Alexander Diaz

ERH-411

Response 2

Yin and Yang

In our first quote by Leopold, he states that “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.”(Pg 207). Here we can see what Leopold thinks about what humanity should do to conserve the environment. He doesn’t go to any extreme like mankind holding back its technological advancement, but he also doesn’t think that we should completely subdue nature with our expansion. He believes in a perfect harmony between nature and humanity. This state of harmony he talks about is the relationship we need with nature. The ability to take what we need and no more. The common sense to not destroy entire forests just for a shopping mall. There is a balance we must uphold, a yin and yang ideal that he preaches in this one sentence. If we do not humble ourselves then our world will become barren from our destructive ways.

The second quote from Wendell Berry tells us a story of what happens when there is no moderation in our expansion. He says “If a people adding a hundred and fifty years to itself, but subtracting fifty thousand from the land, what is there to hope?”(Pg 512). Here Wendell explains the idiocracy of the destruction we do to our land in order for advancement or expansion. Yes, we might earn ourselves a few years of prospering times but it is not worth it when the land itself is damaged for five times what we did for ourselves to prosper. Berry states in this quote that this debt we constantly put ourselves in makes him lose hope for the future of this world. We damage what the earth can only fix, and it takes time for that damage to be repaired, time we do not have. This relates to the previous quote because it gives rise, again, to the idea of a harmony we must find between us and nature. We cannot expect to forward ourselves and set back nature. There must be this understanding that nature cannot grow back as fast as we can tear it down. We are as much a part of nature as any tree or animal.