As a young man, Leopold and a group of foresters stopped for lunch at work. Their workplace was the side of a mountain, overlooking a forests, meadows, and a burbling stream. Leopold saw movement by the stream—a wolf and half a dozen pups. He tells what happens next:
In those
days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we
were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy: how to
aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the
old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide-rocks.
We reached
the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized
then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those
eyes, something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and
full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that
no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I
sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.
Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic (sic) desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn.
Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic (sic) desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn.
I now
suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a
mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for
while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a
range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.
So also
with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he
is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not
learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing
the future into the sea. (130-132)
The thought of
shooting into a pack of frolicking wolf pups appalls me.
Maybe that’s because I
see with the eyes of a grandma—I see babies playing with their mama, not a
threat to my livelihood. Leopold and the others in the story see wolves as
competition for the food resources they all want from the deer. Deer are
commodities; they have measurable value as meat. From the men’s perspective
here, wolves threaten to lower the total value of the deer herd. Deer become
scarcer, making the meat more difficult to find and harvest. That’s why they
kill the wolves without hesitation.
There’s a third
point of view that avoids the sentimental anthropomorphism of my perspective
and calls into question the commodities-view of Leopold and his companions. To
the mountain, wolves are saviors. They prevent complete deforestation. A deer
herd without predators will eat vegetation faster than plants can regenerate.
Habitats disappear; food becomes scarce; deer die of starvation. And soil is
washed off the naked mountainside so no new plants can grow.
Leopold’s story reminds us that everything
is connected. When we destroy one part of a system, the system as a whole tends
to die. His own blind ignorance of the interplay among the wolves, the deer,
and the mountain illustrates why Leopold spent most of his life helping the
rest of us see what he saw that day.
When planning today’s worship
service, I chose the theme of Earth Day because of the 7th principle
of Unitarian Universalism: We affirm and promote the interdependent web of all
existence of which we are a part. The interdependent web analogy has always
spoken to me in a deeply spiritual way. The word “religion” itself has its
roots in the Latin “religare,”
meaning “to bind,” and “religio,”
meaning “obligation, bond, reverence.” Connection forms the beating heart of
religion—linguistically and spiritually.
Physically, all existence contains
the same chemical molecules. Stars, planets, and all of space; the air we
breathe, the soil and water that sustains life, all plants and animals—including
us—owe our existence to the same source as the stars. That’s what science tells
us. It’s also what many religious traditions tell us. The Hebrew Bible, also
known as the Christian Old Testament, begins with: “In the beginning when God
created[a] the heavens and the earth, 2 the
earth was a formless void” (Gen. 1:1). From the void, God produces light,
earth, and all the plants and animals.
The Tao de Ching, foundation of
Taoism (translated into English as “The Way”), says: "The Way gave birth
to unity; unity gave birth to duality; duality gave birth to trinity; trinity
gave birth to the myriad creatures." (Daodejing,
4th century BCE)[13]
(“Creation Myths” Wikipedia). All existence is descended from “The Way,” all
the varieties of life beginning from one.
Other creation stories, such as one
from the Maori of New Zealand, tell that existence emanates from the separation
of two divine beings—or from the dismembered body parts of one or more of these
gods. In all of these cases, all existence begins from one substance.
Everything is connected.
But the concept of interdependence
implies even more than the connection of common origins. Many other traditions
describe humanity as arising from the ground. Sacred buildings in Laguna pueblo
communities are built with a hole in the floor to represent the place where
people first emerged from the earth. In the second chapter of Genesis, the
Bible presents a second creation story:
In the day that the Lord[a] God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when
no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet
sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,
and there was no one to till the ground; 6 but a
stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then
the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,[b] and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And
the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the
man whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God
made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the
tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. (Gen. 2:4-9)
Interdependence means that our
connections to all existence are what sustain us—and at the same time, sustain
existence. Leopold discovers that the system needs all parts to remain healthy,
that the disappearance of the wolf decimates the deer and the mountain. Such
interdependence is implied in the creation stories from cultures around the
world, suggesting that we humans have understood the spiritual nature of our
relationship to the Earth from the beginning.
Over the first couple weeks of December 2015, 195 countries negotiated an agreement at the 2015 United Nations
Conference on Climate Change, known as the Paris Agreement. The agreement calls for concrete action to limit
greenhouse gas emissions. To become binding, the agreement must be ratified by
55 countries. On Friday, April 22, 2016, representatives met to begin
the ratification process. April 22 is, not coincidentally, Earth Day. In
response to the Paris agreement, faith leaders from around the world created an
Interfaith Climate Change Statement to World Leaders. They write:
Statement by Religious and Spiritual
Leaders On The Occasion Of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Signature
Ceremony for the Paris Agreement
Ahead of the Paris Agreement Signing
Ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters on 22nd April 2016, as religious
and spiritual leaders, we stand together to urge all Heads of State to promptly
sign and ratify the Paris Agreement.
