Hardin mentions the possibility that as the focus of human society has shifted from rural agriculture to urban industry, our view of the environment has changed as well. He compares two perceptions of Greece as an example:
Present-day Greece... is what you expect the earth to look like given a fair chance. It is the subliminal threshold of innocence. It stands, as it stood from birth ,naked and fully revealed. (Henry Miller, 1941)
In the earlier days, Attica yielded far more abundant produce. In comparison of what then was, there are remaining only bones of the wasted body... in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with soil, and the plains were full of rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains... Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea... (Critias, Plato 3rd Century BC)What to do about Bambi?
Successful (sustainable) practitioners of animal husbandry know that overgrazing the soil leads to deterioration in the wealth and carrying capacity of a piece of land.
In nature, this balance has traditionally been enforced by predators. However, human culture portrays predators as 'evil', rather than 'good' (in the sense that they maintain the natural balance). Pop cultural artifacts, such as Bambi, have long worked to solicit goodwill on behalf of prey such as deer, on the grounds of 'sanctity of life'.
As has been previously suggested, to respect life but not death is to display poor wisdom. The path of foolishness often leads to unpleasantness.
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