THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF NATURE PRESERVATION IS BEAUTY

“Aesthetic experience is among the most common starting points for an environmental ethic.  Eugene Hargrove claims that environmental ethics historically started this way, with scenic grandeur: ‘The ultimate historical foundations of nature preservation are aesthetic. ‘More recently, the U.S. Congress declared, in the Endangered Species Act, that such species have ‘esthetic value ... to the Nation and its people’ and urges ‘adequate concern and conservation’. In the presence of purple mountains’ majesties or charismatic megafauna, there is an easy move from ‘is’ to ‘ought’. One hardly needs commandments.”