Caring for the Earth is our shared
responsibility. Each one of us has a “moral responsibility to act,” as so
powerfully stated by the Pope’s Encyclical and in the climate change statements
by Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and other faith leaders
[1].
Humanity is at a crucial turning
point. We as faith communities recognize that we must begin a transition away
from polluting fossil fuels and towards clean renewable energy sources. It is
clear that for many people significant lifestyle changes will have to be made.
We must strive for alternatives to the culture of consumerism that is so
destructive to ourselves and to our planet.
. . .
The global collaboration by all
nations is proof that our shared values are far greater than any differences
that divide us. It demonstrates that the sense of collective responsibility
shared by all nations and society is far more powerful than the recklessness
and greed of the few.
Climate change presents our global
family with the opportunity to embark on a path of spiritual renewal defined by
deeper awareness and greater ecological action. Every act to protect and care
for all beings connects us to one another, deepening the spiritual dimension of
our lives. We must reflect on the true nature of our interrelationship to the
Earth. It is not a resource for us to exploit at our will.
To act, to change
how we live in this world in recognition of our interdependence on each other
and on the Earth, requires transformation as radical as Saul’s conversion
experience on the road to Damascus. The scales fell from his eyes and he
transformed from Saul, persecutor Jesus followers, to Paul, the originator of
Christianity. Consider what it will take to transform from people who value
comfort over sustainability to people who honor our interdependence with nature
enough to make changes that preserve ecosystems.
In a book he
spent the final years of his life crafting, Aldo Leopold asserts that the only
way people will ever treat the Earth with the care it needs is to develop what
he calls a Land Ethic. He explains that we have developed ethics as a means for
getting along in community with each other. One person alone can pretty much do
as they please, but in order to live together, we need to consider the needs of
others. Most people acknowledge their ethical responsibilities to other
individual people and to their communities. Think of the Golden Rule as a foundational
statement of ethics.
The only way
people will be able to treat the Earth ethically is to acknowledge our own
place in the ecological community. Leopold writes:
The land ethic simply enlarges the
boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or
collectively: the land.
This sounds simple: do we not already
sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the
brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we
are sending helter-skelter down river. Certainly not the waters, which we
assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage.
Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities
without
batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated
many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot
prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but it does
affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their
continued existence in a natural state. In short, a land ethic changes the role
of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and
citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for
the community as such.
Prayer of Compassion
(By St. Basil the Great, 330-379.) [Basil
of Caesarea]
O God, enlarge within us the sense of
fellowship with all living things,
our brothers the animals to whom thou
gavest the earth as their home in
common with us.
fellowship with all living things,
our brothers the animals to whom thou
gavest the earth as their home in
common with us.
We remember with shame that in the
past
we have exercised the high dominion
of man with ruthless cruelty
so that the voice of the earth,
which should have gone up to thee
in song, has been a groan of travail.
we have exercised the high dominion
of man with ruthless cruelty
so that the voice of the earth,
which should have gone up to thee
in song, has been a groan of travail.
May we realize that they live not for
us alone but for themselves and for
thee, and that they love
the sweetness of life.
us alone but for themselves and for
thee, and that they love
the sweetness of life.
Sources:
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
Aldo Leopold Quotes. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/43828.Aldo_Leopold
Aldo Leopold. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold#Schooling
Arbor Day: History. https://www.arborday.org/celebrate/history.cfm
Basil of Caesarea. Wikiquote. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Basil_of_Caesarea
Chief Seattle. History Link Essay 5071. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5071&PlayID=34
Clark, Jerry L. "Thus Spoke Chief Seattle: The Story of
An Undocumented Speech." Prologue
Magazine 18.1 (Spring 1985). http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1985/spring/chief-seattle.html
Creation Myth. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth
The Cry of Creation: A Call for Climate Justice. An
Interfaith Study Guide on Global Warming. Earth Ministry. http://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/CryOfCreation.pdf
Earth Day History. http://www.earthday.org/about/the-history-of-earth-day/
Interfaith Power and Light. http://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/CryOfCreation.pdf
Interfaith Statement on Climate Change. http://www.interfaithstatement2016.org/statement
Leopold, Aldo. “Thinking Like a Mountain.” from “Arizona and
New Mexico” in A Sand County Almanac and
Sketches Here and There. London, Oxford UP, 1949. 132-133.
Prayer of Compassion. (By St. Basil the Great, 330-379.) http://earthministrytemp.org/worship/prayers/#opening
A Sand County Almanac on AldoLeopold.org. http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/almanac.shtml
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