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A Sand County Almanac. Cleansing the Lens of Perception Conservation as Atonement for wrong relations?. Aldo Leopold (1886-1948). The Place to be Redeemed?. Before. Meg Brown takes a swing. The upshot. The dust bowl. Restoration ecology. Ethics: principles and virtues. Majesty and Power.
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A Sand County Almanac Cleansing the Lens of Perception Conservation as Atonement for wrong relations?
The upshot • The dust bowl. • Restoration ecology. • Ethics: principles and virtues.
Majesty and Power “A mighty fortress is our God, a Bulwark never failing; Did we in our strength confide, Our striving would be losing; And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them, a bideth;”
The dust bowl • “Land Pathology” • Land on a hair trigger • The case for private stewardship.
The Principle of Utility “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” www.island-of-freedom.com/MILL.HTM
A Land Ethic “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” http://www.abqjournal.com/2000/nm/who/10who09-19-99.htm
The implicit virtues • The difference between moral principles and moral virtues. • Atonement • Industry • Prophesy.
Conservation: Muir and Pinchot Pennsylvania Environmental Heritage: www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/PA_Env-Her/gifford_pinchot.htm http://www.ecotopia.org/ehof/muir/index.html
“Scientific” Management: Differences with Pinchot • Questioning the Enlightenment—rational understanding and possession of nature. • Questioning Leviathan/Tragedy of the Commons? (Hobbes). • Questioning the scope of morals—individuals and holistic approaches. • Questioning the meaning of power. The Axe…is there a clear conscience?
Differences with Pinchot (cont) • Questioning ownership without stewardship. The case for private property/tragedy of the commons. The meaning of stewardship. Its benefits. • Questioning the locus of mind. • Questioning the understanding of science. Toward Gaia, cybernetics, resilience. • Questioning humanity’s relation to the Garden. Restoration of the garden, not to the garden. Redemption as dilemma.
Differences with Muir • Small is beautiful. • Mankind in nature. • Those who lived with harmonious modification. • Religion.
Leopold: Looking forward—reaching back to the primal landscape “I am trying to teach you that this alphabet of ‘natural objects’ spells out a story… Once you learn how to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you.”