Conservation and preservation
Conservation and preservation are critical approaches aimed at safeguarding the environment and natural resources. Conservation typically emphasizes the sustainable management and utilization of natural resources to ensure they benefit human populations without compromising their availability for future generations. This pragmatic viewpoint emerged in response to resource depletion observed in the 19th century, advocating for systematic management of forests, wildlife, and water systems.
In contrast, preservation prioritizes the intrinsic rights of all living organisms, asserting that nature should be protected in its untouched state, independent of human use. This perspective advocates for preserving biodiversity and ecological integrity, reflecting a belief that humans are just one part of a larger ecological web.
Modern environmentalism blends these philosophies, expanding the focus from mere resource management and preservation to include urgent global issues such as pollution, climate change, and social justice. Contemporary movements emphasize international collaboration and sustainable practices to address these interconnected challenges, recognizing that the health of our planet is inextricably linked to broader societal issues. This holistic approach highlights the importance of protecting our shared environment for the well-being of all species, including humans.
Conservation and preservation
The history of conservation in the United States may be divided into three successively evolving stages: utilitarian conservation, nature preservation, and modern environmentalism. In the twenty-first century, as a result of global warming, environmentalism has adopted a more inclusive, planetary view.
Background
Human abuse of nature is almost as old as recorded history. Plato lamented land degradation due to hills being denuded for lumber. Eighteenth century French and British colonial administrators understood the link between deforestation, soil erosion, and local climate change. Stephen Hales, a British plant physiologist, instigated the practice of reserving 20 percent of all green plants to preserve rainfall on the Caribbean island of Tobago. Pierre Poivre, French governor of Mauritius, appalled by forest and wildlife devastation, ordered one-fourth of the island to be preserved in woodlands. In America, conservation commenced as a pragmatic response to the excesses imbued by the nineteenth century limitless frontier mentality.
Utilitarian Resource Conservation
George Perkins Marsh, who had witnessed the damage caused by excessive grazing and around the Mediterranean, became alarmed by the profligate waste of resources occurring on the American frontier in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1864, he published Man and Nature, warning of the unfortunate ecological consequences of this wanton destruction. This book had several lasting impacts, including the establishment of the National Forest Service in 1873 to protect dwindling timber supplies and endangered watersheds. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, influenced by Marsh’s book, moved the Forest Service from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture, and made his chief conservation adviser, Gifford Pinchot, the new head. This decision situated resource management on a straightforward, rational, and scientific basis.
Together with naturalist John Muir, first president of the Sierra Club, Roosevelt and Pinchot passed game protection laws, restructured the national park system, and reconstituted forest and wildlife refuge systems. These policies were primarily pragmatic. They believed that forests should be saved, not for aesthetic reasons or out of concern about wildlife, but to provide homes and jobs for people. Resources should be used for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time. Utilitarian conservation is not concerned about saving resources for future generations, but about wisely developing and using the resources for the benefit of humans now living. According to this viewpoint, there is as much waste in neglecting to develop and utilize natural resources as there is in their wanton destruction. This approach is still evident in the multiple-use policies of the Forest Service.
Nature Preservation
Muir, believing utilitarian conservation to be too anthropocentric, strenuously opposed Pinchot’s influence and policies. Muir espoused the more viewpoint that all living organisms are imbued with intrinsic rights and deserve to live in nature, whether or not they are useful to humans. Every organism, as part of an ecological web, is not only entitled to continuance, but is essential to the integrity and stability of the biotic community. According to this viewpoint, humans are a miniscule component of nature; as such they have no right to value themselves above other species with whom they coexist. Humans are primarily a negative influence on nature.
In order to preserve its pristine wilderness, John Muir fought for and achieved the establishment of Yosemite as a State Park in 1864, later incorporating additional land to become a National Park in 1890. He was also instrumental in having King’s Canyon preserved until it also achieved National Park status. When the National Park Service was established in 1916, it was headed by one of Muir’s disciples, guaranteeing that his ideals of attempting to preserve pristine wildernesses in their purest, unaltered state would become a guiding principle. This philosophy is often at odds with the Forest Service.
Modern Environmentalism
Contemporary environmentalists have moved beyond the simple preservation of nature to embrace problems adversely affecting the health and well-being of all species, particularly humans. Air and water pollution began to become problematic during and particularly after World War II as a result of industrial expansion, greater use of toxic chemicals, and increased automotive traffic. One of the first books to awaken public awareness to the deleterious effects of noxious chemicals in the environment was Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, published in 1962. This led to an environmental movement as concerns broadened from preserving nature and using resources wisely to controlling and reducing pollution.
Two pioneers of the environmental movement were David Brower and Barry Commoner. Brower, while serving as the executive director of the Sierra Club, introduced many of the techniques now characteristic of modern environmentalism. These include litigation, intervention in regulatory hearings, and using the mass media for publicity campaigns. Commoner, a biologist, used scientific research to reveal connections among science, technology, the ecosphere, and society. Both activism and research remain defining characteristics of the modern environmental movement. By the 1970s, the movement had expanded from wilderness protection and pollution problems to include human population growth, nuclear power, fossil fuel extraction and use, and recycling. With the first Earth Day in 1970 environmentalism created public awareness and concern about health and ecological damage from pollution.
Context
Because modern humans are interconnected in a myriad of ways, the Earth has become a global village of people sharing a common planetary environment. Attention has shifted from preserving particular landscapes or preventing pollution of a specific to concern about the life-support systems of the entire world. Humans are changing planetary weather systems, increasing the extinction rate of species, and degrading ecosystems; without drastic remediation the ultimate consequences will be catastrophic. Protecting the planetary environment must become an international cause since it will take worldwide cooperation to effect the many changes necessary. Preliminary steps in this direction have been taken with the Montreal Protocol, adopted by most industrial nations in 1987, which phased out the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. The fledgling was another international effort attempting to mandate carbon dioxide reduction. The agreement was still weak because the United States and Australia, two of the world’s greatest emitters, refused to sign. The Paris Agreement was a binding commitment among nations to limit global warming. It was signed by 194 parties, including the United States, in 2015.
Twenty-first century humans have begun to comprehend that human societies can no longer act in isolation because the Earth is an interconnected whole. Pollution and environmental problems are inextricably linked to poverty, injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of underdeveloped nations by greedy capitalists in industrialized countries. Only by working together to correct these historic wrongs and actively pursuing sustainable lifestyles can the planetary environment be conserved.
Key Concepts
- anthropocentric: treating human beings and human concerns as the primary source of value
- biocentric: treating all living things as equal in value
- natural area: a region where organisms and geological processes are undisturbed by humans, with as few controls as possible
Bibliography
Brown, Lester R. Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. 3d ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.
Commoner, Barry. Making Peace with the Planet. New York: Pantheon, 1990.
Humphrey, Mathew. Preservation Versus the People? New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
"Wildlife Conservation." National Geographic, 9 May 2024, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/wildlife-conservation/. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.