We have a rich history of environmental writers including, Thoreau, Muir, Marsh, Murie, Clements, Adams, Huxley, Elton, Sears, Engler, Odum, Vogt, Leopold, Carson, and many others. Some of these environmentalists are being rediscovered and provide us with a framework in which to develop some ethical guidelines. Consistent with environmental ethics is environmental knowledge. Since an understanding of the natural resources around us is vital, one goal of education should be universal environmental literacy. Everything must go somewhere.
Nature knows best.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. We have a right to use other organisms to provide food and good health and to meet other basic survival and health needs. However, many of these uses have led to short term gains and a scarred environment with a lowered carrying capacity. Unrestrained individ ualism continues to exist as illustrated by our fascination with earlier explorers and the American frontier. It is no surprise to realize that civiliza tions are based on their soil and that when the soil is gone, the people perish or move to a new area.