Two very influential men, in terms of their effect on the ecological and environmental awareness of people in the United States, are Aldo Leopold and Eustace Conway. Despite coming from different eras, they have similar backgrounds, and their work has helped to garner interest for sustainable living and appreciation of the natural world. Unfortunately, it is my premise here in this blog that neither have had the kind of success that they dreamed of. Their conception of a world where people leave the cities and move closer to nature by learning how to live off the land, therefore drawing a deeper appreciation and understanding of the biosphere has slipped further and further towards a complete rendition of Babylon.
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) came to being during a time when America was a wide-open expanse of seemingly inexhaustible resources. His experience in the department of forestry leads him to develop a sense of "land ethic", a truly remarkable idea that has coalesced into the seed of modern environmentalism. He truly felt the majesty and intensity of power within the totemic avenues of the natural world, and this allowed him to consider the earth as if it were a person, to be loved and respected and cherished.
His truly memorable lifework is recounted his famous non-fiction work " A Sand County Almanac", where his honed skills of penning poetic prose brought a sense of value to the land that most Americans caught up in the early industrial rush were losing sight of. Teaching at the University of Wisconsin in his later years he began to spread this message of "land ethic" to larger numbers of students and faculty which helped to spawn today's much more popular environmental movement. Because of his great legacy there have been numerous national foundations established in his name including the ALLP, The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, and The Aldo Leopold Foundation.
Eustace Conway is a modern man, still living today on his nature preserve entitled "Turtle Island", borrowing from the name from Native Americans' account of creation of the continent of North America. In order to really get into this man's mental atmosphere I highly recommend reading "The Last American Man" authored by Elizabeth Gilbert. Through a several year friendship and numerous visits to Turtle Island, this biographical work by Gilbert explores Conway's life and how seamlessly he slipped into his current manifestation as one of the authoritative experts on sustainable living.
Very quotable, one of my favorite from Conway comes from a discussion about one of his incredible adventures: He set the _world record for coast to coast horse travel from the Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean in 103 days! He went 800 miles across the Carolinas in 21 days. He loves using horsepower saying, "horses can have babies, cars can't." And he is quick to smile when quoting Steve McQueen: "I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than any city in the world." Conway, like Leopold is a teacher. As an educator, he loves to uphold Emerson's quote, "What you do stands above you and shouts so loudly, I can't hear what you are saying." He also borrows from Thoreau headlining his Turtle Island website: "It is folly to attempt to educate children within a city; the first step must be to remove them out of it."
Both men come from families where the patriarch had a love for nature, camping and exploration of the outdoor world. Conway was raised on the edge of a small forest, Leopold on the banks of yet unspoiled Mississippi river. Both had childhoods where their backyards became a source of wonder and inspiration; daily journeys into the world of science and nature. To me, it is not surprising they developed an ethic of love for the natural world -- that was their TV growing up, that was their entertainment, their football, their baseball. What I am worried about, and what this blog wants to make very clear, is that those backyard wonderlands that allowed two incredible pioneers of environmentalism to become so enamored with the outdoors that they dedicated their lives to educating others about it, are gone. Leopold's Mississippi river banks are cluttered with mobile home parks and the water flows with a million different petrochemicals. There is nowhere in his old neighborhood to go explore. Similarly, Conway's forest is chopped, boxed and rendered paper. There are housing developments and cul de sacs littered all over that once sacred land. How are we going to inspire our youth to love a land without development, when land and undeveloped becomes an oxymoron?
sources: http://www.turtleislandpreserve.com/eustace.htm
http://www.aldoleopold.org/
http://www.naturenet.com/alnc/aldo.html
ER Harris
