Wikibooks: Sustainability and Sense of Place in the Sonoran Desert/Biodiversity

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Tundra
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sustainability_and_Sense_of_Place_in_the_Sonoran_Desert/Biodiversity

=Component Two – Biodiversity= Our readings in this Component came from the seminal masterpiece Aldo Leopold s A Sand County Almanac . These particular essays are essential reading for any dedicated environmentalists and they go to the heart of our goals for this course. Our guest speaker was Dr. Joel Diamond a biologist who has spent the past 30 years working with bats and who offered an impassioned explanation of the importance of this animal in the broader ecosystem. =A. Leopold Wilderness = =Guiding Questions= If Leopold could speak so strongly about the extreme depletion of wilderness way back in the 1940s then what would he say on the subject if her were alive now? To what degree should humans be expected to give up their recreational pleasures like hunting fishing skiing golfing? What about mechanized sports like jeeping boating duning What use are remote wildernesses like the arctic tundra? What does it seem to indicate that plants and animals sometimes diminish without any obvious cause (trees or bees) or that pests sometimes multiply even though we try to eradicate them (invasive plants ticks)? What should our response be to such situations? What likely will be the result of treating specific deficiencies in nature stocking ponds with fish controlling floods trucking in water for wildlife? In general what is your reaction to Leopold s writing style? What does he mean when he says that raw wilderness gives definition and meaning to the human enterprise ? =Student Discoveries 2021= We often think of recreational activities in terms of becoming one with nature or unplugging from day to day life. We think how it is replenishing to go outdoors and participate in outdoor activities. As the self interested beings that we are we think in terms of what will be in our own best interest what will make us feel the best about ourselves and for many recreational activities provide this comfort. However we as humans fail to realize our gain is the wildernesses loss. I also don t think we need to give up fishing ...