Huber sees in this robust enjoyment of nature the central principle for hard greens. The human race could probably survive, hunkered down in an artificial environment. How human beings are to live if preservation becomes a universal rule, Muir's descendants are hard pressed to say. Many advocate returning to some earlier way of life-native American, sometimes even neolithic. But given current numbers, going back to the land would be the most disastrous, anti-green policy.
Traditional agriculture places large stresses on the earth.
New mechanization, plant strains, fertilizers, pesticides, and methods to lessen spoilage mean that farmers grow more food on far less land. An area the size of India could be allowed to return to its natural state if the best agricultural methods were adopted around the world. Similarly, modern electricity generation spares land. Coal mines and oil wells may not be lovely, but in the larger environmental bookkeeping, they spare the part of nature we most value, the thin layer of life at the earth's surface. Soft greens gasp at these claims.