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

the problems of the present. It should be possible to accept
that the world and its resources are for the benefit of man
providing we see the idea of benefit extending to all mankind
over the continuum of time. I believe that the seeds of a
system of stewardship for the earth's resources has come down
to us largely from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. As a basis
for caring and-responsibility, a motive above the pragmatic is
clearly required even though we might continue to debate just
what it might be. A balance has to be struck between catering
for the needs of posterity and redressing the problems of our
own timeit (O8Connor, 1986).
Hope and Action
"Is there really any hope?" asked Heilbroner. The answer to
this question is a resounding yes, probably the most important
yes in the history of mankind. Teilhard de Chardin (1966) has
said, "It is too easy to find excuses for inaction by pleading
the decadence of civilization or even the imminent end of the
world. Three human attitudes can kill us: (1) the blind
technological optimism of those who believe that some
scientific innovation or -unknown factor will always save us:
(2) the gloom-and-doom pessimism of those who have given up
hope: and (3) the greed, apathy, and refusal to face reality
of those who have given up concern and involvement through
easy fatalism or a naive view of reality."
Psychologist Rollo May says that many of us are losing our
ability to care about anyone or anything because we feel
overwhelmed. We have a feeling of powerlessness - our lives
seem to be managed by impersonal and uncontrollable forces.
However, I give Tyler Miller (1975) the last word, which I
believe applies very much to Australia today:
"There are grounds for cautious hope that a value revolution
is underway in this country (USA). People are stirring,
questianing, listening, and organizing. They are asking,
"What is true wealth? What have we done wrong? What should
be the true aims of our affluent nation?" It is particularly
significant that some of our youth are educating their elders
by showing them a fresh perspective on these. crucial
questions. There is a growing awareness that we must elect
earthmanship leaders who will tell the people the truth - that
we can8t have everything, that we are in deep trouble, that we
must make some significant and difficult changes, that for
everything we want to preserve we will have to give up
something, that the heaping of crisis on crisis need not be
taken as a sign of doom but as the emergence of a world where
we finally face up to the questions of what man is and what
his place is in the world.