What Is Our Place in Nature
In this session we will try to think well about our place in nature. We’ll start by examining a passage from Aldo Leopold’s 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac. A renowned naturalist and forester, Leopold is considered by many to be the father of wildlife ecology and conservation, and this book was crucial in shaping the way modern humans think about their relationship to the environment. In it, Leopold introduces the concept of learning to “think like a mountain.” As humans we have the ability to radically alter the biotic communities of which we are a part. Because of this, he thinks, we have to learn to think like a mountain—to see the often-overlooked interconnections between humans, animals, and plants in an ecosystem. If we fail to do this, we do so at our peril. Our place in nature, then, seems to be unique within the animal kingdom (of which we are a part), and involves a great responsibility.
Text: Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking Like a Mountain”
Learning Goals:
- Define what Leopold means by “thinking like a mountain.”
- Articulate a view of humanity’s place in nature that is consistent with Leopold’s idea of “thinking like a mountain.”
- Develop your own view of our place in nature.
- Finally, consider whether or not “thinking like a mountain”is required of us if we are to fulfill God’s commandment to be stewards over the earth in Genesis 1:24-30.
Do this:
- Take a walk to Alumni Park (or any naturally beautiful environment that you care about). Sit down on the well-curated lawn. Put your phone away, and be in silence for a moment. Now imagine you are in this spot 1,000 years ago. What would be different about the world around you? Would the plants be different? You might see some ducks on the pond. Would the animals be different? What would it sound like?
- Now ask yourself, is the world—including us, as surely we are a part of the world—better off how it is now? Or should we have left it how it was? If we had left it as it was, there would be no Pepperdine, no roads to rush the sick or dying to the hospital, no safety from a wildfire.
- But there would also be a vibrant biotic community, which is now either dead and gone, or going fast. How do we figure out whether the tradeoffs related to human development are worth it? Leopold taught that "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” Is he right? What do we owe nature? What do we owe ourselves?