Basically, I think 21st century conservation is moving toward preserving ecosystems by dealing with the needs of people.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of balancing conservation efforts with human needs.
Edward Norton highlights a modern approach to conservation that prioritizes the preservation of ecosystems while also recognizing and addressing the needs of human populations. This perspective suggests that true sustainability can only be achieved when the well-being of both nature and people are considered, implying a holistic view of environmental stewardship that integrates social and economic factors.
In practice
At a conservation conference, you could quote this to emphasize the need for people-centric approaches.
Look, you've got a generation of people coming along who are going to form their own new relationship with the idea of supporting the causes that they care about or changing the world. And these people are not going to do it the way our parents do it.
I've observed over and over that people seem to get a much deeper sense of fulfillment out of something they've done as an act of service than out of the things they do for themselves.
I'm fascinated by the ways in which people express themselves, because their responses are often counter to what they're actually feeling. Like when they're frightened, they tend to freeze. When they're angry, it doesn't always come out as volume. There are wonderful contradictions in the way that people express their emotions.
I think there is a serious corruption in the idea sold through advertising that you can attain spiritual peace through lifestyle and the notion of building your happiness from the outside-in by acquiring things . . . which if you think about it, is the essence of advertising
Life, like poker has an element of risk. It shouldn't be avoided. It should be faced.
In drama, I think, the audience is a willing participant. It's suspending a certain kind of disbelief to try to get something out of a story.
Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.
The sigh of all the seas breaking in measure round the isles soothed them; the night wrapped them; nothing broke their sleep, until, the birds beginning and the dawn weaving their thin voices in to its whiteness
Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky.
I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
There’s nothing under the ground that’s worth more than the little layer of topsoil sitting on top of it.
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