Turn the Snowy Mountains national park into a massive car park

Sydney motorist: "Every time we drive up I'm always like, 'They need to expand the car park.'"

"Roads to the ski resorts are managed by Transport for NSW but the car parks, which are ON national park land, are managed by the resorts themselves. There's more than 6,000 car parking spaces across the ski fields in the Snowy Mountains."

"National parks are not supposed to be full of cars.We don't want to be polluting streams and waterways with runoff from car parks. The ecology and the environment is more important than us going skiing."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-15/car-parking-issue-nsw-snowy-mountains-ski-fields/105616840
#climate #ClimateBreakdown #cars #congestion #pollution #cryosphere #NationalParks #biodiversity #habitat #carparks #skiing #NSW #TheSnowies #MobileSprawl #FossilFuels

Australians prefer to go overseas again in record numbers, but no-one wants to come here...

The majority fly overseas to cheap locations in 'Asia' that are known for human rights abuses (Indonesia). Five Eyes countries (NZ, US, UK) are the other visited locations where communicating is made easy.

"While record numbers of Aussies are spending their money abroad, that spending is not being balanced out with international holidaymakers spending here."

Why do people from overseas not want to
- visit the bleached Great Barrier Reef
- experience world heritage sites under threat
- watch collapsing ecosystems
- witness biodiversity made extinct
- breathe mega fires and smoke
- see the large scars in logged forests
- admire the big holes left from mining

They could just enjoy the Big Things: Big houses, big cars, big roads, the big banana, the big pineapple and so much more.

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Australians travelling overseas again in record numbers despite the cost-of-living crisis
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-16/travel-tourism-australia-holiday-cost-of-living/104337072
Environmental issues in Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_Australia
Indonesia, Human Rights Watch, 2024
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/indonesia
The commercial and regional imagery of big things: Establishing a foundation for the study of oversized roadside landmarks
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13591835231225350
#tourism #holiday #travelling #travel #FossilFuels #mobility #MobileSprawl #BigThings #landmarks #LoggingImpacts #Australia #ecosystems #extinction #biodiversity

The end of the road trip?

The culture of 'the drive' requires sisyphean road maintenance, especially in a climate emergency.

Mobile sprawl as a form of 'recreation' eliminates the landscape. It is the annihilation of space and time. Motorists want to get from their door to the spectacle in the fastest way possible. The 'in-between space' viewed through the car window vanishes.

The pleasure cruise from A to B does not just degrade the landscape, but also eradicates possibilities of a livable planet. The overuse by the masses in their fossil fuel boxes makes the hillsides crumble, leads to landslides and erosion. After flash flooding, drought and heatwaves the roads have to be rebuilt over and over again.

Here are three cases of 'scenic drives':
California, Victoria and NSW

Extreme weather is changing California. These road trips show how
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/28/climate-extremes-california-road-trip

Climate Risk : The Path Ahead for the Great Ocean Road
Unsustainable Tourism
https://www.earlywarningnetwork.com.au/news/the-path-ahead-for-the-great-ocean-road

Waterfall Way scenic drive, NSW
https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/driving-routes/waterfall-way-scenic-drive
Why is the road called Waterfall Way ?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-15/waterfall-way-in-dorrigo-coffs-harbour-wet-weather-nsw/12986532

#TheDrive #Cars #roads #ScenicDrive #vehicles #MobileSprawl #tourism #FossilFuels #hazards #RoadTrips #culture #So50s #BigAuto #MobilityDesign #dromology #speed #GreatOceanRoad #WaterfallWay #Dorrigo #NSW #GlenifferRoad #landscapes #erosion #RockFall #FlashFlooding #ClimateCrisis

Climbing the world’s highest peak - Environmental Impacts of mass #mountaineering

https://theconversation.com/70-years-after-the-first-ascent-of-everest-the-impact-of-mass-mountaineering-must-be-confronted-204270
#Mountains #Ecosystems #Himalayas #Rubbish #Sewage #Corpses #Overcrowding #Degradation #MobileSprawl