Yet I also appreciate that we cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well-for we will not fight to save what we do not love (but only appreciate in some abstract sense). So let them all continue-the films, the books, the television programs, the zoos, the little half acre of ecological preserve in any community, the primary school lessons, the museum demonstrations, even [:] the 6:00 A.M. bird walks. Let them continue and expand because we must have visceral contact in order to love. We really must make room for nature in our hearts.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Saving nature requires an emotional connection, not just abstract appreciation, so we must engage with it through various media and activities.
- In plain terms
- We need to love nature to protect it, so keep making films, books, and programs that connect us to it.
- What can you take from it?
- Build emotional bonds with nature to motivate conservation efforts.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you connect with nature?
- Can abstract appreciation drive change?
Another view
Emotional connection alone may not address practical policy or economic barriers to conservation.
More from Stephen Jay Gould
It is so hard for an evolutionary biologist to write about extinction caused by human stupidity. [:] Let me then float an unconventional plea, the inverse of t…
Permalink to quote #97 Phenomena unfold on their own appropriate scales of space and time and may be invisible in our myopic world of dimensions assessed by comparison with human hei…
Permalink to quote #99 The contingency of history (both for life in general and for the cultures of Homo sapiens) and human free will (in the factual rather than theological sense) a…
Permalink to quote #96
Related quotes
Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, …
John MuirJohn Muir quote #8 Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.
William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth quote #124 Please note that Wikiquote articles should contain quotations. To contribute encyclopedic information, please go to the corresponding Wikipedia H.D article and…
Hilda DoolittleHilda Doolittle quote #1