One of the passages that grabbed my attention the most concerned wilderness recreation. When Leopold states, "Daniel Boone's reaction depends not only on the quality of what he saw, but on the quality of the mental eye with which he saw it" (291). This look at perception towards the natural world I think signifies how most of the world (particularly the Western world) sees nature.
Despite most of society and their lack of environmental-friendly lifestyles, I do think that the majority acknowledge that nature is beautiful and important. However, like Boone, they only see the aesthetics of the world and neglect to fully understand what it is they are looking at. They do not see the the network and relationships between the natural world.
Looking at the sky, people love to look at the brilliant colors and shades of purples to oranges and fiery reds at sundown. Little to they know, or care that the "brilliant sky" is unnatural and a result of the pollution within the atmosphere. Its color reflecting off radiation and poisonous toxins.
On a whole, I think we need to understand why things are beautiful and furthermore question our standards of "natural beauty". We need to identify the pure from the corruption; in a world that has experienced the industrial revolution and the biggest World Wars known to man, the most of what is pure has already been tainted.
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