Thinking Like a Mountain

The average human life is approximately eight decades long. For the entirety of our personage we are swallowed by our environment- we feel the rain fall upon our faces, we hear the crunch of icy snow beneath our feet, we brush wind tossed hair from our faces. Yet, in our 80 years on earth, we are unable to fathom a world in which our fundamental surroundings drastically transmogrify. We picture the present environment as a stagnant aspect of forever, something largely unchanging and ever-present. However, a mountain knows we are incorrect in this very humanistic assumption. From ancient peaks, the mountain sees continuous fluctuations of nature and it understands the repercussions of any alteration to its natural biotic systems. This vital knowledge is what allows the mountain to effortlessly prosper in its environment. In order for humans to similarly flourish Aldo Leopold asserts in his essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain”, that we must examine our relationship with nature and alter it to match that which the mountain has long maintained.

As a graduate from Yale University with a degree in forestry, Leopold himself should understand the significance of cultivating such a relationship. However like much of society, a young Leopold was ignorant of this importance. He was unable to conclude that humans must change their role within the environment until, while on a hunting trip, he shot a Mexican wolf. As the creature lay dying in front of him, Leopold witnessed a “fierce green fire” leave her eyes. This extinguished flame caused Leopold to alter the way in which he viewed nature. Leopold saw that because humans have over-hunted apex predators such as the wolf, populations of herbivores drastically increased on the moun...

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...y ourselves, decisions must be made in respect to global health. It is essential that society accepts the servitude towards the land that a flourishing environment demands.

Though Leopold’s “Thinking Like a Mountain” was published over a half century ago, his message stands the test of time. Now, at this critical period of environmental fluctuation, humans have no decision other than to alter the way in which we interact with the Earth. The process of thinking like a mountain simply asks society to take a step back and think ecologically. By distancing ourselves from the self-centered perspective we currently operate under and adopting a social atmosphere that allows the environment to prosper free from our oppressive tendencies we ensure a habitable future for the next generations. For as Thoreau dictum states- In wilderness is the salvation of the world.