Just this morning I finished reading an amazingly insightful book, first published in 1949. "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold was highlighted to me by a university lecturer as a source of a single profound statement, which I can not even remember now. "Couldn't have been that profound then," I hear you say. On the contrary, it is lost amongst the immense depth of content, thought and consideration that this incredible book has provided me with.
Perhaps the depth of the content and philosophy was particularly stunning to me because I had only just recently visited the sand counties, though I suspect that they bear little resemblance now to the ones that Leopold was writing about, even as he was lamenting their pending drift. Or perhaps it is just that this philosophy and big picture thinking is something that is ready to now become so much more important. It is not lost on me that I am writing about this book on a computer after having read and annotated it on a kindle. I can't help but wonder at the take Leopold would have had on this.
Some of the amazing insight highlights, but by no means all of them, are
- like salmon swimming upstream and dying, migratory birds move and remove nutrients in a natural cycle. Our interference with migratory patterns may have more significant consequences than we would normally consider
- that even in areas of industrial farming, there are areas that can be put aside for minimal interference. This can extend to the 'idle strip' that runs along highways. By keeping these spots free of 'cow, plow and mower' you can at least allow a site for native flora to be maintained - a form of conservation by neglect
- that "We classify ourselves into vocations, each of which either wields some particular tool, or sells it, or repairs it, or sharpens it, or dispenses advice on how to do so; by such division of labors we avoid responsibility for the misuse of any tool save our own."
- that there is such complex interconnectedness and interdependence in an ecosystem, that even diseases and apparent pests are vital to the balance
- that mourning the loss of another species is actually a fairly new thing
- that even in that time Leopold should recognise, "Homo sapiens putters no more under his own vine and fig tree; he has poured into his gas tank the stored motivity of countless creatures aspiring through the ages to wiggle their way to pastures new," shows that he was well ahead of the current curve on recognising the impact of fossil fuels. One wonders what he would think of the constant global jetsetting of this age.
- that there is immense complexity associated with community and population density. In fact there may even be a very early comment on gun violence "The complexity of co-operative mechanisms has increased with population density, and with the efficiency of tools. It was simpler, for example, to define the anti-social uses of sticks and stones in the days of the mastodons than of bullets and billboards in the age of motors."
I suspect that this book has been written about many many times, however it is a new finding to me, and perhaps it will be a new source for frequent reference to ways to consider our relationship with our planet. To anyone with even the slightest interest in the natural world, I think this book stands alongside the works of David Attenborough and is well worth you tracking down, even if you are a very reluctant reader.
