This week's reading was from the anthology "American Earth: Environmental writing since Thoreau". I choose to read the excerpts from Theodore Roosevelt's letters and speech, J.N "Ding" Darling's political cartoon "What a few more seasons will do to the ducks" and Don Marquis "What the ants are saying". I also read the selected writing's, Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" and Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nature" chapter. These writings all deal with the environmental issues human's are causing due to interactions with our surrounding environments.
In the chapter "Nature" by Emerson, he talks about the universal world symbolized by the stars that he views at night. He talks about he landscape and how he integrates what he sees to his writing. Emerson wants us to enjoy nature and respect it. He compares the significance of humans to this and talks about us taking the stars for granted. He links this idea of the world integrated together to form a whole universe. A quote that stood out to me is "I am nothing. I see all" this a paradoxical relationship he makes. Roosevelt's letters are short and different from the other writings we've read thus far. He writes a letter to Michler Chapman. He tells Chapman that he want's protection for nature and the "songsters" (130). The destruction of a species makes him feel like all great writers have "perished" (131). The letter to John Burroughs states his concern and interest for tin cans harming bears in Yellowstone Park. Aside from the letter we are provided with a speech given at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. He talks about the Irrigation act and addresses his concern about the effects of irrigation in the "next fifty years than any other material movement whatsoever" (132). He want's the nature in Arizona to stay the same and untouched by humans. He wants humans to "leave it as it is" and believes that they can't "improve on it" (133). Another excerpt that really compelled me to read and analyze was J.N "Ding" Darling's editorial cartoons. He shows his thoughts and highlights the issues with environment in these cartoons. This is obviously different from all of our previous readings because instead of full on words we get a drawn visual of Darling's philosophical ideals. "What a few more seasons will do to the ducks" is a great cartoon that shows the result of extinction of a species because humans are compelled to hunt them for whatever reason. Don Marquis's poem uses literary elements to talk about environmental issues. I found that this form of writing was very interesting. In "What the ants are saying", the use of a very small insect to bring up concerns in the environment was clever. Ant's are small and ignored, using this insect as a narrator to speak up and bash humans for our tendency to destroy everything we step on and see. "What man calls civilization always results in deserts... he uses up fat and greenery of the earth each generation wasters a little ,ore" (236), Humans want to turn everything into civilization and forget about the effects it can have on nature. We turn nature into deserts (dirty spots).
Aldo Leopold's " A Sand County Almanac", talks about a transformative moment he had in his life. He talks about birds and their value in relation to philosophical and unethical ideals. He is very interested in the crane and spends the first half talking about this. Then he moves on to talking about how humans strive to "for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness." (276). He talks about the environment in a scientific way, in relation to ecology but also in ethical and philosophical way. He states "An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle of existence. An ethic, philosophically is a differentiation of social and anti-social conduct" (277), this basically means that ethics is behavior that takes into account the well-being of entities outside of the self. Ethics were concerned with relationships between people, but Leopold share this idea that extends them to include “man’s relation to the land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it.” (277) He sees this as an ecological necessity and as an important step humans must take if they want to begin to undo the damage they’ve done to the environment thus far. Something that stood out to me is this idea of economic and ecology mixed together to form a bigger problem he's addressing. He seems to be disagreeing with the fact that economic valuations are the most useful way to assess the health or quality of the land. Instead, Leopold states that using economics as the only measure of worth necessarily means overlooking other reasons plants, animals, and landscapes deserve to exist. Leopold also hopes to “convey three basic ideas” about the land, “1) That land is not merely soil. 2) That the native plants and animals kept the energy circuit open; others may or may not. 3) That man-made changes are of a different order than evolutionary changes, and have effects more comprehensive than is intended or foreseen.” (288). This shows the importance of keeping nature in its natural state, and to make people aware of the way they can easily damage the environment around them.
Leopold also lays out a theory of “conservation esthetic,” which imagines ways to conserve the environment for future use. He primarily discusses recreation, and wonders how it is possibly to ethically open the land to people who want to experience it, and whose experiences may make them more sympathetic to it, while also protecting the land itself.
For further reading, I would love to explore other editorial cartoons by J.N "Ding" Darling. i was intrigued by he's way to share his philosophical ideas through drawn visuals.
In "Nature" Emerson states "Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both... Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. ", Is Emerson unsure about where this power in nature resides in ?. I would like to end with this question Professor Meehan started class with, Do trees have value?
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