Celebrate Conservation!

 

At the heart of it, conservation is the protection of resources. The water we drink, the land that grows our food, the woods that we walk in, the animals that roam wild, all these things are constantly at risk—from humanity.

John Muir first traveled to Yosemite in 1868, and through him the Sierra Club was born, an organization that aims to enjoy and preserve the wilderness of America. Read Muir’s account of his first long trip to the Sierras in My First Summer in the Sierra.” Muir is one of the first conservationists to emerge in America, along with Henry David Thoreau, and President Theodore Roosevelt, who may have done more than any president to protect our American wilderness, which is explored in Douglas Brinkley’s book The Wilderness Warrior.

Conservation must have a balance of realism and idealism, in that things on earth are not working well the way they are currently, but that if we as a society can come up with practical solutions, it is possible that we can turn the tide. In Andrew Balmford’s book, Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation he explores various communities that are attempting to turn back the tide on destruction and reaching for a natural balance in the ecology.

Ultimately, conservation is something to applaud. It is often not easy to support in the face of naysayers and requires strong support in the community to succeed. If you have a further interest in conservation, check out our list below of books addressing conservation.

Under A White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert (author of The Sixth Extinction)

The Beekeeper’s Lament by Hannah Nordhaus

The Inheritor's of the Earth by Chris D. Thomas

The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky

The Plant Messiah by Carlos Magdalena

Resurrection Science by M.R. O'Connor