Author of A Sand Country Almanac, Aldo Leopold describes the dilemma I and others face as the worls around us continues to 'de-nature'. I'm reading his book presently (thanks Maurice!) and found the following passage in the forward:
There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.
Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth the cost in things natural, wild and free. For us in the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.
These wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast, and until science disclosed the drama of where they came from and how they live. The whole conflict boils down to a question of degree.
We of the minority see a law of diminishing returns in progress; our opponents do not (embolding mine)
Monday, December 19, 2011
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4 comments:
Interesting that you would see progress and growth being mutually exclusive to nature. As Aldo Leopold notes it is only through progress and growth that we have come to value nature.
Paranormal
Do I see progress and growth being mutually exclusive to nature, paranormal?
I did understand what Aldo wrote, I believe. The critical phrase for me, was ' The whole conflict boils down to a question of degree."
Seems you're taking the 'all or nothing' approach.
Love it Robert.
This tension is as bad as it has ever been up here, but there is strong evidence that the tide is turning.
But oh how angry it makes some people, I've never seen anything quite like it.
The tide, it cannot be turned, as our old mate King Canute proved.
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