It is imperative to maintain portions of the wilderness untouched so that a tree will rot where it falls, a waterfall will pour its curve without generating electricity, a trumpeter swan may float on uncontaminated water - and moderns may at least see what their ancestors knew in their nerves and blood.
Interpretation
Preserving untouched wilderness is essential for maintaining natural beauty and ecosystem integrity.
This quote emphasizes the critical importance of preserving untouched natural environments so that future generations can experience the natural world as it has existed throughout history. Devoto implores us to allow nature to exist freely, showcasing the significance of witnessing wild landscapes that our ancestors experienced, encouraging a reconnection with the environment and its inherent beauty.
In practice
During an environmental conference, to emphasize the need for conservation.
If the earth is man's extended body, to be loved and respected as one's own body, those who do no greening of themselves will hardly bring about the greening of America. The idea of 'greening' involves color, flowering, freshness of spring, and, above all, respect for what is organic and vegetative as distinct from the mechanical and metallic.
Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world.
In nature we find not only that which is expedient, but also everything which is not so inexpedient as to endanger the existence of the species.
Nature is probably quite indifferent to the aesthetic preferences of mathematicians.
All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.
The ecological crisis shows the urgency of a solidarity which embraces time and space... A greater sense of intergenerational solidarity is urgently needed. Future generations cannot be saddled with the cost of our use of common environmental resources.
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