soil-conservation-people-religion-and-land.pdf - South West NRM

elow in which Chiras (1985) reflects most people's space-time
values: "Individual interest can be identified by a single
point that denotes one's space and time concerns. Most
people's interest lies toward the lower ends of the scales,
tending toward self-interest and immediate concerns. This
tendency to be concerned with the self and the present is very
- much a biological characteristic. In evolution we see that
awareness of the needs of other organisms of the same kind is
found in social animals such as monkeys and lions; however,
concerns for the upper ends of the time and space scales are
found in only the most social of all animals, Homo sapiens.
This capacity to consider the consequences of our actions,
notably, how they will affect others and what impact they will
have on the future, is a fortunate feature of our kind. It is
fortunate because humans have reached a position of
unprecedented power as moulders of the world's environment.
Our power to fashion the world to our liking has never been
greater, nor has our power to destroy ever attained such
heights. (Chiras, 1985) .
This simple demonstration shows graphically how our
predictable concern with our personal comfort in the short
term forms the basic problem in gaining acceptance of a land
ethic which concerns other people in the future. Perhaps
Harvard University's bold experiment in including Moral
Reasoning and Social Analysis in its core curriculum, will
show the way. As Frederick Borsch (1984) of Princeton says: