Muir and Leopold

After reading Muir and Leopold, I have to say that Muir spoke of nature in an interesting way. Not that his writing was very interesting, but the way he spoke of storms and wind made it somewhat interesting.

I felt as if Muir admired the power of nature. He says in the book that “Nature always has something rare to show us”. He also seemed to really be in touch with nature. He frequently talks about nature and uses his senses to describe it. He talks about the “delicious sunshine” and talks about hearing the different sounds and music of nature.

Muir thinks of nature and man as equals. He talks about a “universal struggle for existence”. I feel that here is talking about the struggle between man and nature. He follows that statement by saying “but no struggle in the common meaning of the word was manifest here; no recognition of danger by any tree; no deprecation; but rather an as from fear”. I feel that he is trying to show that he realizes that nature is struggling in their battle with man, but there are still places that nature is “winning” and untouched. He furthers his belief that man and nature are equals by invincible gladness as a remote from exultation saying “We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men”.

Leopold is more protective of nature in my mind. Yes, he was still in admiration of nature, but he I also felt that he felt that mankind had a right to protect nature and that they were abusing it. I feel that he also feels that man and nature are equals, though. He states “That man is, in fact, only a member of a biotic team is shown by an ecological interpretation of history. Many historical events, hitherto explained solely in terms of human enterprise, were actually biotic interactions between people and land. The characteristics of the land determined the facts quite as potently as the characteristics of the men who lived on it.” In this statement, not only does he stress the equality of men and nature, but he is stating a reliance that man has on nature, and that nature has on man.

Leopold feels that nature and man should live together, but not step on each other’s boundaries, that man should respect nature. He said, “The combined evidence of history and ecology seems to support one general deduction: the less violent the man-made changes, the greater the probability of successful readjustment in the pyramid.”