Leave No Trace
It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense. |
Here are a few additional articles on Leave No Trace topics for your reading.
Leave No Trace is a code of land ethics for visitors to frontcountry and backcountry environments. But, most of us only spend a small fraction of our time in the outdoors away from civilization. I'm pretty active with camping, backpacking, and Boy Scouts but I will only be spending about 35 nights outdoors this year - about 10% of the year.
The rest of the time, I'll be sleeping in my bed, driving my car, working in an air conditioned building, and all the other 'normal' things we do. If I'm only concerned with my ethical choices about the environment while I'm camping, then 90% of the time I'm missing chances to limit my impact on the world.
Once someone makes a personal commitment to make ethical environmental choices in the outdoors, it's only natural that he include his everyday life in that ethic.