At the beginning of the book, Abbey mentions the industrial expansion of dams, power lines, power plants, bridges, railways, pipelines, iron smelters copper, roads, campgrounds and tourism, mining, cars. , and machines. Doc compares industrialism to cancer, fulminating: “A planetary industrialism that is growing like a cancer. Growth for growth’s sake” (64). Abbey's descriptions of construction machinery have always been described as a large monster allowing the reader to see the full extent of the potential size and destruction. The reference to industrialism has always been presented as a negative operation. When the group attacked the Comb Wash mine, they referred to the machines as "iron ».