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• PieMePlenty@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  While many (if not most) countries have national parks, the policies surrounding them are different. A simple thing like camping is often restricted in European parks, mixed land use is allowed so you are more removed from pure non human nature. As a result, the experience of visiting one may be vastly different - depending on what you are doing. American national parks are exceptional not because they are the only country that has them - which isnt true as you pointed out, they are exceptional because of the governing policies surrounding them.

  I’d surely visit one, before I left, because the experience isnt going to be the same in any other.

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  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I’d surely visit one, before I left, because the experience isnt going to be the same in any other.

    You might want to visit them soon anyway, as I believe they will be significantly reduced over the next 4 years.

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    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I’m not from the US but maybe, some day when I’m old and grey, I’ll visit one.

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      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        As I said, you might want to hurry up. They’re already talking about selling that land.

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  • neo2478@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I think that’s a fair point.

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• ylph@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Plenty of countries have national parks btw. Many of them had them before America.

  Well not really though ? Yellowstone established in 1872 is generally considered the first national park, in the modern sense of the term*, and inspired others to follow in the next couple of decades in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. It wasn’t until the 1900s that the first national park was established in Europe.

  • there are a couple of other places that also claim this distinction, depending on how exactly you define what a national park is, but not many

  Calling national parks “America’s best idea” is a quote from historian and environmentalist Wallace Stegner - I think the point of it is not to toot some US exceptionalism horn - in context it’s more of an acknowledgment that America deserves a lot of criticism - saying that national parks are America’s best idea is actually putting a bit of shade on other American exceptionalism claims, especially during the Reagan “shining city upon a hill” era.

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