I believe until fairly recently our destructions of nature were more or less unwitting -- the by-products, so to speak, of our ignorance or weakness or depravity. It is our present principled and elaborately rationalized rape and plunder of the natural world that is a new thing under the sun. Wendell Berry
About This Quote

Aldo Leopold, the father of modern wildlife management, said, “I believe until fairly recently our destructions of nature were more or less unwitting -- the by-products, so to speak, of our ignorance or weakness or depravity. It is our present principled and elaborately rationalized rape and plunder of the natural world that is a new thing under the sun.” Leopold was not just talking about hunting, but also about cutting down trees for lumber to build houses and power plants. His words are applicable today as well as when he wrote them in 1948.

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