My experience is that if you can get a mile from asphalt or concrete then all of this melts away. I've been on a beach with no other person, horizon to horizon (2mi hike to the beach). I once walked a trail in possibly the most crowded part of the most crowded park (Cades Cove) and the only encounter my group had was with a copperhead snake.
Yea, but anything you can drive up to is going to be a disaster.
It's pretty tempting, instead of actual accomplishments to brag about all the bad stuff you prevented from happening. What do you think about the argument that Nader's playbook for effective political action was ignored by left activists, but adopted by corporate America?
It really was Nader who taught them that "consumers" were interested in civic engagement and oversight. That's why you can't buy a latte without "supporting" some charity, or check out at the grocery without a solicitation for cancer research. Corporations have learned to wrap the desire for civic engagement to the act of consumption. To short circuit any engagement that might be against their interests. Arguably, Ralph Nader showed them that they needed to do this, and he showed them how.