From chapter two of this book, here are the things I pulled out:
"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." ~ Aldo Leopold
There's a lot in this book, obviously, about respecting natural systems. The book definitely shares plenty of stories about how when humans try to mitigate and control nature, we often wind up hurting ecosystems and ultimately ourselves. It's hard to see how everything connects, and especially in the cog-in-the-machine post-modern world, we barely try..
Politics and economics depend on the health of the geography and climate of a place, plain and simple (35).
Specific to the resource mentioned in this book, "There isn't enough water for all interest groups to have all they want, all the time" (42). But we don't like to believe it.
Chapter 3 is the story of how the Netherlands dealt with an unexpected and huge storm/flood in 1953 and how their feats of engineering destroyed the local ecosystem. After a few decades, the Dutch met in participatory democratic groups to work on a better solution which, though it hasn't reversed all of the damage done by the first tech fix, is certainly better than the way they'd done it before. I'm thinking about turning it into a sermon, or at least an article for mass publication. At my church, I could tie it to the principles:
- The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; and
- Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part
"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." ~ Aldo Leopold
There's a lot in this book, obviously, about respecting natural systems. The book definitely shares plenty of stories about how when humans try to mitigate and control nature, we often wind up hurting ecosystems and ultimately ourselves. It's hard to see how everything connects, and especially in the cog-in-the-machine post-modern world, we barely try..
Politics and economics depend on the health of the geography and climate of a place, plain and simple (35).
Specific to the resource mentioned in this book, "There isn't enough water for all interest groups to have all they want, all the time" (42). But we don't like to believe it.
Chapter 3 is the story of how the Netherlands dealt with an unexpected and huge storm/flood in 1953 and how their feats of engineering destroyed the local ecosystem. After a few decades, the Dutch met in participatory democratic groups to work on a better solution which, though it hasn't reversed all of the damage done by the first tech fix, is certainly better than the way they'd done it before. I'm thinking about turning it into a sermon, or at least an article for mass publication. At my church, I could tie it to the principles:
- The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; and
- Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part
1 comment:
Everything's connected somehow. When we cull the predator species in an area, the deer run wild. Cull them, and the farmers are happy, but the hunters won't be. Leave it ALL alone, and someone's suburb has animals eating their shrubs and garbages.
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