Moral bankruptcy threatens to destroy national parks under the guise of government efficiency.
The firing of many national park service employees is illegal. Why illegal? Not because some codified law is being violated, rather because a higher moral law is violated. That law is rooted in the human responsibility of stewardship. The care and love for our natural and cultural resources seeks to resolve what E.O. Wilson called the great paradox. That is the natural proclivity of human beings to expand and develop while at the same time conserving and protecting the resources needed for development and expansion. This is the great challenge of stewardship and our National Parks represent humanity’s attempt to resolve this paradox.
When we speak of the benefits of parks it is in these terms that we must speak. It is dangerous to define the importance of parks and conservation only in terms of the monetary economic benefit. We must not simply try and make the value of parks and conservation fit within the context of a market Economy. We must understand that the benefits of parks and conservation are more than a commodity in the marketplace, rather they are an important part of the creative processes of the universe.
Franklin Roosevelt noted that:
“There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle.
This episode gives an in depth argument for why we have a moral responsibility to protect our national parks.
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