Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Is synthetic imposition ethical?



I took this picture on a bike ride I took yesterday. This house and land is undeniably the most handsome on Orr's island. A beautifully manicured lawn runs to the doorstep of a beautiful house, which looks down on a beautiful blue pond.
Unfortunatly, the pond was made by placing a concrete dam at the outlet of what probably used to be a small creek. Beyond being highly unsightly, the dam probably deprived a downstream eco-system of vital water.

This brings up an interesting point of ethical concern. To what extent should man impose his ideas of beauty on nature?

To some extent, the modern age has ushered in a state of irreversible change, from trails to interstate highways, from beaver dams to the hoover dam.

What about mowing your lawn? Or even landscaping?

Clearly there must be some line of delineation. Where that line must lie is the choice of the individual.

What do you think?

6 comments:

The View from Great Island said...

Miss Rumphious(sp?) said that we should strive to leave the world more beautiful. We all have our own perception of what that means, but I would speak for each person's freedom to work with his own turf.

Alex said...

I have also had this question... tell me when you get a good answer. I also would like to know to what extreem measures we should go to preserve certain things such as the case where a several billion dollar construction project was put on halt because of the discovery of a single rare fly (not unlike a housefly from what I understand) that was living on the lot where the construction was beginning. Or what about things we do artificially to make something more natural such as lighting a prarie fire to keep natures cycle going or introducing animals into an area that havn't lived there for the last hundred years, or giving birth control to wild horses since that is kinder than the way nature limits their numbers.

Jonas said...

I remember you metioning that scenario in Peru.... Clearly there must be a balance.
While the rare fly certainly wasn't sufficient reason to stop the project, there might be other environmental reasons not to want a several billion dollar project on a particular piece of land!

Alex said...

very true... that should (in theory) be dealt with before they get their building permit though... but that would only happen in a perfect world where building permits won't be necessary

Barry Howe said...

Why shouldn't we do what we want with nature?
Here's the delimma:
self-interest is near-sighted, but respect for mother nature is a slippery slope.

Paul said...

I agree with dad. Beauty is the best arbitrator of the cost benefits question